Jacquemus: "Doing super-trendy things is somehow wrong"
Simon Port Jacquesus is a young French designer who founded the brand at the age of 19. At 23, he is already doing a show as part of the Paris Fashion Week (where new names appear every 10 years), and critics call him a breath of fresh air in an overly commercial design. He does simple concise things - simply because he likes them, beats the idea of "Parisian chic" and at the same time shows the French woman in the most realistic way. Simon told us about his heroine, irony and sincerity in design after his show in Paris.
Simon greets me at the door of the showroom and gestures to follow him. We run out onto a large balcony, which goes around half of the historic building in the George V area, the designer cuts it along and wants to run inside through the farthest room, but the door does not give in: “Damn, it’s closed. I love this area and the view from here. " He becomes serious for a moment, shakes his head and already smiles with a very open smile: "Well, do we have a comfortable sofa in the hall there? Let's go talk there?"
Watch it. I am sure that other adherents of Jacquemus perceive your clothes inseparably from the story behind it. We associate the brand with the girls you choose for the campaign, the points where you organize shows. Did you initially see the brand like this?
For me, clothing was never a starting point. Now I’m already thinking about the next collection, but I’m not thinking about things, but about a Jacquemus girl and about what she will do this time. No, I like to do design, but my work implies something more: first of all, I create a story, secondly - clothes.
This time the story was as simple and easy as ever. My heroine went to the south of France in the city of La Grande Motte, she eats ice cream, she plays tennis, she falls in love. It's all. Although if you read these three sentences again and type in La Grande Motte Google, you will understand that this resort is exactly that.
But the heroine from the collection to the collection remains the same?
True, she can look quite different: for example, wear a voluminous sweatshirt or dress from the 1960s. I don't want to create the same silhouette from collection to collection. My heroine can put on whatever she wants, even if it is a baseball cap with a visor back. Of course, in different seasons you can see things that are basic to the brand. I try to respect what I do: if I think that the collection needs a bunch of T-shirts, I create them.
People see your heroines in campaigns. Are the models in them your friends?
This is a very important question. Yes, these are my friends, and not just from the "hang out a couple of times together" series, they really are very dear to me. I respect the feminine beauty, external and internal, and I try to convey it documented. I love my girlfriends as they are. In the lookbook, they are without makeup and styling, while shooting they can do whatever they want. I'm really glad that I can work with my friends, this is what makes me happy.
simon port jacmouth
on the balcony in the studio
And it happens that you see an unfamiliar girl and think: "Oh, she is my heroine"?
Yes, this is true! But I will never build an employer-employee relationship with her, this is not the case when you see a model and such: "Oh, she will be in my campaign, click!" No, it's really important for me to find out who she is, to make human contact with her.
That is, it is not only about the external, but also about the personal.
Yes, it works in harmony. I talk about a girl who does not need much to feel good. She is smiling and sharp at the same time. Feel free to wear a pink total bow, baseball cap, men's boots and long socks. Yes, socks are a very important detail. What more can I say ... She is young. Yes, she is young.
But you are 23. Do you think your heroine can grow with you?
Definitely. Jean-Paul Gauthier said that the client is growing along with the designer, but for me the client and the heroine are very close. I did everything from A to Z for this brand, there is no third between us. Therefore, it is obvious that if we have grown together, we will develop together too. But even now, this brand is not only for 20-year-old girls. I'm just trying to keep the price at that level so that it will be available to them. Many of my clients are 40 or 50.
Well, it's about the state of mind. I know that you have dedicated your brand to mom. You talk a lot about how she looked, how she behaved, how she dressed, in different interviews. Obviously, she inspired you not only in her youth.
Yes of course. Both my mother and my grandmother inspire my every collection. I see many parallels between my memories and the things they pour out into. My brand is really very personal, even, probably, abnormally personal. It's like a movie, a movie of my life.
As I said before, the brand gives you the feeling of a whole movie about a heroine, clothes, even a lifestyle. Clothing is perceived along with the picture. You must have reached a perfect understanding with your team.
I work with the same photographer from the very beginning. His name is Bertrand Le Plaoir. At 19, when I decided to make my own brand, I constantly looked through albums with photos from the 1990s and thought, “Yes, I want to see the same realistic, sharp, slightly dirty photos in my campaigns.” I liked the works of Bertrand, so I sent him a picture on Facebook where I’m doing things in the studio. And he replied: "Ok, I like it." We met, I told how I see it myself, he understood me in all the little things. It is very important for me.
Jacquemus FW 2013
And the rest: styling, presentations. Do you really do everything yourself?
And who can better feel how it should look like? For me, being a designer is not discarding things and folding my arms. I think about every detail in the presentation, shooting the book. I made a design for the site and drew the logo myself. I already know what my first store will look like: this is such a simple streamlined space, where an ice cream maker stands in the middle, and you can choose things and enjoy the most delicious sorbet.
