Jaquemus is certainly one of the most successful designers brands the fashion industry has seen in recent years. Simon Porte, the brand’s designer, has been able to create a stylistic identity that does not follow conventional patterns. Moving away from the traditional tone of voice and look of designer brands –  traditionally associated with nightlife and clubbing – Jaquemus is about looking at the world with childlike wonder.  

Jaquemus’ ability to innovate the persona of the designer through his authentic personality and innovative communication approach is one of the reasons for his success and is able to provide some interesting lessons for a new generation of fashion creatives. 

In this post, we’re going to look into this innovative brand to identify some of its most remarkable characteristics.

Designer Clothing At Its Best

Jaquemus was founded by Simon Porte Jaquemus in 2009, the brand’s name is a homage to the designer’s mother’s last name and is an ode to youth and childhood. 

The brand had its first debut at Paris Fashion Week with collections that did not follow the traditional patterns of nightlife and clubbing but focused more on creating looks that resonate with France’s countryside life.

In the word of the designer himself: “Jacquemus is not about night-life and clubbing and things like that, it’s more about fruit and vegetables and rolling in the grass” 

The associations of the brand in its communication strategy recall ideas such as colorful clothing, youth, and a carefree mood towards the world.

Let’s now try and analyze this brand through a SWOT analysis following Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Strengths

Among the strengths of the brand, we can find:

• Personality. Jaquemus is known for the strong personality and charm of the designer, which approaches the fashion industry with childlike wonder. This non-assuming approach to fashion is also echoed by the affordable prices of the brand’s collections. 
  
• Social Media Guru. Despite the somewhat unconventional management strategy of the social media channels, Jaquemus’ digital communication is fresh and authentic. This allows the brand to foster genuine and honest interactions with its users and community.
  
• Making the Classics Cool. The brand is able to revamp classic collection staples, making them relevant and exciting again. This provides depth to the brand and allows Jaquemus to compete in new market spaces.
  
• Luxury Online Retail. The brand has a broad distribution reach as it is sold by high-end, luxury portals. This provides the designer brand a luxury edge despite the affordable prices.

Weaknesses

Let’s now look into some of the weaknesses of areas of potential improvement for the brand. 

• No Physical Store.  Despite having a strong social media presence and good digital distribution, the lack of traditional standalone retail stores can be limiting in terms of connecting the brand with a broader audience.
  
• A Bit of a Niche. The approach of the brand to its collection design is focused on a niche market, which is a very good approach for a smaller brand but may resent from some limitations when the brand grows and may be catering to a wider audience.
  
• Up for Strong Competition. As a consequence of the previous points, we can see how the brand would be experiencing challenges in an expansion stage when dealing with highly competitive brands with high amounts of capital at their disposal.
  
• Sustainability. At this time the brand does not include into its communication a strong standpoint regarding some of the issues affecting the fashion industry in terms of environmental sustainability. 

Opportunities

On the other hand, here are some of the opportunities that the brand could be taking advantage of in the future. 

• Collaborations. The brand because of its size and clear identity could potentially develop partnerships and collaborations to reach new audiences and broaden its reach. Because of the small size of the brand, Jaquemus is able to be flexible and responsive to the new trends and opportunities of the industry. 
  
• Line Extensions. The brand could look towards diversifying its collections portfolio by developing new lines, in alignment with the brand’s ethos. The clear stylistic identity of the brand can allow it to broaden its reach and include more product categories.
  
• Flexible Retail. The brand could use temporary stores to test brick-and-mortar distribution or even make it part of the customers’ experience. As the brand’s audience is broad, physical retail could add more monetization opportunities for the brand.
  
• Expanding on Social Media. Leveraging the unique conversations between the designer and the customers, new models of purchase and consumption could be identified moving from awareness to consideration and purchase.

Threats

• Need to expand on the brand’s landscapes. The brand’s ethos is perfectly attuned to a designer’s personality and the “myth of the founder”, but it may be limiting as the brand grows, with the risk of becoming repetitive.
  
• Only Social Media. Despite the brand being very successful on social media, the brand lacks other communication strategies to access other customer demographics This is why aside from social media the brand may need to explore additional options to build a strong and loyal audience.
  
• Permanent Vacation is Not Everyday Wear. Jaquemus focuses on clothing styles associated with life in the countryside and resort wear but does not cover as extensively everyday wear lines. This brand focus, despite providing a strong focus and a clear element of differentiation is also competing within a relatively small market.
  
• Risk of Replacement. As the brand is still relatively small, the threat of new entrants could impact its market share. This is why it may need to work on developing the brand and possibly seek international alliances.

Conclusions

There you have it. In this post, we’ve looked into Jaquemus as an example of a designer brand capable of moving past the conventional dimension of fashion and developing a unique brand identity that allows the brand to create meaningful and authentic relationships with its customers. 

Its strong brand identity mixed with a playful approach to fashion is what makes this brand unique, and able to engage its audience by delivering a refreshing vision connected to spending a Summer vacation in Southern France. 
If you’d like to lookup more information on the business models adopted by fashion designers, don’t hesitate to look in our blog where you’ll be able to find a wealth of resources on the strategies adopted by the Maisons to build an audience, design their collections and bring their vision to market.