HOW Jacquemus BECAME THE MAIN CHARACTER OF FRENCH FASHION

Thanks to viral designs, destination runway shows, and a cozy relationship with fame, 35-year-old fashion-school dropout Simon Porte Jacquemus has grown his Mediterranean-inspired indie label into the buzziest brand in French fashion. Now, historic maisons and big tech are circling.

- By SAMUEL HINE

SIMON PORTE JACQUEMUS is about to tell us a secret. It’s early June and he’s with a small group of journalists in a villa perched on a cliff on the Italian island of Capri, where the French fashion designer is about to stage a runway show for his namesake brand, Jacquemus. There’s a fierce sun beating the villa’s outside, which is, in a way, very Jacquemus: synonymous with the brand is that sun-drenched Mediterranean vibe. A few moments later, models are getting their hair touched up, their skin glowing bright, leisurely looks. But first, an appearance by Jacquemus himself, the informe to wild and untold. For Jacquemus knows, he shouldn’t spell it out, but some names are too iconic not to drop.

“Gwyneth,” he says in his syrupy, southern-French accent. He pronounces the name like Gwin-eth, but there’s no mistaking who he’s referring to. Porte Jacquemus pauses and wiggles his eyebrows. “She’s coming.”

From the window we can see the impossibly blue Tyrrhenian Sea. Stretching to the horizon, somewhere there is a speedboat ferrying Gwyneth Paltrow—the pure embodiment of holiday chic—to her front-row seat. One journalist calls an aspect of Jacquemus’s rise the luxury fashion industry’s escalating race for celebrity cameos, brands eager to enormous lengths to lock down top-tier names at their shows, and the price tag, to cutting-edge million-dollar checks, and dangling even more lucrative endorsement deals. Porte Jacquemus doesn’t pay celebs to attend his events, even those held well off the beaten path, as was the case here, and yet he was about to pull off the coup of the season: GOOP’s Paltrow at the height of a Gwyneth-centric pop-cultural moment, plus a wide-spread, drop-manic, still-hot front row at his plucky indie’s wildly destination show.