Jacquemus: How the fashion house out shadows the luxury industry

Whether you are a fashion aficionado or not, you must have seen this runway in the middle of a lavender field where models walked on a pink line fabric. Or even this gigantic wicker hat that was all over the place on Instagram and this cute-tiny bag in which you will be lucky even to fit your lipstick. If you remember these things, it is because Simon Porte Jacquemus does not come up with half-baked things and knows how to catch your attention.

Luxury at an affordable/premium price

Whether you are a fashion aficionado or not, you must have seen this runway in the middle of a lavender field where models walked on a pink line fabric. Or even this gigantic wicker hat that was all over the place on Instagram and this cute-tiny bag in which you will be lucky even to fit your lipstick. If you remember these things, it is because Simon Porte Jacquemus does not come up with half-baked things and knows how to catch your attention.

According to Retviews data, in both its clothing line and bags, Jacquemus has the lowest price positioning. While its competitors, such as Prada, Balenciaga and, Saint Laurent, have an average price at more than €1,000, Jacquemus does not even exceed half of it.

The young designer said in an interview: “My strategy is obvious, to make a high-end clothing brand with strong visual impact, but the price is the price of the contemporary design brand.” This strategy shows in the numbers as we can see an apparent similarity in terms of pricing between Jacquemus and the premium brands.

More clothes than accessories, a strategic plan? 

Within the luxury segment, accessories and shoes hold the highest share of the assortment mix. As per Retviews data, the ratio between clothing and accessories tend to be 75/25. It shows how essential these categories are for luxury brands. Is it because the bags represent a status statement and are meant to last longer than clothing? Maybe. But when we have a look at Jacquemus, the ratio between accessories and clothing is almost 50-50.

This might be because the brand is still young and, like its peers, started by focusing on clothing and then, later, will develop more on accessories. Simultaneously, the designer’s aesthetic aims to allow its customer to wear their designs at a wedding and a few times afterward. 

Simon Porte Jacquemus stated in an interview with the Financial Times that he loves making accessories and makes them himself. For sure, we can expect more extravagant accessories coming from the French designer in the future.

Branding is everything

The talented designer rapidly understood that, in order to compete with the big luxury Goliaths like Chanel, Louis Vuitton and, Dior, he needed to get the attention of its audience, and that is precisely what he did through social media.“Image, he acknowledges, is everything.”

In this digital era, Jacquemus has become one of the most influential brands on social media, with more than 2.7million followers on Instagram. The young designer knows how to attract attention. Even during the pandemic, when luxury brands struggled to make a digital fashion show that would stand out, Jacquemus made a live stream event allowing all its audience to follow the runway and to feel like they were in a dreamy scenery of Us in France. More than half its followers attended the live stream, making it one of the most viewed fashion digital fashion show.

This raises a question: is Jacquemus an influencer or a fashion brand? Maybe he is somewhere in between.

Natural fabrics focus on Jacquemus

Born in Provence, Jacquemus puts a lot of importance on nature and its fabrics. However, the brand does not claim to be sustainable. Simon Porte Jacquemus stated in an interview that it is more about thinking “like (his) grandparents did: we have tomatoes in the garden, so we eat tomatoes.”

We may note through Retviews data is the fact that Jacquemus uses more natural fabrics like cotton, linen, and viscose. Its competitors use their fair share of synthetic fabrics but also more noble fabrics like silk (put in others).

It is worth mentioning that even if Jacquemus uses primarily natural fabrics, cotton and viscose cannot really be considered sustainable. To produce 1 kg of cotton, you need 10,000 liters of water (without mentioning the pesticides used), and 33% of the viscose produced every year is made of ancient or threatened trees. 

Inclusivity in sizes and colors

Warm colors are part of Jacquemus aesthetics and way of honoring its hometown in the south of France. According to Retviews data, in both clothing and accessories, Jacquemus gets off the beaten tracks. Thus, giving way less importance to the timeless black, the French brand puts more emphasis on pink, beige, and green colors.

Nevertheless, when we have a look at his runways, an apparent diversity in terms of sizing and people of color for models can be seen. We can see that in terms of average sizes available, Jacquemus has more dimensions than its competitors. However, it is worth mentioning that Prada does have capacities up to size 60.

The self-made French brand that competes with the giants

Jacquemus is gaining more and more in popularity as the Lyst index of Q2 2020 shows. The brand is placed among the top luxury brands. However, it is still a small brand with €20 million in sales in 2019. With its digital presence and its fantastic aesthetic, the French designer manages to make us dream of Provence and wanting to put our hands on those ridiculously-tiny-yet-beautiful bags.

Always full of positivism, the designer once said: “I always want to give a message that’s positive to the young generation: ‘Look, I am self-made, it’s possible!'” he said.