“Jennie’s Birthday Twin” Jacquemus: The Sun, Poet, & Master of Fashion Marketing

Without formal fashion training credentials and lacking necessary garment construction skills, it’s hard to believe that Simon Porte Jacquemus is one of the most influential young designers in today’s fashion world.

Simon Porte Jacquemus was born in a small village with around 6,000 inhabitants, in the commune of Mallemort, in southern France. He often speaks of how his humble roots nurtured the innocence he carries throughout his life as a creator. Jacquemus also frequently talks about innocence, infusing every aspect of his work with the breath of purity and freshness.

On Jacquemus’ brand’s Instagram account, the bio is written as if a 10-year-old child is talking: “JE M’APPELLE SIMON PORTE JACQUEMUS, J’AIME LE BLEU ET LE BLANC, LES RAYURES, LE SOLEIL, LES FRUITS, LA VIE, LA POÉSIE, MARSEILLE ET LES ANNÉES 80.”

(translate: My name is Simon Porte Jacquemus. I like blue & white, the sun, fruits, life, poetry, Marseille & the 80s.)

It is known that as a child, Jacquemus was nicknamed Mr. Sun.

Jacquemus’ parents were farmers: his mother grew carrots, and his father cultivated green beans. However, from a young age, Jacquemus was charming, “sophisticated,” and had too many dreams for a simple rural life. He was selected to be a child actor and model and participated in advertising campaigns for Carambar candies.

At the age of 8, Jacquemus wrote a handwritten letter to the famous Jean Paul Gaultier, expressing his desire to work with him as a stylist: “Do you know? Now I am 8 years old. And at this age, I will be the youngest stylist in the world. I think the media will rush to you because of that.”

Jacquemus has always been a peculiar child – one that’s energetic, happy, always singing and dressing up himself. During childhood, he even made a skirt from curtains for his mom, who wore it to pick him up at school with pride in her heart. 

Jacquemus’ mother was his inspiration, a vivid image that he embedded into his brand. When he was 18 years old, she passed away in a car accident. Right after her death, Jacquemus dropped out of school and started the Jacquemus brand (after his mother’s maiden name). The woman representing the Jacquemus “La Bomba” brand that we know today was created based on a picture of his mother.

In that picture, she wore a headscarf, ceramic earrings, and a skirt made from another scarf. Even when his mother wore an oversized dress from his grandmother or wide-legged pantaloons, she was still very attractive and special in Jacquemus’ memory. His mother was not a typical French chic woman. Rather, she was a woman from the rural, garden-filled South of France with a spirit full of warmth.

That is the root of the young heart of Simon Porte Jacquemus – a heart always innocent with life, enthusiastically telling poetic stories, always aiming for something called “app-ee” (happiness and the way to say “Jacquemus”).

Master of magical storytelling

Jacquemus is not a formally trained fashion designer: he creates designs based on instinct rather than the typical skills and techniques that can be taught in a basic fashion school. Therefore, from the early days of building his brand, Jacquemus relied on his soul and imagination to create stories that captivated customers for his own brand.

“At the beginning, when I didn’t have enough finances to really make sophisticated clothes, with precise accuracy to the millimeter; the storytelling of the brand was stronger than the clothes I made. Everything I’ve done since then has revolved around one goal: telling the story of a French girl, not an urban Parisian girl but a French girl.”

Truly, in today’s saturated fashion industry, Jacquemus’ brand-building through dreamy stories has hit the desire for idealism and the extraordinary in the general market. Perhaps, in recent years, rarely has any Jacquemus fashion campaign or runway show not sparked discussions: Gigi Hadid immersed in a giant bathtub full of foam; a runway in the stark desert for the FW 2022/2023 show; advertisements for Bambino bags (as big as a bus) running loudly on the streets of Paris through CGI…

The story-telling of Jacquemus utilizes two key points correctly: creating experiences that strongly appeal to visual and emotional senses, thereby leading viewers to a different dimension in an instant; remaining loyal to using supermodels, idols in key campaigns each season to create media coverage and a romantic, desirable image.

For the S/S 2020 show, Jacquemus built a 500m long pink runway in the midst of a lavender field in full blossom in Provence; for the Le Chouchou FW 2023 show, he brought his supermodel muses to the light blue Versailles palace;…

Not only creating experiences for close guests attending his fashion shows, but Jacquemus also brought real-life pop-ups worldwide that made people go frenzy: a pop-up café in Seoul shaped like the iconic Bambino bag; the Citron café with a theme filled with the atmosphere of the Mediterranean coast opened at Lafayette Galeries; a Tessabit Jacquemus pop-up in the Lake Como region…

Perhaps, it is thanks to Jacquemus’ enthusiasm and dreaminess in building his brand that he has attracted a large number of fans, including IT Girls, celebrities, and idols. Although we often say that using idols has become too saturated in the modern fashion context, Jacquemus has proven otherwise.

His girls (Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, BLACKPINK’s Jennie, supermodel Vittoria Ceretti…) when placed in Jacquemus’ campaigns/ photo shoots still bring tremendous media appeal – a sum total of many factors: the commercial familiarity of these girls with the general market, combined with the resonating dreams that Jacquemus’ mind can create.

From there, each campaign of his and the brand always leaves fashion enthusiasts amazed with various levels of positive emotions. Above all, he understands that in the era of social media, every beautiful moment can go “viral” just through the actions of posting and sharing by today’s users. Therefore, Jacquemus and his team always aim to create unique settings, spaces entirely different from natural reality. From there, he arouses emotions, ecstatic happy reactions from the crowd.

“My job is to tell stories, and I want to create a way of life from those stories” – Simon Porte Jacquemus.

Source: Elle, K14