Isabel Marant

Biography

Isabel Marant (born 12 April 1967) is a French fashion designer and owner of the eponymous fashion brand. She won the Award de la Mode (1997), the Whirlpool Award for Best Female Designer (1998), and Fashion Designer of the Year at British Glamour's Women of the Year Awards (2012). She was named Contemporary Designer of the Year at the Elle Style Awards in 2014. 

Her collaboration with H&M in 2013 was so successful that the company's website crashed under the demand and the collection was sold out within 45 minutes. Celebrities wearing Marant's designs include Alexa Chung, Katie Holmes, Victoria Beckham, Kate Moss, Sienna Miller, Kate Bosworth, and Rachel Weisz.

In 1987, after her studies, Marant worked with Parisian designer Michel Klein. Later she also collaborated with Bridget Yorke working on two collections and assisted art director Marc Ascoli on different projects for Chloé, Martine Sitbon, and Yohji Yamamoto. 

However, working in other houses was a frustrating experience for her, and soon Marant decided to continue alone. In 1989, she launched a collection of belts and rings, followed by a line of belts for Claude Montana, a line of buttons and necklaces for Étienne Brunel, and a line of shoe buckles for Michel Perry.

In 1990 with her mother, she launched a knitwear and jersey label "Twen".

In 2020, the label signed a 10-year licensing agreement with Safilo for the design, production, and global distribution of sunglasses and optical frames.

In 2021, the brand launched Isabel Marant Vintage, a secondhand site that takes donations of used clothing from the label in exchange for vouchers.

As of 2019, the company has 13 shops worldwide in cities such as Paris, Rome, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Los Angeles, Beijing, Madrid, Beirut, and London, and has retailers in more than 35 countries.