Isabel Marant formalises transfer of creative direction to Kim Bekker

Isabel Marant has found an in-house solution on the creative front. At the close of the label’s show- synonymous with quintessential Parisian chic- at the most recent Paris Fashion Week, Kim Bekker, the founder’s right hand since 2021, stepped onto the catwalk to greet the audience (for the first time on her own), confirming what the trade press had long anticipated.

According to Vogue Business, as early as the Autumn/Winter 2025/26 season Isabel Marant had Bekker design the entire collection; Marant then sent her forward to take the bow at the end of the show, stepping out alongside her. From now on, Isabel Marant will remain at the company, working three days a week.

The French brand, spanning womenswear and menswear as well as handbags, footwear, jewellery and other accessories, was founded in 1990 by the then 23-year-old eponymous French designer, born in Boulogne-Billancourt to a German mother. For the first four years it was called Twen, before adopting its current name.

In 2016, private equity firm Montefiore Investment SAS acquired a 51% stake in the company, while the remaining shares are still held by Isabel Marant and long-standing shareholders. The brand currently offers its core women’s and men’s ready-to-wear offering, a secondary collection called Isabel Marant Étoile, which is more casual and accessible, and a range of accessories, including eyewear, launched in 2020 and produced by Padua-based Safilo.

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Kim Bekker graduated from the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design and previously worked at the company from 2008 to 2018, helping to define the brand’s style. After around three years as design director for pre-collections and finished products at Saint Laurent, she returned to Isabel Marant in March 2021 to take up the same role.

In 2022, the company posted revenues of around 300 million euros and was aiming to reach 500 million euros by 2026. However, in 2024 its sales fell by 17% in the first nine months of the financial year, weighed down in particular by a 31% contraction in the wholesale channel. Bekker now enters a delicate phase, in which she will have to breathe new life into the business of the prestigious French label.