Coperni seeks path to stardom, AMI and Jacquemus fight for top spot
Coperni's spray-on dress
Everyone has heard about the spray-on dress. Supermodel Bella Hadid appears half-naked on stage, her hands covering her breasts. Two men in black gently spray her body with a white substance that solidifies into a dress. A woman moves forward and slits it up to mid-thigh. The video goes viral. The bold stunt pays off and the young fashion brand Coperni becomes a global celebrity overnight.
In terms of visibility, Coperni’s show beat megabrands with much deeper pockets. According to the data analysis firm Launchmetrics, Coperni’s spray-on dress generated $26.3 million in media impact value, as much as the announcement last month that Rihanna would perform at the coveted U.S. Super Bowl half-time show in February.
Is such a PR coup enough for brand to take off? It certainly helps, as Miss Tweed found out. Other elements, come into play, however, such asconsistency between the brand’s story, its designs, distribution and the price at which it sells its wares. When these factors are perfectly aligned and coupled with strong management and execution, success is guaranteed, fashion experts say.
“What’s amazing is that a small brand like Coperni can beat the biggest brands just with a good idea,” notes Lucien Pagès who represents Coperni as well as many other promising young fashion brands. “That is also what democracy is about.” During the pandemic in 2021, Coperni stood out as one of the few brands that organized a real physical fashion show, which it held after dark in a parking lot. Cars turned on their lights as the model approached them, producing a refreshing and original effect. Some turned their lights off to let the green-light emitting sunglasses worn by some of the models glow in the dark. Earlier this year, Coperni produced two models of futuristic-looking sunglasses with Korea’s super-trendy eyewear maker Gentle Monster.
GROWING THE BRAND
Thanks to the spray-on-dress, Coperni has become one of the most talked-about brands in the highly competitive fashion galaxy. Bankers are already speculating that its biggest shareholder and global license partner, the investment firm Tomorrow London, is going to be approached by big groups such as Kering and LVMH to help Coperni grow bigger faster.
For now, Tomorrow says it is not interested in raising more capital, (although we all know that it would say that for the record). Its view is that it wants to grow Coperni over a period of years. So why would it give up such a great success story? “Overnight success is (relatively!) easy to attain,” saidStefano Martinetto, CEO of Tomorrow, told Miss Tweed.“But to grow a brand takes considerable patience, awareness, and commitment. On this, we are completely aligned withArnaud Vaillant and Sebastien Meyer,” referring to Coperni’s two founders.
“As with any emerging brandthatcatches the rocketship of explosive growth, the biggest challenge is to manage that growth in a sustainable wayto ensure longevity for the mid- to longer-term,” said Martinetto . Vaillant, who worked at Balenciaga, is the CEO of Coperni. His strength is in products and business. Meyer, who graduated from the Mod’Art International fashion school, is more focused on designs. The pair launched Coperni in 2013.
The name comes from the astronomer Copernicus. After winning the prestigious Andam fashion prize in 2014, Coperni was put on hold. Meyer and Vaillant paused their new-born brand in 2015 to work for Courrèges, a fashion label founded in 1961 which is trying to resuscitate Artemis, the family office of the Pinault family which controls Gucci owner Kering. The pair stayed for only three years. In the autumn of 2018, they met Martinetto who encouraged them to develop their own brand and offered financial backing and mentoring.
MODERN AND MINIMALIST
Vaillant and Meyer, both in their early 30s, are obsessed with innovation, technology and the Silicon Valley and do a great job expressing that sensibility through their designs, fashion experts say. Coperni’s style is modern and minimalist. One of its bestsellers is the swipe bag, a narrow tote with an ovoid handle inspired by the airplane mode on/off toggle on iPhones, but vertical rather than horizontal. The swipe bag was presented in March 2019 as part of Coperni’s first “return” collection after its four-year hiatus. Bags represent a significant part of its business already, the brand said, but it is not the bulk of it. Footwear is also growing, and so is ready-to-wear.
