What it Actually Takes to Make a Successful Luxury Brand? An Interview with Anne Fontaine
By Alexia Suceveanu
Anne Fontaine is a luxury fashion brand (named after its designer). It started with the designer’s mother-in-law, who made white shirts that are now the brand's iconic signature products. It has 81 stores across Europe, America, and Asia and is continuously expanding. It currently sells both evening wear and business-casual womenswear. The brand promotes its elegant pieces and sustainability, as it is part of a large company called the Anne Fontaine Foundation, dedicated to helping rebuild the rainforest in Brazil. Over the summer, I had the opportunity to intern at her Paris George V store and office, where I had the enormous pleasure of helping with AnneFontaine’s summer fashion show and meeting the wonderful designer herself. She agreed to do this interview previously to talk a bit more about herself and how her brand rose to success.
1. What made you start your own luxury brand and, when there were setbacks, how did you overcome them?
I have been sketching and sewing since childhood in Brazil, yet I never imagined entering the fashion world professionally. That changed when I discovered a trunk of impeccably tailored men’s shirts in my mother-in-law’s attic in Normandy. Re-cutting those pristine whites for the female form allowed me to honour my husband Ari’s family legacy while speaking with my own voice. The project became our very first collection—the “perfect white shirt”—and the seed of the Anne Fontaine Maison. Setbacks are inevitable: delayed fabrics, economic swings, creative impasses. I meet them the way I meet a difficult pattern—by draping again. Creativity is not confined to design; it is a way of problem-solving. Trust the process, stay flexible, and there is always a solution stitched inside the challenge.
2. What first inspired your design aesthetic, and how do you keep it relevant for young women today?
I don’t really design for an age bracket; I design for an attitude—confidence, generosity, freedom. When my 14-year-old and 21-year-old daughters are borrowing the same shirt and they are separately sneaking into my closet for my sweaters and denim, I know the collection speaks across generations. Materials, silhouettes and details evolve, but authenticity is my compass.
3. How has your interest in sustainability shaped production at Anne Fontaine?
Growing up in Brazil, I always felt the pulse of nature. My plan for university was to become a biologist! Reverence for Mother Earth guides the work of my Anne Fontaine Foundation, which advocates and plans for reforestation of rain forests. True circular fashion is still an unfinished idea, an idea I am very interested in. Until a truly sustainable fashion development cycle can be achieved, however, my aim is simple: create pieces you will cherish for decades, because the most sustainable garment is the one you love and keep.
4. What advice would you give fashion students starting their careers, and what qualities do you look for when hiring?
First, fall in love with your own vision—fashion is loud, and only a clear inner voice will keep you from losing yourself in the noise. Inside any Maison, what distinguishes emerging talent is passion honed by discipline and endless curiosity. Show up for yourself and your team, ask better questions than you give answers, learn from pattern-makers, from sales associates, from the woman who wears your designs.
Technique can be taught; inner fire cannot.
