Words by Frances Davis

Edited by Rachel Hambly and Bailey Tolentino

There is no art without inspiration. For centuries, this inspiration has frequently taken the form of muses who guide artists’ vision and creativity. In fashion, there are countless individuals whose renown stems largely from their inspirational impact on designers and brands: Audrey Hepburn for Givenchy, Jane Birkin for Hermès, Madonna for Jean Paul Gaultier — just to name a few. Almost every major painter, ceramicist, songwriter, and fashion designer can pinpoint certain people they have encountered who have served as catalysts for their creative process and who help them visualize the direction of their brand. For some, these are actresses or models, and for others – like Jacquemus’s founder, Simon Porte Jacquemus – cherished family members.

Simon Porte Jacquemus founded his fashion label at the mere age of 19. In interviews, he attributes his motivation to create his own brand to his mother's passing. In some ways, Valérie Jacquemus has always been the nexus of her son’s brand, from inspiring its very creation to having an original handbag named for her. Beyond his late mother, his grandmother, Lilian Jacquemus, has also played a significant, ongoing role in the brand. Lilian was always present at his shows and events, and he honored her by adopting her name as his brand name and adding it to his own.

The recent ad campaign for the new Valérie handbag features a series of short, snapshot-style videos of White Lotus actor Charlotte Le Bon acting out various everyday scenes. All shot from a low angle, imitating the perspective of a young child, the videos follow Le Bon around a quintessential Parisian apartment. In one, the camera slowly approaches while Le Bon sits on an ottoman, taking a business phone call. The shot closes in on the notebook she is doodling in, revealing multiple drawn iterations of the bag’s name, ‘Valérie’, and a single flower. Another depicts Le Bon hurrying down a hallway with arms full of grocery bags and dry cleaning, and of course, a butter-yellow Valérie bag. Scattering the objects on the floor, she greets the child through whom the scene is shown and hurries into the bathroom. A bag of vegetables is knocked over by the closing bathroom door, and the clip ends with a still-life composition: one grocery bag upright, the other spilling over onto the parquet floor, and the simple, stylish Valérie purse casually propped on the side.

As explained in various social media posts centered on the new accessory, the bag is named after the brand founder Simon Porte Jacquemus’s late mother, Valérie, and aims to reflect her spirit: ‘always with a touch of humor and poetry’. Across the clips, the cinematography realises that very goal: the focus oscillates between Le Bon’s character (Valérie herself) and the eponymous bag, cultivating an immediately intimate and nostalgic feel.

Each vignette is charming and cute, unlike some other high-fashion ad campaigns that – while successful and captivating in their own right – fail to tap into the emotional and nostalgic aspects of fashion. This Jacquemus 2025 campaign stands out for its creative world-building, seamlessly tying SPJ’s childhood fascination with his mother to an enduring inspiration for his flourishing designs. The deliberate camera placement and recurring breaking of the fourth wall both contribute to a sense of familiarity and comfort exuded by the snapshots, harnessing the shared experience of being enthralled by the beauty, charm, and humour of one’s mother. He stitches her legacy into each bag he produces, memorializing her in his designs.

Yet another example of how Jacquemus relies on and draws inspiration from his family of formidable women is his deliberate choice to pass up countless high-status personalities to serve as his brand ambassador, instead inviting his grandmother to be the face of the brand. Liline was embraced into the role via an Instagram post where Simon Porte Jacquemus blatantly states that ‘[b]efore anything, there was her’ and credits her ‘strength, elegance, authenticity’. This choice reaffirms Simon Porte Jacquemus's focus on family and legacy, and their central role in his brand. Furthermore, it amplifies Jacquemus’s commitment to their identity as a ‘brand of origins’ and distances the brand from other celebrity-focused fashion houses.

Using family and emotionality in this way risks coming off as manipulative marketing – yet his approach has been so delicate that it reads as genuinely sincere. Part of this is rooted in the recurring nature of these familial references, exemplified by his frequent revisits to the topography and natural landscape of his native Provence. As a relatively new fashion brand, Jacquemus is coming of age amid increasingly difficult and uncertain circumstances. The sheer amount of noise present within the fashion world right now makes it increasingly difficult to truly establish and differentiate oneself as a brand. Jacquemus has handled these challenges with grace and has continued to redirect the spotlight and fame to emphasize the brand’s fundamental values of heritage and origins.

The Women Behind Simon Porte Jacquemus