It’s a message that de Saint Sernin has cultivated on social media to terrific effect and which has helped to drive the success of his e-commerce business. But the brand’s message - “be proud of your sexuality, be proud of who you are,” also resonated with customers, said Paul. “It’s fantastic product that comes from a really pretty sound understanding of luxury,” he said. The retailer signing up de Saint Sernin alongside Charles Jeffrey, Bianca Saunders and Wales Bonner.ĭe Saint Sernin’s crystal-embroidered t-shirts and leather pieces, in particular, have done well for MatchesFashion, said head of menswear Damien Paul.
In August 2020, MatchesFashion, under pressure on late payments to labels and aiming to attract consumers with a roster of fresh young talent, launched a new program to help small designers survive the pandemic with preferential payment terms and marketing support. It was amazing because it was like I have my clients here,” said de Saint Sernin. “I would use the swipe up and people would buy. For a small label with limited capital and no e-commerce channel of its own, the situation was dire.īut while locked down with his boyfriend and project manager Ignacio Muñoz, de Saint Sernin took out his iPhone and snapped two pictures of the unsold inventory lying around their apartment, posting it to Instagram and inadvertently giving birth to a direct-to-consumer business that now accounts for 50 percent of the label’s revenue. Then, all of sudden, when lockdowns hit, stores were forced closed and orders were cancelled. Last spring, with Covid-19 bearing down on Paris, the label was already late with deliveries to its wholesale partners because of the on-going “gilets jaunes” strikes in the French capital, where all of its products are made. Ludovic de Saint Sernin.īut if things seem to be progressing quickly for Ludovic de Saint Sernin, it wasn’t that long ago that the self-financed brand was in jeopardy. Look 8 from the Ludovic de Saint Sernin Autumn/Winter 2021 Collection. “I dressed her for her latest perfume campaign and we want to do more stuff together in the future,” said de Saint Sernin, who received new womenswear orders from stores like Selfridges soon after the campaign. Kim Kardashian donned bespoke brown leather pants and a bespoke oversized metallic top adapted from de Saint Sernin’s Spring-Summer 2020 menswear collection for her appearance in the campaign to promote KKW Fragrance’s collaboration with Kendall Jenner back in March.
The business remains small, but his collections, which span men’s and, increasingly, womenswear, have been picked up by retailers like MatchesFashion and Ssense, and worn by Dua Lipa, Rihanna, Hailey Bieber and Reggaeton star Bad Bunny. Since launching his eponymous label in 2017, de Saint Sernin, who cut his teeth in the design studio at Balmain, has been shortlisted for the LVMH Prize and, in 2018, won the ANDAM Creative Label Prize. With the fashion industry starving for inclusivity and male pop stars like Harry Styles and Lil Nas pushing gender boundaries, de Saint Sernin’s queer sex-positive vision - of a kind perhaps not seen since Jean Paul Gaultier in the 1990s - has been gaining traction with its range of hard and soft pieces, from S&M-inspired, metal-adorned leather pants to sheer organza jackets, cut-out knitwear and body-con halter tops. The same way a singer can express their feelings in a song or album, I was expressing that in my collections and I thought that was something the public could relate to.” “I have always approached my collection as a diary. “I think from the first collection, it was very much like a coming out, because at the same time I was coming out in real life,” said de Saint Sernin.
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But a sex-positive Instagram community built on queer imagery and a series of popular challenges that de Saint Sernin cultivated after his own sexual awakening helped keep the label on track.įrom the beginning, de Saint Sernin’s work was closely shaped by his personal life. The pandemic posed a serious threat to his business. For Paris-based designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin, known for his racy, gender-fluid looks, the last year has been a rollercoaster.