Simon Porte Jacquemus

Simon Porte Jacquemus founded Jacquemus at nineteen and named it for his mother Valérie’s maiden name. As of September 2026 he still designs the collections and holds a majority stake in the business. The clothes carry his attachment to southern France: sun-faded colour, abbreviated tops, linen and a sense of space that has become part of the label’s identity. (AnOther; Hypebeast; L'Oréal)

He left fashion school after barely a month and worked at a Comme des Garçons boutique in Paris while developing his first collections. The early clothes used plain workwear fabrics and direct shapes. As the business grew, Jacquemus kept the same eye for proportion, shrinking a handbag to a charm or setting a long, spare silhouette against a vast lavender field. (W Magazine; nss magazine)

A farming family in Provence, and a death that set a direction

Jacquemus was born on 16 January 1990 in Salon-de-Provence and grew up in the small town of Mallemort, the son of a farmer who also played in bands; his mother, Valérie, loved fashion and raised him largely on her own. He helped sell produce at Saturday markets as a child. In 2008, aged eighteen, he enrolled at ESMOD in Paris; about a month later his mother died, and the loss redirected him. He left the school, took the Comme des Garçons job to pay for fabric and pattern-cutting done at night, and in 2009, aged nineteen, registered the label under his mother's maiden name — designing, as he has put it, for "the girl my mother was." (Wikidata; W Magazine; AnOther)

He debuted at Paris Fashion Week in 2012, the start of a run of shows built as much around a location as around the clothes. "I guess you have to be crazy to start your own label," he told W in 2016, by then twenty-six and running a company of twelve people. (W Magazine)

Runway as landscape: lavender, wheat and a flooded palace

Jacquemus has made the show site part of the collection. For the label’s tenth anniversary in June 2019, a fuchsia runway cut through the lavender fields at Valensole. The following summer, with pandemic restrictions in place, guests sat apart beside a long wooden runway through a wheat field outside Paris. The settings gave his simple shapes and emphatic colours room to register. (Vogue Hong Kong; Grazia)

The following year, with Paris under pandemic restrictions, he staged Spring/Summer 2021's L'Amour in a wheat field in the Vexin regional park outside Paris on 16 July 2020: a 600-metre wooden runway, and only 100 guests, seated apart under France's distancing rules. In June 2023 he returned to spectacle at the Château de Versailles, ferrying guests by rowing boat across the Grand Canal for a Fall 2023 show titled Le Chouchou, which folded Marie-Antoinette-adjacent volume into the house's own codes. (Hypebae; WWD)

Le Chiquito and Le Bambino

Jacquemus's commercial breakthrough came from an accessory rather than a runway silhouette, and it arrived alongside a public dispute over crediting design. In July 2018, an oversized straw hat worn by Bella Hadid — which the label reposted to its own account as if it were a Jacquemus piece — turned out to be the work of Olmos & Flores, a small Mexican maker using traditional Jalisco and Michoacán basketry techniques. When the account Diet Prada pointed this out, Jacquemus dismissed it as "fake news" before quietly deleting the images. The episode is worth noting less for the hat itself than as a reminder that a garment's virality online can outrun any accurate account of who made it. (designboom; Grazia)

Weeks later, for the Spring/Summer 2019 show, Jacquemus introduced Le Chiquito, a small structured top-handle bag that became the house's defining object. A coin-sized Mini Le Chiquito, made initially as a press invitation for the following season, went viral and was put into general production once demand made clear that people wanted to buy it rather than simply photograph it. (The Luxury Closet; Heuritech)

Le Bambino, a slightly larger sibling that followed in 2019, extended the format into something usable day to day and became the more common entry point into the house on the resale market. (The Luxury Closet)

A menswear line, a beauty deal and a holding company

Jacquemus added menswear to the calendar in February 2018, extending the same proportion games into tailoring and sportswear. By then the industry establishment he had built his name outside of had already taken notice: the LVMH Prize jury gave him its Special Prize in 2015, three years after his Paris debut, with a €150,000 grant and a year of mentorship. In March 2024, at thirty-four, he became the youngest fashion designer made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's ministerial award for cultural achievement, the insignia presented to him by Anna Wintour. (Malay Mail; Vira; Sortiraparis)

The company's structure changed more than its design direction in 2025. Bastien Daguzan, who had run the business side since 2016, left in December 2023, leaving Jacquemus to double as designer and chief executive until Sarah Benady — previously president of Celine North America — was confirmed in the role, reported on 28 January 2025 and effective from 4 March. Ten days after that report, on 7 February, L'Oréal announced a long-term, exclusive beauty partnership with the house and took a minority stake — reported at around ten per cent — in a newly created beauty division. That division and the ready-to-wear business were folded that March into a single holding company, La Maison Mère, which Jacquemus chairs; trade press put the ready-to-wear arm's valuation at roughly €530 million and the beauty arm's at about €46 million, with Jacquemus retaining the large majority of both. (FashionUnited; L'Oréal; Hypebeast)

He married Marco Maestri in Charleval on 28 August 2022, and the couple announced the birth of twins in April 2024. (Wikidata)

Reading a Jacquemus piece

A Jacquemus label points to one designer, but it does not settle the age of a bag. Le Chiquito and Le Bambino have appeared in several sizes, materials and hardware finishes across multiple seasons. Check the model name, dimensions and season details together; a miniature bag is not automatically from the collection that first made the shape famous. (The Luxury Closet; Heuritech)

References

• AnOther. "Simon Porte Jacquemus On His Mother."
• W Magazine. "Simon Porte Jacquemus Gets Personal." 2016.
• nss magazine. "10 Years of Jacquemus."
• Wikidata. "Simon Porte Jacquemus (Q21030814)."
• Vogue Hong Kong. "Jacquemus Spring/Summer 2020 Takes to the Lavender Fields in the South of France."
• Grazia. "For the Dreamers: Simon Porte Jacquemus Delivers a 10-Year Anniversary Show to Remember."
• Hypebae. "Jacquemus Set Its 'L'Amour' SS21 Runway Show in a Giant Wheat Field in Paris." July 2020.
• WWD. "Jacquemus, Fall 2023 Review." 2023.
• designboom. "Diet Prada Calls Out Jacquemus Straw Hat." 24 July 2018.
• Grazia. "Jacquemus Hits Back at Diet Prada 'Hat-Gate' Scandal the Best Way He Knows How."
• The Luxury Closet. "Bag of the Week: Jacquemus Le Chiquito Bag." 28 July 2023.
• Heuritech. "The Jacquemus Mini Chiquito Bag: A Successful Launch Analysis."
• Malay Mail. "Jacquemus Branches Into Menswear." 27 February 2018.
• Vira. "Prix Spécial du Jury LVMH en 2015 Est Simon Jacquemus."
• Sortiraparis. "Fashion Designer Simon Porte Jacquemus Awarded Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres."
• FashionUnited. "Jacquemus Announces the Appointment of Sarah Benady as Managing Director." 4 March 2025.
• L'Oréal. "L'Oréal Groupe Signs an Exclusive Agreement With Jacquemus." 7 February 2025.
• Hypebeast. "Jacquemus' New Holding Company Is Worth More Than $500 Million USD." May 2025.