Isabel Marant photographed in her Paris studio by Rannjan Joawn for the Observer.
Isabel Marant (R) attends the Sidaction Gala Dinner 2015 at Pavillon d'Armenonville on January 29, 2015 in Paris, France.
Fashion designer Isabel Marant acknowledges the audience at the end of her 2015 Spring-Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show, on September 26, 2014 in Paris, France.
Designer Isabel Marant salutes the audience at the end of her show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring-Summer 2016 on October 2, 2015 in Paris, France.
A Cocktail Party and Dinner in Honor of Isabel Marant.
Isabel Marant photographed in her Paris studio by Rannjan Joawn for the Observer.
Isabel Marant pour H&M 2013.
Isabel Marant (R) attends the Sidaction Gala Dinner 2015 at Pavillon d'Armenonville on January 29, 2015 in Paris, France.
Fashion designer Isabel Marant acknowledges the audience at the end of her 2015 Spring-Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show, on September 26, 2014 in Paris, France.
Designer Isabel Marant salutes the audience at the end of her show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring-Summer 2016 on October 2, 2015 in Paris, France.
A Cocktail Party and Dinner in Honor of Isabel Marant.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003MXS7J8/?tag=2022091-20
(Work in progress.)
Work in progress.
Ethnicity:
Her mother is of German origin and father is a French.
Mrs. Marant was born in Paris, France, on April 12, 1967. Her mother was a model and father a photographer. Her parents divorced when she was young and Marant was raised primarily by her father.
Born Isabelle (pronounced "Isabella" in French), Isabel Marant dropped the last syllable of her name in her sixth year of school when she discovered four of her classmates had the same name. As a child Mrs. Marant was an outgoing tomboy who disliked anything girlish. She enjoyed dressing provocatively and would borrow from her father's closet - wearing his silk dressing gowns with slippers and refashioning his old jumpers as dresses.
In 1982, tired of not being able to find clothes she liked in store, Mrs. Marant asked her father for a sewing machine and began making pieces out of discarded clothing and fabric. Friends soon began asking her to recreate pieces for them, but a career in fashion still wasn't a consideration for her. At the age of about 16, her earnings from selling her clothing were enough to make her reconsider her plans to study economics after high school. Instead she took up design at the prestigious Studio Berçot fashion school in Paris in 1985.
In 1985, she started designing clothes with Christopher Lemaire (who also now has his own label and is the creative director at Hermès). Following her studies Mrs. Marant interned with Parisian designer Michel Klein in 1987. She also worked with Bridget Yorke on two collections and assisted art director Marc Ascoli on projects for Chloé, Martine Sitbon, and Yohji Yamamoto. Shortly afterwards, in 1989, Isabel Marant began launching her own collections. Despite her success she has said she regrets not taking the time to work with other designers for longer before starting out on her own.
In 1989, Isabel Marant launched her own jewellery label followed by a knitwear label, known as Twen, with her mother in 1990. In 1994 she set up her own label with a studio in Paris' trendy Marais district. Her first show, for the spring-summer 1995 season, was held in the courtyard of a squat with her friends modelling.
In 1998 she began guest designing collections for the popular French mail catalogue brand La Redoute and also launched a new line called I*M in Japan. The first Isabel Marant store, a former artist's studio on rue de Charonne in the Bastille district, opened in Paris in February 1998. This was followed by a second store on rue Jacob in Saint Germain des Pres in February 2000, and a third store on rue de Saintonge in 2007.
Mrs. Marant debuted her diffusion line, Étoile by Isabel Marant, at the Paris ready-to-wear shows in 1999. The focus of the collection was jeans and T-shirts. The following year she introduced the first full Étoile collection, including lingerie. She launched a childrenswear line in 2004 and also launched a pop-up boutique in Paris' Printemps department store and collaborated with Anthropologie on a collection in 2006.
In 2008 Isabel Marant won a claim against French fashion chain Naf Naf. The chain was ordered to pay her damages of 75,000 Euros for copying a black puff-sleeved dress from her autumn-winter 2006 collection.
Mrs. Marant opened her first US store in SoHo, New York, in 2010. Her husband opened a store for his handbag label next door. Isabel Marant opened an eagerly-awaited London store on Mayfair's Bruton Street in 2012. In September 2013, she revealed a high-street collection for H&M - one of the most highly-anticipated collaborations in the store's history.
Isabel Marant currently has 3 boutiques in Paris, 9 in Asia, 1 in New York and is available at wholesale throughout Europe and the US.
Isabel Marant has been responsible for some of fashion's most imitated pieces - including embellished trophy jackets, wedge high-tops, flippy skirts and oversized knitwear - although nothing can quite compete with the original pieces. Her insouciant low-maintenance design style garnered a huge following with the world's most stylish stars, including Kate Bosworth, Kate Moss, Alexa Chung and Miranda Kerr.
Mrs. Marant won the Award de la Mode in 1997, and the Whirlpool Award for best female designer in 1998. In June 2012 she was awarded Fashion Designer of the Year at British Glamour's Women of the Year Awards.
Quotations:
"I always wear my own clothes. My sweatshirt I got in L.A., but the rest is Isabel Marant, like 99 percent of my wardrobe. I get a good discount... I don't dress up every day. I wear a sweatshirt and a trouser, like most people. From this starting point, [I ask myself], How do I make this silhouette fashionable and stylish?... I'm not this goddess of fashion - I'm low profile. I look like a delivery guy. I drive my scooter and always have my helmet on. When people meet me, they think this cannot be her, because I look like a bum."
"I have a clear memory of my hysterical, alcoholic governess who wore crazy clothes; she inspired me a lot! My West-Indian stepmother, who brought me up from the age of six, was very chic, very "Yves Saint Laurent". She gave me allure."
"I would have loved to have spent one or two years in the studios at Chanel or Saint Laurent... I have an immense love for the artisan, for all the artistic crafts around couture, and it's true that I regret enormously not having taken the time to learn in studios and spend time there."
"I am my first customer... My approach has always been: would I like to wear this garment? I do prêt-a-porter; I do not revolutionise the fashion world."
Mrs. Marant is married to handbag designer Jerome Dreyfuss. They have a son, Tal, who was born in 2003.