Coperni does not have its own boutique yet but it “is clearly an option we are exploring,”Martinetto said. It nowdepends on wholesale partners. Online, these include Ssense, MyTheresa and Net-A-Porter, and offline it works with department stores Neiman Marcus, Printemps and Selfridges and a few concept stores such as Tom Greyhound in Paris. Turnover on Coperniparis.com is approaching 10 percent of total revenue and “is growing quickly as consumers want to engage directlywith the brand,” Martinetto said.
A CERTAIN UNIQUENESS
A smart idea is great but other things also come into play. “What is needed to succeed is a certain uniqueness in communication, in the product and in the design,” explains Yann Rivoallan, president of the French Federation of Women’s Ready-to-Wear who has spent much of his working life helping fashion brands build a presence online. “You also need a good quality distribution network at the operational level, whether it is online, in-store or both,” he told Miss Tweed at the Hyères fashion festival which took place in mid-October.
The two brands that tick all these boxes are Simon Porte Jacquemus and AMI Paris, usually referred to as AMI and Jacquemus. They are France’s most often cited success stories. As such, they have become rivals which industry observers follow closely. Both are around 12 years old. Both are led by talented designers who are natural communicators.
The first is led by Simon Jacquemus, 32, who is from the South of France and celebrateslavender fields, the sea, Marseille and its proximity to North Africa. The brand appeals to young women with ties to those regions and there are many of them in France.
AMI,known for its Ami de Coeur logo,a heart atop of the letter A, is a shortened version of the designer’s name Alexandre Mattiussi.AMI is about Paris and France north of the Loire, says Vincent Grégoire of the Paris-based consultancy NellyRodi. “It is a more bourgeois, more cerebral brand. Unlike Jacquemus, it does not risk taking a stand on diversity.”
AMI and Jacquemus enjoy formidable growth. The two brands, which made tens of millions of euros a few years ago, are both projected to generate more than €200 million in sales by the end of this year. Yet their business models are quite different, as are their strategies.
Jacquemus makes 73 percent of its turnover online. Some 33 percent comes from online wholesalers and 40 percent from on its own website, which has been up and running from day one when the brand was launched in 2010. Back then, Jacquemus won immediate fame by staging a mock protest on Vogue Fashion Night (when luxury boutiques in Paris opened late) with supporters screaming his name and holding banners saying “Jacquemus en grève” (“Jacquemus on strike”) on the French capital’s chic Avenue Montaigne. Among them was the model and friend Jeanne Damas, who six years later would launch her own Rouje fashion brand.
Jacquemus opened its first stand-alone pop-up boutique at the end of September – just at the start of Paris Fashion Week – on Avenue Montaigne, where it all began. It is sandwiched between Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana. The brand plans to rent the space for six months to test demand and sell-through at full price. It does not want to commit yet to a bricks-and-mortar boutique. However, it will at some point.
CHINA CLOSED
AMI is the opposite of Jacquemus in its retail strategy. It has been frantically opening boutiques in the past 18 months, thanks to cash injected by Sequoia Capital China, the Asian arm of California’s Sequoia investment company which has made a fortune backing companies such as Cisco, PayPal and YouTube. The investment in AMI is the first overseas investment for the Chinese venture capital firm which has invested in Chinese Internet behemoths JD.com, Alibaba and Tencent. At the time the deal was announced in January 2021, no financial details were disclosed aside from the fact that AMI had made €50 million in sales in 2020.
CEO Nicolas Santi-Weiland Mattiussi retained minority stakeswhile the private equity firmNeo Investment Partners, which had sold its majority holding to Sequoia, kept a stake in the brand.AMI said itexpected sales this year to double after having reached €133 million in 2021.
