Study at La Cambre and internships at Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior and Maison Margiela
In late July, Beyoncé released a music video for the track "Already", which is included on her new visual album, "Black is King". On the set, the singer and her team changed a dozen looks, but the most attention was attracted by tight-fitting jumpsuits with the image of crescents. First, the fusion of the dancers in clothing that actually mimics the skin looked truly hypnotic. Secondly, the outfit was repeated by the singer Adele, who was photographed against the background of a freeze frame from the video and expressed her admiration for Beyoncé's work.
1 of 10 Adele in a Marine Serre top in front of a freeze frame from Beyoncé's “Already” video © instagram.com/adele Beyonce in Marine Serre total look © instagram.com/beyonce Kylie Jenner with daughter Stormi in Marine Serre overalls © instagram. com / kyliejenner Isabelle Huppert in Marine Serre total look © instagram.com/marineserre_official Dua Lipa in Marine Serre T-shirt © instagram.com/dualipa Kendall Jenner in Marine Serre top © instagram.com/kendalljenner Blackpink members in Marine Serre total look © instagram.com/blackpinkofficial Olga Karput in the Marine Serre top © instagram.com/okarput Katya Kishchuk in the Marine Serre bodysuit and leggings © instagram.com/kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk___kkkk Elena Temnikova in the Marine Serre top © instagram.com/lenatemnikofficial
The author of clothes with crescent moons, which is recognizable even without specifying the name of the designer as a print and which was chosen not only by Beyoncé and Adele, but also by sisters Jenner, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Grimes, Cate Blanchett, Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert, is the Frenchwoman Marin Serre … At the age of 28, the girl has everything that everyone who walks through the thorns of the fashion industry dreams of: a good education, internships in world brands, winning a prestigious competition, respect from senior colleagues and being in demand among stellar clients. However, until recently, Marin did not even think about all this: for 13 years she was building a career as a tennis player. Her grandfather, a collector and dealer of antiques, inspired her to radically change her field of activity.
“I didn't know anything about this industry, so I thought it would be wise to get a little more involved. I started looking for educational institutions, but Central Saint Martins was too expensive, so I went to La Cambre School of Art and Design in Brussels. It was really good,”recalls Marine Serre in an interview with Ssense.
Designer Marine Serre © marineserre.com
Debut collection in response to the tragic events in Brussels and Paris
The school provided an opportunity for internships in the fashion houses of Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior and Maison Margiela, so Marin had to constantly travel from Brussels to Paris and back. In 2015 and 2016, terrorist attacks took place in both cities, which affected the creative vision of the aspiring designer. Her graduation collection was a reaction to tragic events and was called "Radical call for love" ("Radical call for love"). It was in her that clothes with the image of crescents first appeared, in which many saw a symbol associated with Islam. Marin herself urged not to treat him unambiguously: “The moon is like an icon, emblem, image, flag, language, metaphor and object of what we believe in: crossing borders, hybridity and freedom. This is one of the oldest symbols that ever existed,which are everywhere and continue to evolve with us. It is never stable and at the same time is timeless. " The designer also noted that everyone is free to interpret the image of crescents in their own way: for some it is a religious symbol, for others - the iPhone sleep mode icon, for others - the lunar prism from the anime "Sailor Moon".
Look from Marine Serre's debut collection "Radical call for love" © instagram.com/marineserre_official
Editors of iD magazine, representatives of the Parisian concept store The Broken Arm, creative director of Y / Project Glenn Martens, as well as Demna Gvasalia, who at the end of the show invited the girl to work at Balenciaga, gathered to watch the graduation collection of Marine Serre. “The result was stunning. Everyone wanted to buy the collection, but we didn't even know the price yet. We were approached by Ssense, Dover Street Market, Opening Ceremony. It was crazy,”comments Pepin van Eden, young man and business partner of Marine Serre.
"Then I thought, 'Nice little. People want to wear my things and buy them. Let's take the challenge." We agreed to all offers and started the production process. But this time was quite stressful, since the team consisted of two people, and I worked in parallel at Balenciaga. We had to send orders in the evening and at night,”says Marine Serre herself.
