Sarah Benady and Simon Porte Jacquemus have a rare relationship in fashion. From the moment they met, the chief executive officer and the designer knew they were a match, and then learned quickly how to do the “fashion dance” with grace, letting one another lead and follow, in turn.
That complementary relationship has served them well in what has been a busy year for the brand with a string of store openings and a debut fragrance in development with L’Oréal, a minority shareholder in Jacquemus‘ company and a long-term licensee.
Benady, who took up her role as CEO last year, told Miles Socha, WWD’s international editor, that she sees herself as a partner to the brand’s founder and designer despite their different backgrounds.
“I was born in a suburb of Paris and I have a more traditional education. I worked in the industry and had different experiences, most recently with Celine in the U.S. I also have a more international track record. Simon was born in the south of France. He is totally self-taught, and he started his brand aged 19,” she said.
Yet Benady said they “have a very common energy, ambition, and sense of entrepreneurship. My role is to create a [corporate] structure that is at the level of his creative vision.” The two also aim to lead their teams “with kindness and support. Simon is still very young, very accessible. He’s always saying we should try to stay chic, on the outside, and on the inside,” she added.
Benady is thriving in the creative atmosphere of the house, and admires Jacquemus’ blend of humility, authenticity and ambition. She said that while the designer may have grown up in a digital world, he has one foot firmly planted in the physical one, empowering craftspeople in the Jacquemus atelier, which counts nearly 100 people.
“We have two worlds coexisting at Jacquemus,” digital and craft. “This is who Simon is. There is a playfulness and a very distinctive aura to the house and my role is to make those two words embrace” and move forward in the same direction, she said.
Benady believes the fragrance is a “natural extension” of Jacquemus’ focus on craft. “It was part of his design vision from the very beginning. Even as a teenager, he was looking at TV [fragrance] commercials. He always knew beauty was going to be a part of the full brand universe, so when he met with L’Oréal, they were a very obvious choice” as a partner.
She said the fragrance is set to launch in six months’ time, and there is so much excitement around it. “This is the first time that L’Oréal is co-creating a brand with an external maison,” rather than developing one internally or making an acquisition, she said.
Benady and Jacquemus have also been focusing on retail. In September, the brand opened a store in the Miami Design District, its third freestanding unit in the U.S. after New York and Los Angeles.
“We’ve been impressed with how our American clients have been responding to the brand so far. Having lived in the U.S., I feel Jacquemus is close to the American dream, in a way. The story of Simon, a self-taught designer who built everything from the ground up, resonates very much with the American customer. The story almost sounds more American than French in that sense,” she said, adding that the U.S. has become one of the most important regions for the brand.
“We see the American clients gravitating to the more high-end, sophisticated products, the made-to-order, exceptional pieces. It’s been so interesting to see that trend,” she added.
Benady argued that while retail may be part of the strategy, Jacquemus won’t be racing to open stores around the world.
“We are making them very exclusive, trying to open in the right location — and most importantly, with the right experience. Growing is not necessarily about doing more, but about doing more of the right thing. And client planning is part of that. Today, 2 percent of our clients represent more than 20 percent of our business, so we know that building the right teams and having the right [data] tools will help us to develop a more personalized relationship with our clients,” she said, adding the longer-term goal is simple.
“Simon and I want Jacquemus to be the most influential maison of our generation. And we want to do that while staying independent, keeping the notion of freedom, of playfulness that’s been there since the very beginning. At the same time, we want to embrace quality, craftsmanship and the focus on product. Although we’re very impatient leaders, we’re prepared to take time to build great products, a great team, and a great maison,” she said.
Benady recalled her first show as CEO of Jacquemus, which was called “Le Paysan,” the peasant farmer, and staged at the Orangerie in Versailles for spring 2026.
“I was able to see Simon work on the product, and on the collection, and it was very personal. It was about his family, his roots, his childhood. He did so much research to find pictures of his grandparents and great-grandparents working in the fields. He put his heart into it. What struck me was his vulnerability, and the courage he had as an artistic director to show his work, and then to wait for the industry to give him their opinion,” she said.
Benady added that independent designers need an extra dose of courage because they don’t have the vast archive, or storytelling resources, that other designers can access when they arrive at an established brand.
“That show [told me] everything about Simon’s vision and his own roots. And that changed how I perceived my role. I realized it was much more than leading a company. It was about creating an environment where that level of of creativity, that level of of freedom could be encouraged,” she said.
Jacquemus is Benady’s first global CEO role, and she said it’s different from every other job she’s had before. She said Sidney Toledano, her former boss at Celine, gave her a great piece of advice before she joined: He asked her to think of the CEO and designer as ballroom dancers.
“He told me that as CEO, you have to learn when to lead, but most importantly, you have to learn when to step back. I now get what the dance is, and I think it was a beautiful comparison. When you get the beats right, it’s not only beneficial for the two leaders, but also for the rest of the company. They can feel the direction, they can feel the vision, the harmony, and hopefully that makes them want to join the dance too,” she said.
#CEO #Sarah #Benady #Helping #Simon #Porte #Jacquemus #Fulfill #Vision