Isabel Marant discusses the courage it took to launch her brand at Paris event ‘We are French Touch’

This Wednesday, the creative industries gathered at the Palais Brongniart in the heart of Paris. At the foot of its columns and beneath the paintings of the French city’s former stock exchange, the focus was on creativity, art, cinema, music, video games, and fashion- all viewed through the lens of entrepreneurship.

The 2025 edition of We Are French Touch, organised by Bpifrance, centred on the courage to create, to act, to drive projects forward, and to defend a cultural identity. This theme was explored through round-table discussions- notably on (Re)-made in France for fashion- workshops on export and the integration of AI solutions, and inspiring presentations by industry figures, creatives, musicians, as well as politicians, philosophers, doctors and, of course, entrepreneurs.

In these ten-minute talks, which allowed the large, youthful audience to digest ideas and skim across themes, discussions included collaborative bridges between fashion and artists- with a conversation between Danish designer Naja Munthe and Véra Kempf, co-founder of the digital art gallery Singulart- as well as a compelling talk by psychiatrist David Gourion, who argued that art should be part of the care pathway for people with depression.

On the fashion and luxury front, content creator Lays and Edouard Benadava, head of content and programming at The Independents, a group of creative and events agencies, presented the Watch Party initiative, which attracted several thousand people to the courtyard of La Caserne- a venue dedicated to the responsible fashion ecosystem in Paris’s 10th arrondissement- during the most recent Fashion Week. What began as an anti–fashion-system stance by the social-media critic evolved into a movement embraced by fashion enthusiasts and by players across the ecosystem who wanted to take part in these live streams- experienced like sporting fixtures and followed by a debate. There was courage in transforming a frustrated reaction and a naive initiative into a unifying, optimistic movement- one that looks set to continue in the seasons ahead.

Naivety was also a theme when Isabel Marant reflected on her journey alongside the brand’s managing director, Anouck Duranteau-Loeper. “I’ve needed a lot of courage throughout my career,” explained the designer, who launched the brand bearing her name thirty years ago and began her first project in the mid-1980s. “It took courage to create my own house on my own at 19… Although, at 19, it’s more a matter of carefree naivety. Just when you’re dreaming of creating all day long, you find yourself dealing with things you never expected, like accounting, bank loans, and chasing unpaid invoices.” For the designer, as she has gradually been able to rely on increasingly seasoned teams, courage has meant learning to trust and delegate and, in her creative role, getting back to work after each project. “We deliver four collections a year. It makes me feel like I’m taking my A-levels every four months. It’s exhausting and hugely instructive to tell myself each time, ‘I’ll bounce back.’ Sometimes it’s very hard to face the frustration of not achieving what you want to do with a collection. It’s also a driving force to go further the following season and keep moving forward.”

This progress has been made possible by nine years of working in tandem, and in trust, with Anouck Duranteau-Loeper. “As the head of a brand where the creative talent is present and is also the founder, the role is to ensure that this talent comes to light in the right places and in the best possible way,” she explains. “That means being the one to impose constraints- even, ultimately, the ‘killjoy.’ That’s where trust is essential. But courage is also about that trust. When Isabel tells me she believes in a project and that we really have to go for it, I listen, because she is the one who is supposed to have the vision. That’s what is specific to leadership in fashion. It’s a constant adjustment. It means putting your sense of strategic direction to the test against a determined creative talent- sometimes a little messy, and very present.”

Whether it’s organising innovative events, forging links between creative worlds or cultures, or making a fashion company succeed, the recipe seems above all to be having the courage to combine talents.