Isabel Marant

In 1994, Isabel Marant launched her eponymous brand, and the following year, she showed her first collection at Paris Fashion Week using her friends as models. The Parisian designer, who had previously co-founded the knitwear label Twen with her mother, set out to dress women for the street as much as the runway.

Her collections centered on simple, foundational garments, tight straight trousers, soft unstructured shirts, and tailored jackets. From the start, critics and editors filed her work under a single descriptor, “Parisian bohemian rock,” and the label stuck. Marant solidified her place in the French ready-to-wear conversation before the decade was out, winning the Award de la Mode in 1997 and the Whirlpool Award for best female designer in 1998.

Menswear arrived later. The men’s line launched in 2017, more than two decades after the womenswear debut. The first collection was sportswear-driven with a 90s edge, entrusted to designer Barnabé Hardy, who had previously handled menswear at Carven and worked alongside Nicolas Ghesquière at Callaghan and Balenciaga.

The clothes followed the womenswear logic, loose tailoring, washed cotton and linen, suede western boots, knit polos, and faded denim, sitting closer to contemporary labels like A.P.C., Lemaire, and Officine Générale than to traditional Paris couture houses. Around the same time, Marant received the Fashion Star Award in New York, a testament to how successfully the brand had crossed over into American retail.

While Marant remains the hands-on creative force in the studio, the company has evolved at the corporate level. Following a successful global collaboration with H&M in 2013, which sold out online in about 45 minutes and nearly crashed the retailer’s website, control of the brand shifted in 2016 when the French investment fund Montefiore acquired a 51% equity stake.

Under this partnership, the business expanded into accessories, an eyewear line, and a makeup collaboration with L’Oréal. Today, the menswear collection caters to a customer seeking worn-in Parisian style, the art-school graduate, the music industry freelancer, or the architect on holiday. The brand occupies a distinct contemporary niche, distributed through its own boutiques and a wholesale network spanning more than 35 countries.