In just a few years, the founder of Jacquemus has established himself as the essential designer of French fashion. But who is Simon Porte Jacquemus? Business Cool tells you more about the journey of this entrepreneur, from his childhood in Provence to his consecration, years later, with his iconic brand.
The founder of Jacquemus, Simon Porte Jacquemus, has risen to the top in the world of fashion in just a few years. He owes this success above all to his hard work, but also to original creations and collections. From Paris, to Milan, via Asia or America… Everyone is snapping up the designer’s bags or hats.
The beginnings of Simon Porte Jacquemus in fashion
The childhood of the founder of Jacquemus
Simon Porte Jacquemus was born on January 16, 1990 in the town of Salon-de-Provence. He comes from a modest farming family. However, art has always ruled the young fashion designer’s life. Indeed, his mother had a passion for decoration and his father loved music. He would also have been a singer in metal groups in the south of France.
Before the fashion shows, Simon Porte Jacquemus spent his childhood in Mallemort where he was already starting to have fun with fashion and trying his hand at being a stylist. He explains, in a magazine interview Marie-Clairethat his mother signed him up with a modeling agency when he was only 3 years old. He also produced an ad for a Peugeot. It is this love for the world of fashion that pushes him to leave his native region to train in Paris and thus hope to make a living from his passion.
His beginnings before Jacquemus
Simon Porte Jacquemus therefore left, in 2008, to study at ESMOD (Higher School of Fashion Arts and Techniques). However, he quickly abandoned his studies. He preferred to work as assistant to the artistic director for Citizen K magazine. That year, he left his position and lost his mother. It’s a shock for him. Even if he declares that his grandmother was like a confidante, he evokes his relationship with his mother, describing her “like a friend”, again in his interview with Marie-Claire.
His mother was a great source of inspiration for him and gave him his first contacts with fashion, from his earliest childhood. It will therefore take its name. Born Simon Porte, he had his mother’s birth name written on his identity card: Jacquemus. She will thus be his muse during the creation of his brand, in the 2010s, when he was only 20 years old.
Simon Porte Jacquemus: the creation of the Jacquemus brand
As mentioned, the name Jacquemus is a tribute to the French designer’s mother. With his creations, Simon Porte Jacquemus is looking for a certain simplicity. He would also have mentioned the fact that this simplicity of the Jacquemus brand, which makes it successful today, is also a choice imposed by a lack of means on the part of the fashion designer.
For Simon Porte Jacquemus, creating his own brand is also a way to promote and highlight women. He indicates to the Marie-Claire site: “ I experience it as the love of women. The desire to make clothes came because I was obsessed with seeing women on TV, fascinated by all these different characters. (…) Even today, I get lost on YouTube watching interviews from the 90s, I like seeing women talk. (…) Their moments of shyness and fragility touch me. Maybe I’m trying to find my mother in them now. »
Before experiencing the dazzling success he enjoys today, Simon Porte Jacquemus asked those close to him to wear his creations. He notably caused a sensation during the 2010 Vogue Fashion Night Out in Paris. In 2012, when he was only 22 years old, he became the youngest designer to participate in Paris Fashion Week. He is then invited to present his collection. He then described this collection as naive fashion and many compared his clothes to the cinematographic universe of Jacques Tati.
The success of the founder of Jacquemus
Little by little the Jacquemus brand will grow and its success will be national, then international. Success awaits the designer since his house will be rewarded with a special jury prize at the LVMH Prize in 2015. The same year, he will launch a collection with La Redoute.
What makes Simon Porte Jacquemus successful is his vision of fashion, simple, authentic, which combines a Parisian look on the one hand, while incorporating elements reminiscent of his native Provence. Jacquemus has also stood out through his approach to marketing and communication. Very present on social networks, particularly Instagram, he has managed to create a real community around his brand. His publications, mixing personal images and creations, attract millions of subscribers and contribute to the strong identity of Jacquemus, which is thus embodied by the young man. Indeed, he will share intimate moments, such as previews of his new collections.
Jacquemus in 2023: between diversification and setbacks
Jacquemus continues its development while remaining independent. The house does not belong to a large group and continues to pursue its path, under the direction of its creator. Furthermore, it would have achieved a turnover of between 23 and 25 million euros in 2019, compared to around 11 million in 2018.
In recent years, the development of Jacquemus has also involved the diversification of activities. In 2019, he will open the Citron café-restaurant within the Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Élysées, an ode to Provence which allows Jacquemus to create a complete universe, combining taste and fashion. Fashion that he is not abandoning however since his collection “L’été de 1997”, presented during Fashion Week 2020, is praised by critics.
He who only sold online will also change his model. After testing pop-up stores in department stores, Jacquemus will open a boutique on the prestigious Avenue Montaigne. It is located near big names in fashion, such as Chloé, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana.
But Jacquemus’s rise is not going to be a long, quiet river. First setback for the designer: a photo posted on social networks with her husband. He then suffered a lot of homophobic criticism. In a story published on Instagram, he then responds: “ I grew up without representation of gay couples and I know how important it is to be one of those examples for young people. We will fight for them, to show them that love always wins. I will continue to post love photos. »
The other setback for Jacquemus was the incident in 2022 where several customers expressed their dissatisfaction. Indeed, the designer faces discontent from buyers who explain that they never received the bag, that they did not have information on their delivery even though they were debited, and that they received poor quality products. Customer service then explains that the brand is having difficulty coping with the large influx of orders, a problem which seems to have been resolved in recent years.
Simon Porte Jacquemus: private life
Who owns Jacquemus?
As mentioned above, Jacquemus is an independent brand. It does not belong to big houses like LVMH, for example. It is quite difficult to find information on potential associates of Simon Porte Jacquemus. If the company is an SAS, in 2020, the man was described as the sole partner. In 2022, he was still president of the brand.
Jacquemus’s marriage
Simon Porte has been talked about a lot for his marriage to Marco Maestri. The founder of the Jacquemus brand then said yes to her husband in a small town in Provence, in Charleval. If this ceremony has caused a lot of talk, it is for its grandiose side, but also for the number of stars present during this union. Indeed, the fact of getting married in a small village in the South of France did not discourage the biggest celebrities from attending the wedding. Among the celebrities, we find: Dua Lipa, Damso, the comedian Fary and the model Sarah Lysander.
Here again, the grandiose marriage of Simon Porte Jacquemus is fully part of the character. His private life is also placed in the spotlight in order to strengthen the incarnation of the brand, a stroke of genius from the creator and entrepreneur who has made many Internet users dream. The latter in fact followed all the details of the ceremony on the Instagram accounts of Simon Porte Jacquemus and the guests.
