Morgane Sézalory Is Introducing a More Mature Sézane

Sézane founder Morgane Sézalory is starting a new chapter for her brand, one that she says better reflects where she is in her life. She’ll convey this next phase in a manifesto for her customers, which will be released on Wednesday, and will tease the first collection of the new era. A new logo and website will go live on August 19.

It began a year and a half ago, around when the designer turned 40 — only then, she says, did she not feel like a child anymore. The company that she started building in 2004, back when it was a vintage thrift store on Ebay, had spontaneously grown into Sézane around her.

“What’s very interesting is that there has never been a business plan or a strategy,” Sézalory says, speaking from Sézane’s scrappy-chic offices in Paris’s 7th arrondissement. “It’s just this crazy, limitless energy I have. I felt like I was seven years old [when] I created a company without realizing I was creating a company.” Sézane, as it’s known today, launched in 2013 and has several hundred employees in its French headquarters and across 23 stores in France, the US, the UK and Spain. In that time, Sezalory had three kids, lost a brother and navigated her mother’s cancer diagnosis, all of which brought a new perspective.

Sézane has stores in France, the US, the UK and Spain.

The new Sézane, she says, will be slower, more intentional. “I decided to stop the rhythm. I really said, ‘OK, we are going to stop the growth,’” Sézalory says. New items will be released on a monthly cadence, but more edited.

It’s a risky move to change Sézane’s formula as its mainstream success is peaking across the globe. The Parisian fashion house has hit its stride in recent years, thanks to its French girl style and accessible-but-elevated market positioning, falling somewhere more premium than a J.Crew or an Anthropologie but more approachable than a Toteme — an ideal spot as luxury prices edge higher, boxing out the many consumers who still value quality. Women in their 20s and 30s have been drawn to Sézane like moths to a flame, stocking up on the lacey button-downs, knit sweaters, beachy totes and prairie dresses to fill their work and weekend wardrobes. Why mess with something that works?

The brand’s new chapter is more mature and sophisticated.

“It’s a reflection of me growing up. I feel like I’ve been in school for 20 years, and now I’m ready to actually launch Sézane with awareness and intention,” Sezalory says. “Before, the story was so spontaneous and instinctive and organic and without any time or even desire to step back and really look at it and think about it.”

Another reason to relaunch? She can. Sézalory remains her brand’s largest stakeholder, though it’s brought on minority investors in 2018 (General Atlantic) and 2022 (Téthys). The company is also profitable, a financial positioning that gives the founder the freedom to invest in higher quality materials, moving Sézane slightly upmarket, while shifting the editorial styling to feel more sophisticated. She wants to push herself to be better in a market that’s rife with competition and caters to a fickle customer. “I really want to improve each day,” says Sézalory. “It’s not changing everything — it’s choosing better, creating better and giving myself and the team the resources and the time. So we needed to slow down and organize things differently.”

First images from the new brand campaign go live today, revealing the direction in which Sézalory is taking the brand: more bold, more confident, sharper, and taking up more space. Soft lines and curves now coexist with angled shoulders and straight collars. The first items to be released will be silk scarves and canvas bags, with the full collection to drop later this month. Sézalory also says that, from here, she wants to continue building on the same core design codes, rather than feeling pressure to reinvent or start from scratch with each season. She’s investing in better quality, organic materials — wools, cashmeres, silks, linens — instead of trends.

The relaunch also follows a broadening of horizons: Sézane launched a kids line, Petit Sézane, in 2024, a lifestyle line called Les Composantes (the original name of Sézalory’s thrift store) in 2023, and menswear brand Octobre Editions in 2017.

Sézalory may have wanted to slow things down, but she’s no less ambitious.

“It’s not like I wanted to stop being instinctive. I think I realized if I had more intention, and I step back a little bit, I have the vision of what an amazing brand we can build.”