Onwards, upwards, but always connected to its point of departure, Simon Porte Jacquemus’s trajectory is that of an ever-evolving arc. From the South of France
Today Jacquemus Zooms from his brand’s headquarters. To his left is a rail on which his current collections hang. Once the obligatory audio glitches are ironed out, he makes a confession. Despite his communications team’s request for questions in advance (a sad modern habit) he says: “To be sincere, I didn’t read them – because I don’t like being ready that much.” This lack of preparedness leads to considered spontaneity: when he pauses to polish what he is about to say, Jacquemus often turns to look at the clothes through which he articulates his vision, as if looking to them for agreement.
In a pre-interview L’Uomo editorial conversation, we’d anticipated drawing out his broader generational references: what cultural touchstones from his youth and before informed his expression of now? What music, cultural icons, movies? But this is not at all Jacquemus’s (mini) bag: “The 1990s are the usual inspiration, but at the same time I never do a ‘vintage’ collection. And I never did an ’80s collection. It’s a memory of the ’90s that I have, but I’m not trying to follow, or to bring back the ’90s – this is not something I’m comfortable with.”
Jacquemus’s clothes are specifically personal before they are ever broadly cultural. It is house lore that it was after the sudden death of his mother, Valérie, that the then 18-year-old adopted her surname as his, dropped out of fashion school, and set out to be a womenswear designer. And while this all might be old (maxi) hat in the story of Jacquemus, he is unapologetic: Valérie is the foundation of everything he has built today. “It’s weird because I know that sometimes people are shocked that I’m still talking about my mother after all these years, but if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t be in front of you: it is the love story of my life. So yeah, I put a lot of myself and a lot of biography everywhere into what I do – memories.” If it was his mother’s passing that prompted him to start Jacquemus, it is her memory that has crystallised the appeal of his adulatorily attractive expression of womenswear: photographs of Valérie during his childhood in the market town of Mallemort, an hour north of Marseilles, have shaped his drapey, tie-front shirt-dresses meets bikini boho Riviera aesthetic.
As for the menswear, well, in a way the story is similar: “Because I was never excited about the idea of doing menswear until I first fell in love... and this [gave me] the envy to make menswear, and to say something about menswear in general. Although it’s true that my collections are also my biography.” So given that the way Valérie dressed herself has proven so influential in shaping her son’s womenswear aesthetic, does the manner in which she once dressed him contribute to his men’s? “It’s funny because she was dressing me a lot. I think I started doing casting for ads on TV and things like this when I was five years old. And I did maybe 50 different ads until I was 17, and I was so happy to do that. The way she was dressing me was really special; she spent a lot of money to get the right looks.” Jacquemus especially recalls a particular “oversized jumpsuit with a marinière T-shirt” before adding: “When you see my photos from the ’90s you understand that she was dressing me perfectly.”
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Opening photograph: portrait by Pierre-Ange Carlotti.