Winning LVMH and € 300 thousand for brand development
Having partially finished with the orders, Marine Serre received an invitation from the headhunter of the international competition for young designers LVMH Prize and, not counting on winning, quickly drew up and submitted an application. “I was the youngest participant among 1200 applicants, behind my back there was only one collection, graduation. I never thought about getting to the competition, much less about winning it. But we won. " The LVMH Prize statuette, which was accompanied by a cash prize of € 300,000 for the development of her own brand, was presented to Marin by Rihanna (in 2017 she was a member of the jury) to the applause of Nicolas Ghesquière, Jonathan Anderson, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Phoebe Fileo and Karl Lagerfeld. The latter, referring to the small stature of the novice designer, described her as "150 cm of iron will."
Marine Serre receives the LVMH Prize from Rihanna, 2017 © instagram.com/marineserre_official
The cash prize allowed Marine Serre to step out from under the wing of Demna Gvasalia and focus on developing her own brand: opening a studio, hiring employees and debuting at Paris Fashion Week. The fall-winter 2018/19 collection was named “Manic soul machine”, which, as Vogue journalist Mark Holgate put it, referred to the roller coaster - this is how the designer felt during the six-month preparation for the show. The publication, which, in general, does not favor newcomers to the fashion industry, every season showered Marine Serre with the epithets "gorgeous", "wonderful" and "fearless". The reason was not only that she managed to make clothes with a memorable, almost viral symbol (and weave them into the context of socio-political events), but also in a harmonious symbiosis of luxury, convenience and sporty style.
1 of 8 Marine Serre collection “Manic soul machine”, autumn-winter 2018/19 © instagram.com/marineserre_official Marine Serre collection “Manic soul machine”, autumn-winter 2018/19 © instagram.com/marineserre_official Marine Serre collection “Manic soul machine”, autumn-winter 2018/19 © instagram.com/marineserre_official Marine Serre collection“Manic soul machine”, autumn-winter 2018/19 © instagram.com/marineserre_official Marine Serre collection“Manic soul machine”, autumn-winter 2018 / 19 © instagram.com/marineserre_official Marine Serre collection “Manic soul machine”, autumn-winter 2018/19 © instagram.com/marineserre_official Marine Serre collection “Manic soul machine”, autumn-winter 2018/19 © instagram.com/marineserre_official
Sports, futurism and recycled materials
In addition to things with the image of crescents, in which you can go both to the tennis court and to the carpet (as, for example, Chloe Sevigny did at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019), the Marine Serre collections include bicycles, leggings, bodysuits and tops. with the word "Futurewear". The designer began to think about how we will look after the apocalypse, as if she really had a presentiment of it: this is expressed in dark colors, rough textures, styling with spherical bags, tight balaclavas and protective masks, as well as recycled materials. Marine Serre has been using used denim, leather and lace in tailoring from day one. In addition, the girl sews jackets, trousers and shirts from silk scarves, sheets and towels. They can be found both in women's collections and in capsule men's collections that Marine has been producing since 2019.
“She has proven that designers can take the environment seriously without compromising their vision,” says Alec Leach, founder of the sustainable fashion platform Future Dust. "She sets a powerful example and shows the rest of the industry that there is no excuse not to take action [to save the environment]."
“I don’t want to confuse anyone with the fact that Marine Serre is a brand that aims to make money from green things. Everyone should take care of this, because otherwise fashion will simply die,”explains the designer. The fact that her collections are based on recycled materials can be learned not only from press releases, but also from the brand's YouTube channel, where the team shows in detail the process of upcycling.
This facilitates the exchange of knowledge between designers and builds trust with clients. However, many people need to know that they are made by a young girl from a French village to choose Marine Serre clothes. The one who spontaneously (but not without hard work and talent) for three years became one of the contenders for the new creative director of Givenchy, standing on a par with Matthew Williams, Simon Port Jacquemus and a member of the jury of the same LVMH Prize Phoebe Faylo.