To celebrate the exclusive online Net-A-Porter launch of a debut watch from Isabel Marant journalists were drafted in from across the globe to the heart of Paris for an intimate dinner with the designer and her gang. Caroline de Maigret, Juliette Binoche and groupings of girls who were so hip it hurt a little bit spent the night drinking, eating and being generally gorgeous and genial in a modernist apartment kitted out in the kind of eclectic homewares (lodge rugs, wicker furniture from the ‘70s, supersize framed prints of Kate Moss…) you’d expect from bohemia's team leader.
Isabel with Net-A-Porter's Alison Loehnis and model Caroline de Maigret
Ok, so it wasn’t actually Marant’s home, but if this all sounds rather extravagant for just one watch then knowing the importance behind the creation of this timepiece – La Montre – will make you think again. We caught up with the designer pre-party from her very zen workspace in the 1st Arrondisment to find out why this one accessory is so very significant in an illustrious career brimming with as many cult buys as investment pieces…
GraziaDaily: So, Isabel, why design a watch now?
Isabel Marant: Actually it arrived by a kind of chance, I don’t know the exact word in English, par hazard [randomly]. It came from the fact that I wanted to imitate my father’s watch that I really loved. For me when I see this watch it reminds me straight away of my father who died several years ago. He was very important for me in my design life, always giving me the best advice, being always very honest… You know there are people always saying ‘oh it’s gorgeous’ but they never tell you ‘ah that was not bad but I thought that this and this could be better…’ So I must say I miss him a lot, of course because of being my father but also for my work life. For each of my shows I wear his watch but I didn’t want to wear it all year long because I was so afraid to lose it. I think it is the most precious thing I have besides my husband, my family and my sons, straight after that it’s my father’s watch that has such an importance…. It’s not about just doing a watch, this watch has such an importance and I always found it was very beautiful because it’s very neutral - it can be a woman’s or a man’s watch and it’s beyond fashion, very classic.
La Montre watch, £430, available exclusively online on Net-A-Porter now!
GraziaDaily: It’s interesting that you’ve only designed the one style, but that is something French women are very good at – having just one great pair of boots, one hat, one accessory that is the considered the ultimate…
Isabel Marant: Yeh, I think you don’t need so many things in life you just need the right things that fit you and go with you. I think in a way I’m being quite selfish, I am just trying to find out what I’m looking for in something… what makes me buy something or not. In the end you don’t need so many things, so I always try to think about what’s next, what I’m really willing to buy when I go shopping… What will make a difference? Will this black sweater be better than another one?
GraziaDaily: So many of the accessories you design are wildly popular – what do you think it is about these pieces that resonate with so many different women?
Isabel Marant: I think that after all when you find out really what’s your outfit - and most of the girls if you look at them in the street they wear a sweatshirt or t-shirt and tight pair of jeans - then you can play more with accessories… I always try to do accessories that give you attitude and energy, that you feel good in and are easy to wear everyday.
Backstage S/S'15 [Jason Lloyd Evans]
GraziaDaily: On that note, do you think that looking effortless actually takes effort?
Isabel Marant: It needs a lot of effort! Yeh, I think I’m always saying that French girls pass a lot of time fixing themselves but it doesn’t show that they spend a lot of time. French girls, they will use the right shampoo or the right moisturiser that does something, so they don’t start brushing their hair because that would always be too much. They do it in reverse! I mean it’s the same thing with the makeup. For example I’m not ‘wearing makeup’ when I have makeup on, I just do a little thing on my eyelids and I rub… it takes the same time for somebody to make it pretty. I think we have tricks and I think it’s our culture, the way we were raised.
GraziaDaily: So what was the last thing you bought?
Isabel Marant:** **I rarely buy… Nike leggings from their collaboration with Undercover. They’re very sporty.
GraziaDaily: Do you have things in your wardrobe that you don’t wear?
Isabel Marant: No. I think in my wardrobe now I wear everything but it’s almost always the same things. I think I’ve got like tons of slim jeans in cords or leather but always the same shape, tons of linen t-shirts in all the shades of grey, sweatshirts... I’m don’t dress up a lot I must say, because I try things on all day long!
Marant's monochrome A/W'14 collection has been a street style favourite. Here's fellow Parisienne, blogger Camille Charriere [Rex]
GraziaDaily: Has your style always been like this?
Isabel Marant: I think I always loved same things when I was young but I was much more crazy, I was! I think when you’re young you’re still searching for your style and I was really experimental and experimenting going in very fancy outfits to school. I was wearing my father’s robes and I would go in slippers at school because I was thinking it’s very cool. I was wearing huge jewellery but, I mean, it was in the eighties - it was the fashion. You change also because the times are changing and of course in 40 years your style has evolved… but it’s true that I still am the same person, I didn’t totally change.
GraziaDaily: It’s not often that you design handbags, do you actually use a handbag?!
Isabel Marant: It’s the same as the watch, I think once you have your good handbag I’m not somebody who is going to change. I don’t understand the concept of taking everything out of your bag and re-putting it into another bag that fits with your silhouette. I think it’s more that a bag that fits with you rather than having a bag that fits with the silhouette. So I have this kind of purse-y thing that is not too big and not too small and you can put a lot in.
Isabel with her husband Jerome at last night's La Montre event
GraziaDaily: Is it from your husband’s [accessories designer Jerome Dreyfuss] collection?
Isabel Marant: No! No interference!
GraziaDaily: So if not handbags, then is there anything else you creatively want to pursue?
Isabel Marant: Everybody’s asking me to do some menswear which I would love to do but I’m not very good at giving work to others! So right now I’m over-busy and I’m trying not to make any more plans.