Courtesy of @jacquemus.
The appeal of French brand Jacquemus is as far reaching as its trajectory is unique to designer Simon Porte Jacquemus. Rihanna wore the label to take an HIV test when highlighting World Aids Day with Prince Harry in 2016, while model Tina Kunakey married Vincent Cassel in one of the label’s frocks last summer. In January, Serena Williams, styled by Jaime Kay Waxman for the cover of Allure, received a collective ‘wow’ from the internet in a knitted number from label’s AW18 collection, and Beyonce and Kylie and Kendall Jenner have similarly all made their fondness for the label public in the past.
Elsewhere Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des Garcons and Dover Street Market, was famously so taken with Jacquemus’ work he gave him a retail job to support the young designer’s business in its formative years, and in 2015 a jury comprised of the industry’s biggest names – amongst them Marc Jacobs, Raf Simons and Nicola Ghesquiere – awarded him an LVMH special prize.
Conceived at 19 as a vehicle by which to communicate his love for his native France (“I sell poetry,” the designer told Interview in 2016), the Jacquemus reference pool is indebted to Marseille, with strong cameos both from the work of Picasso and David Byrne’s epic Stop Making Sense suit: distorted proportions are coupled with inherently French aesthetic codes throughout his practice, challenging what is traditionally considered chic.
Now, as the label arrives at its tenth anniversary, presenting a co-ed show for the first time in the south of France (the invites were mini bottles of Jacquemus-branded sun cream) this evening, we present a non-exhaustive list of all the ways Simon Porte Jacquemus has reshaped the landscape of French fashion, and won over the industry in the process.
La Grande Motte
Sharp ‘80s graphics, a nod to Eric Rohmer’s Pauline at the Beach, and the bright whites of the brand’s SS14 collection – plus a brilliant backdrop courtesy of architect Jean Balladur – it’s wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that summer holiday plans were formed specifically with this early Jacquemus short film in mind.
Le Chiquito
Polly Pocket-sized arm candy with a Bieber sized fan club, the infamous Jacquemus Chiquito isn’t far off being the Birkin of its time, sans the space for an iPhone but with plenty of ‘This is Getting Silly Now’ style listicles of all the things that it can fit. A mini(er) version served as the AW19 show invite.
A next level Instagram
Courtesy of @jacquemus.
There are few fashion brands out there as inventive and as entertaining as Jacquemus is on Instagram — the brand is known for trebling up on single images. The French’s label’s playful triptych approach has long been a point of extreme pleasure for those seeking aesthetic joy and lighthearted fashion inspiration. Highlights for regular scrollers include, dream architectural situations, videos of his grandmother dancing in Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, and throwbacks to his modelling days as a child advertising Carambars.
Café Citron
There is only one Simon Porte Jacquemus, but this recent addition to the label’s offering allows you to eat – and by extension, for the time of a leisurely lunch at least — live like him. Or so, one might hope. A collaboration with Caviar Kaspia, interested parties should make a beeline for Galeries Lafayette’s Champs-Élysées post for a city fix of Provence living.
Le chapeau Bomba
A brief matter of contention owing to a Diet Prada call out (which subsequently only furthered its reach), the ‘Le chapeau Bomba’ straw hat made its initial outing at the Jacquemus SS18 show, worn by Amilna Estêvão and paired with a layered orange dress, but it was at the nuptials of Danish model Emma Leth that its full glory was made known. Teamed by the bride with a lace wedding gown and visible pink underwear, the parasol sized headpiece elevated the moment better than any veil ever could.
SS16’s White Horse
Boasting a strong point of view and understanding of his desired direction for the brand since its inception in 2009, even the designer’s earlier shows exercised his divergence from the norm. Case in point: SS16, opened by Porte Jacquemus’s young cousin Jean in soft white bedclothes, the designer himself later followed, leading a white horse across the catwalk. A more serious affair than seasons both pre and post ‘16, here the mood explored something more sombre but no less beautiful: the subsequent campaign featured pictures of Porte Jacquemus as a child.
Les Rond Carré
Porte Jacquemus thrives in the accessories sector, and his footwear is no different. Experimenting with heel shapes and sizes with varying fits and absolute finesse, one of his earliest concoctions, Les Rond Carré, marries square and circular shapes for a subtle subversion of the casual block heel.
Le Gadjo
A significant milestone for any label – the addition of a second line, and menswear no less – Jacquemus presented its debut collection just outside of the formal menswear schedule last June, putting on a beachfront show that explored a more relaxed (loose shapes! Rolled up sleeves!) but no less inviting garment series of sunny dispositions.
Collaborating with Chloe Wise
“I was watching her Instagram stories and I realized her paintings were very Riviera-inspired, just like the collection,” Porte Jacquemus told WWD in February, announcing his SS19 campaign with Canadian artist Chloe Wise. The finished canvas mirrors the exact ambience of a Jacquemus-styled soiree we’d like to attend. As one fan put it on Instagram, “So fucking great.”
La Piscine
“They spend all day at the pool and never get in. I don’t know what they do all day,” a concerned passerby says to the camera in another JTV original from 2013. The ‘they’ in question points to a group of young women, dressed in the blue, black and red palette of AW13 (presented poolside with the FROW in disposable overshoes), playing on flip phones (!) and sipping bottles of Orangina (!!). Sash!’s ‘Encore une fois’ plays as the credits roll.