Okay, Jacquemus is a very personal story and, frankly, that’s why the brand is so charming. But it is obvious that over the past couple of seasons, an incredible amount of press, critics, buyers have become interested in the clothes that you make. The brand is growing. I am sure that you will pull all this work in increasing amounts further?
You're right, but to be honest, I'm not really worried about this now. The brand is really growing, but now it only makes me happy, because I can be more attentive to details, I have the opportunity to put my ideas into practice and in general create a collection in a larger volume. You know, I started with a couple of things sewn on my knee. Therefore, now, when I get more and more feedback from the press and stores, I only get happier. The latest collection is my favorite, because I feel that they understand me.
And don't you even admit that once Jacquemus will become that monstrous French brand with a thousand people inside?
Of course not, he will always be a very personal story. Look at this collection. This is my collection. What can I say more.
Let's go back to the presentations. How do you choose a place? At that time she was in the pool, in this - in the hall of slot machines.
For the new collection I was looking for something resembling the south of France, something sunny and bright. Of course, nothing like this could be found in Paris. So when I stumbled upon this room, I thought - there you eat ice cream at the resort, and then you always go to the stupid room with guns and spend the last five euros on games. This is what you need. Such a classic vacation program.
"The cut on the skirt is not an argument in favor of buying a thing, the story behind it is an argument"
In general, it is interesting, because such places for the show in the framework of the Paris Fashion Week seem not the most obvious. This is not the French woman running in Saint-Honoré in skinny jeans with disheveled hair that everyone is talking about. Honestly, the girl you show seems much more real.
Oh yes, this so-called "Parisian chic." What is it about? I think this is a stereotype of the older generation. Perhaps the fact is that my heroine is more French than Parisian. You know, in the provinces of France, girls are more real and liberated. They are rougher than people see or want to see. In Paris, the people are such "hee-th!" (Simon portrays unnecessarily radiant faces of kissing Parisians when they meet. - Note ed.). My brand became an opportunity to say that in Paris such real French women also exist. And it is even strange to me that nobody has shown them so far. When I come to the shows of French designers, I see only decorated girls in high heels. This is so far from reality, so wrong. Look at my light pink dresses. They may look girlish, you can wear them in shiki freaks, but I don’t do it, I try to keep the picture real.
And it is perceived as truly French.
Oh yes, french. French minimalism is what I want to do. And minimalism for me is not chic, luxe and deceitful smiles. I want real smiles, so I make this brand simple, ironic. This is not about high fashion, to talk about it is even funny.
But seriously, what are the authentic French places in Paris?
To be honest, I don't like Paris at all. Since childhood, all my life I have dreamed of coming here. I lived in a tiny town in the south of France, and the whole fashion world turned my head. But when I arrived, I thought, “Oh, is this the city in which I will live?” This is a stupid feeling: when you have been dreaming about something for so long, and the dream is being broken about reality. Yes, Paris was not quite the same as I expected, but I love the individual places in it. For example, this area where we are sitting now. He is insanely beautiful.
Simon runs among the rails with things shown on the show a week ago. Our photographer Christina looks at the rail with pink tops, skirts and dresses and says: "So strange, but when I looked at them during the show, all I felt was happiness." Simon quickly nods, "Yes, it is a happy color. Although most designers used it to make the show girly. It's so wrong." The word "happy" is as if sacred for Simon: when he says it (with a slight accent on the last syllable), he lowers his eyes and smiles sincerely.
Jacquemus ss 2014
You know what's interesting. Most designers try to come up with innovative ideas for collections, look into the future, while a product that ultimately fascinates us now is simple things that refer us to childhood: for example, a visor or a short piggy top.
True. I have never tried to look into the future or the abyss in the past. Now 2013, and without thinking twice, I do what I believe. I'm trying to keep the collection as clean as I can. I do not like pockets and unexpected details, I try to save the idea of non-detailed clothing. Although the market is now being a commercially successful brand and not making items on clothes can be an oxymoron. But you know, I do not think about it, I just do what I think is necessary. I do not want to be someone that I am not. I'm not trying to do "designer" clothes. I just create stories and embody them in things. If I want to get a short white shirt, I just do it, not trying to invent some kind of catchy fashion detail. If I tried to do super fashionable things, it would be wrong, I would feel very uncomfortable. No, really. I want clothes to be simple, to emphasize the identity of the person who wears it, and not overshadow it. So that he feels comfortable in her, so that I do not need to push a person to buy it.
Yes, many designers are now jumping out of their pants to please the client.
This is so wrong. I think girls are smart enough to make their own choices. Someone asked me: "What do you think when you see someone on the street who looks bad?" And what should I think? Approach her and say: “Hey, did you choose the total-bow of the wrong designer, look at the other?” Why should we dictate how who should look and what to buy? People are not so stupid. My client will buy these shorts simply because she likes them, and not because someone said something to her. I'm sure. I hope this works like this. It even scares me sometimes when they write too much in the review about the cut I made on the skirt. This is not so important, it is not an argument for buying a thing, the story behind it is an argument.
Photographer: Christina Abdeeva