AUGUSTSEPTEMBER,THECUT 59lemon tree thriving inside the large
white atrium. The secretary also
had one on his desk and fondled it
like a stress ball. Jacquemus was
upstairs in the middle of a model
fitting and excused himself to hit
playon a pop-lullaby soundtrack
via his iPhone. Sunlight poured in
through large windows, bouncing
off his gold jewelry as he gestured
with his large, thick fingers. Did I mention he has
blue eyes?
“I didn’t choose this location; I had a crush on
the location,” he tells me with a grin. “I visited,
and I saw all the little balconies and the garden,
and I was like:This is not Paris.” When I ask him if the grand
staircase and high ceilings give his operation gravitas, he scoffs.
“No! Lightness!”
Over the past few years, Jacquemus has doubled his staff from
30 to 60. Almost everyone, he says, has remained since the begin-
ning, including his ex-roommate, Fabien Joubert, who now
serves as the brand’s commercial director. Sales have doubled
every year since 2017 as well and are supposedly on track to hit
$20 million by the end of 2019.
Things are going so well that rumors of Jacquemus being
acquired by a larger conglomerate, like Puig or LVMH, circulate
every so often, along with theories of a secret backer. But when I
ask about them, he maintains he’s still independent and is “not
looking” for any investors, or for that matter looking to helm a
bigger label (there was also a rumor he was
being considered for Celine). It’s possible
no one is knocking on his door, or he’s been
passed up for other, more experienced
names. But Jacquemus seems focused on
keeping it in the family. “If you want to do
everything sincerely, how can you leave
your own building?” he asks. “It’s not about
more, more, more. My generation is going
to take care of themselves.” When things get
stressful, he does karaoke: “Any song by
Céline Dion,” he tells me.
Which isn’t to say he doesn’t let his brand
slip sometimes: He admits that “there’s
always something melancholic about my
work.” But he wouldn’t go into it.
Because Jacquemus refuses outside help,
the company is still a relatively scrappy oper-
ation—one that used to fulfill orders to its
300-something global retailers “quite late
within the delivery window, which commercially is
not ideal,” a forgiving Moda Operandi buyer told
me. Runway producer Alexandre de Betak
explained that they kept the budget for his anniver-
sary show “exceptionally small.” His team spent the
weekend before clearing the wheat and lavender fields themselves,
and there was “absolutely no plan B” to account for bad weather.
“If the creativity of the way we show is good enough, then it’s
fine that we’re far away, at the wrong time, with a very small audi-
ence, because it will go viral,” de Betak added. “I think that’s what
happened with the show in Provence.”
“There’s an expression in France, saying that you put the don-
key before ... Uh, no, you put the donkey after ... Do you know
this?” Jacquemus asks.
The cart before the horse?
Something like that. “I always think that way,” he continues.
“For me, it was the ten-year anniversary, so it was important to
say loudly: I have a big house, and it’s Jacquemus. It’s not any-
thing else, and I own it. I’m here.”The spring 2020 ready-to-
wear-collection show in a
lavender ield in the south of
France (top); Simon dancing
at the show’s after-party (left);
Emily Ratajkowski wearing the
giant straw hat (bottom).(Continued on page 83)