It all started with an Instagram post in January accompanied by the hashtag #NewJob. After speculations about his possible appointment at Céline (Hedi Slimane got the job in the end), the news was announced last February: at the Petite Palais at the end of his runway show, Simon Porte Jacquemus thanked the audience wearing a camel-coloured sweatshirt emblazoned with “New job l’homme Jacquemus”. On May 4th the rendezvous was officialised with an Instagram announcement: “Very happy to announce that my first menswear collection will take place in the south of France on June 25th”, the 28-year old designer wrote.
Embodied by the Var rugby hero Yoann Maestri, shot emerging from the azure waters of the Mediterranean, the Jacquemus man will hit the runway on the fringes of the official spring/summer 2019 fashion week calendar set to take place in Paris between June 19th and June 24th. For “le Souk” fall-winter 2018-19, his last women’s wear collection, Simon Jacquemus positioned himself as the outsider by showing, the day before the collections started, an incredibly summery collection. Now we just have to wait and see what shape this first collection will take as he starts on a “new chapter […] for both myself and Jacquemus”. Will it approach the fun and geometric styles of his beginnings, dominated by the precepts of Cezanne or an ode to the Mediterranean similar to his most recent shows? Find out on June 25th under the sun of the Côte d'Azur...