It now has 32 boutiques worldwide and more than 715 points of sale at wholesalers. Earlier this month, it opened a boutique in Seoul, South Korea. To promote it, and flag its presence to Koreans, it organized a high-profile show at the city’s landmark Gwanghwamun Square, with performances by K-pop stars and attended by traditional brand ambassadors such as French actress Isabelle Adjani. In China, AMI has three stores in Shanghai and boutiques in four other cities including Chengdu andNanjing. However, the timing of AMI’s Chinese expansion has been unfortunate: much of China has been closed this year because of a resurgence in Covid cases. It may have to wait a while before it reaps returns from such significant investments in this crucial market.
By contrast, Simon Jacquemus still owns 100 percent of his fashion company - a remarkable achievement. The brand was so successful that many industry observers speculated LVMH was backing the brand. This turned out not to be true. As Miss Tweed was first to report in May, Jacquemus expects sales to reach €500 million in two-to-three years. Jacquemus is on track to become one of France’s first major fashion unicorns, private companies valued at more than US$1 billion. It has come a long way considering its turnover was€50 million in2019 andaround €25 million four years ago – the level where Coperni is roughly now.
STRONG IN LEATHER GOODS
Another important difference between AMI and Jacquemus is that the latteris much stronger in leather goods. AMI still sells mostly ready-to-wear. One of Jacquemus’s bestsellers is the trapezoid-shaped Chiquito bag, which starts at a couple of hundred euros for the smallest version and can cost up to nearly €1,000. However, it has been raising prices in the past year as part of the brand’s elevation strategy. Jacquemus’s biggest markets are France,the United States and the United Kingdom.Ithas not yet set foot in China and is not hurrying to do so. Thishasturned out to bea blessing considering how many fashion brands have suffered with shops closing because ofthe country’s strict zero Covid policy.
To take Jacquemus to the next level, CEO BastienDaguzan,38, who officially started in May after working undercover for the brand since its early days,will need to hire talented retailers.Daguzan previously led Puig’s Paco Rabanne brand and before that was CEO of Lemaire.
The team around him and Simon Jacquemus are dynamic and creative but many are in their 20s and relatively inexperienced, industry sources say. If Jacquemus is to conquer the world, Daguzan will need to hire professionals to open stores around the world in good locations.However, the designer is certainly doing a great job staying in the news and controlling his image while appearing accessible.
Last August, he granted exclusive coverage of his wedding to Vogue France. Guests, many of them dressed in Jacquemus, were asked to leave their mobile phones at the door.“Jacquemus has mediatized his personal life,” explains Vincent Grégoire from NellyRodi. “This is why he appears to be very accessible.”
Like Simon Jacquemus, Mattiussi also comes across as genial and warm. And he is also a good communicator. Many remember the originality of the launch of his men’s wear line in a Paris bar. However, some critics say that years later they no longer understand what the brand stands for. AMI started with well-designed basic designs for men such as high-quality coats. Later, it branched out into women’s wear and critics say its designs are no longer unique or recognizable. “I am not really sure what is the brand’s story today,” an influential Paris-based senior fashion consultant told Miss Tweed, declining to be identified. “Before, it really had that refreshing take on men’s wear, it told something different. Now it sells lamé dresses to Asian girls which every brand can do. So, what does AMI stand for today?”
Well, the brand sells Paris now, or certain stereotypical images of the French capital – clearly targeting the Asian customer. That’s its main message. Earlier this year, AMI staged a show in Paris at the Sacré Coeur basilica, opened by French actress Audrey Tautou who was struggling to keep her balance as she strutted on high heels past the guests. On the front row sat actress Catherine Deneuve, singer Carla Bruni (wife of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy) and Isabelle Adjani - all celebrities past their prime who do not necessarily connect with the younger generation, fashion observers say.
AMI may be in the process of conquering the world but it risks losing some Parisian customers along the way. The competition between AMI and Jacquemus is bound to intensify. One has its eye on Asia, the other stays focused on the West. Who will win? Place your bets. It will be an interesting story to follow.