Full Name
Simon Porte Jacquemus
Job Title
Creative Director
Company
Jacquemus
Speaker Bio
The French fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus was born in 1990 in Salon-de-Provence in the south of France. Discovered by Rei Kawakubo during a short stint at Comme des Garçons in Paris, Simon established JACQUEMUS in 2009 with no formal training, dedicating the brand to the memory of his late mother. A passion for art and the decorative arts informs his creativity, inspiring the JACQUEMUS ready-to-wear and accessories collections for men and women that reference French culture and universal gestures of beauty from fine art photography, painting and sculpture. Simon’s penchant for authentic and personal storytelling has challenged marketing norms in fashion and beyond, ever since his first collections that caught the world’s attention with their playful and sun-drenched expression of French fashion and lifestyle. Indulging in romantic notions of youth, love and other facets of human nature, each collection takes a narrative approach to design, incorporating biographical elements in a wider thematic approach to silhouette, decoration, and an irreverent sense of wanderlust informs Simon’s provocative approach to fashion shows. Throughout the years, he has opted to stage theatrical runway productions in such unexpected locations as a Parisian swimming pool or inside the Musée Picasso, winding through a lavender field in Provence or a wheat field outside of Paris, a salt marsh in the Camargue, a beach in Hawaii, and at the Chateau de Versailles. Above and beyond his role as a fashion designer, Simon’s vocation as a creative director and imagemaker is diffused throughout the JACQUEMUS universe. His 360° artistic vision is fundamental across all ready-to-wear, accessories and homeware design activities, and he is actively involved in all brand output from visual merchandising and communication to events, retail projects and a thriving company culture. Simon’s career milestones include self-publishing the cult books ‘Marseille Je T’Aime’ (2017), ‘Images’ (2020), and ‘Le Chouchou’ shot by Martin Parr (2023). ‘The memory of my mother takes shape in my designs and lives on as an attitude. I will always imagine the personality of the JACQUEMUS woman as beautiful, free and unmistakably optimistic.’ — Simon Porte Jacquemus
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