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Background:

Designer Marine Serre has long had an affinity for evoking the apocalyptic in her work, a tendency that became particularly resonant during the pandemic. Serre spent lockdown reflecting on her time in the fashion industry and asking how it can change. Now, she has pledged to use her brand and influence to break the fast fashion cycle and build sustainable supply chains.

On this week’s BoF Podcast, we revisit Serre’s conversation with BoF’s Imran Amed discussing the evolution of her eponymous sustainability-focused brand for the post-pandemic world.

Key Insights:

• Despite the limitations of the pandemic, Serre did not steer away from her goal to prioritise sustainability at the heart of her brand. “From now to four years ago, I’m just walking the same way. I never really disassociate creation from process,” she says.
• Serre believes that consumer needs have changed. When people go to buy her clothes they consider the brand’s supply chain as well as the aesthetic. “I’m trying to relinquish that part of what was carved out is a luxury and de-link myself with fast fashion and growth,” Serre explains.
• Known for her use of discarded and recycled fabrics, Serre says she has grown less shy about doing exactly what she wants to do in fashion, revising peoples’ ideas of preciousness and creating garments out of materials already imbued with meaning. “I think the goal of the company is to question the fashion industry,” Serre says.

Additional Resources:

• Disruption: Is Luxury Fashion Ready to Change? As the industry reawakens, could hushed haute couture salons be hotbeds of radical thinking? Watch Episode 1 of ‘The BoF Show with Imran Amed.’
• Marine Serre in Conversation With Tim Blanks: The designer, known for her embrace of eco-futurism, joins BoF’s editor-at-large to talk about the evolution of her namesake brand and building a sustainable fashion label.