The Isabel Marant Paradox

The opening of her New York boutique having incited much interest in the fashion world, the usually discreet Isabel Marant found herself suddenly in the spotlight. Solicited for numerous interviews, she was obliged to come out of her shell... at the risk of revealing herself with a bit too much candor.

Does Marant have a press agent, a guardian angel making sure that her declarations continue to conform to her label's image? Given her recent interview with the magazine Love, we have reason to doubt...

She who comes out with a new look every 6 months to renew her clients' interest, who with two pencil strokes can outdate her last season's must-haves and convince young hip women that they cannot wear anything but Isabel Marant, declared herself to be in fact, anti-consumerist and hardly drawn to the industry in which she works. When she designs a new collection, she claims she systematically asks herself the question, "Why do we need new clothes?"

Such words may seem refreshing coming from a young actress en vogue, but less so from a fashion prophetess. It is true that by loudly proclaiming her aversion for the fashion system, overly sexy girls and the over-the-top fashionistas, Marant is taking a quasi-schizophrenic position.

Jérôme Dreyfuss' companion's business would surely not be in such good health if, following the designer's example, her clients also found it abstruse to regularly give in to a new piece, even when their closets are already overflowing.

It may seem surprising that she criticizes a system from which she benefits so well; even more so when, next to these somewhat moralistic declarations, her label happens to be in full expansion, with boutique openings and a bankable icon.

Perhaps Isabel Marant should just simply be reminded that when one sells a leather biker jacket for 1630 euros, it would be better not to declare loud and strong her "low consummation" convictions.

©photo: ELLE.fr