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Zoe Suen

There is a specific “Lemaire person” currently walking the pavements of Paris. From his studio window near a university, Christophe Lemaire sees them pass every morning: academics in crisp poplin, and creatives in oversized blousons and balloon-legged denim with the inevitable crescent-shaped bag slung across their chest.
“It may not even be Lemaire they are wearing,” the eponymous designer notes with quiet pride, “but you can feel the style is influenced by us. That is very gratifying.”
This speaks to the success of the independent French label co-helmed by Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran – as well as its paradox. For a label that shuns the traditional levers of fashion business, releasing collections that prioritise consistent DNA over newness, Lemaire has become remarkably, even reluctantly, ubiquitous.

There have been growing pains: the label recently met friction in China, when a campaign for its new Objets Senteur line was withdrawn from social media after users drew links to forced queue-cutting during the Qing dynasty, prompting the brand to publish an apology. Nonetheless, in an industry obsessed with “quiet luxury”, the designers have managed to achieve a genuinely influential vernacular.
The numbers back this up. Just over five years after Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing bought a minority share of the business in 2018 (the duo already led the brand’s R&D centre and designed Uniqlo’s popular U range), Lemaire’s sales exceeded €100 million (around US$116 million) in 2024, according to Business of Fashion. Yet, true to their media-shy reputation, the designers are less interested in the balance sheet and more in what they call the “dialectic”.

The brand’s recent expansion into China – marked by months-old stores in Shanghai’s former French Concession and Beijing’s Sanlitun, after landing in Chengdu in 2024 – is less a calculated corporate land grab and more, Lemaire says, their heeding to kairos: the ancient Greek notion of seizing the opportune, fleeting moment.
“We aren’t crazy about business plans,” Lemaire says. “Honestly, we would have preferred not to do it so closely together … it just so happened that we had two great opportunities in Shanghai and Beijing and said, ‘OK, let’s go.’” Lemaire and Tran aren’t following the traditional road map, they’re here to design a world they want to live in.
In Shanghai, the Lemaire store is housed in a 1930s residence designed by the architect Dong Dayou (1899-1973). Spanning three floors, the space feels less like a boutique and more like the home of a tasteful, slightly eccentric collector. There are Enzo Mari stools, Carla Venosta furniture, shelves of books curated by Lemaire and Tran in collaboration with art book platform Jiazazhi, and it is all interspersed with vintage pieces sourced from local Chinese markets.

For Tran, this domesticity isn’t just an aesthetic choice. When asked about her formative retail experiences, she focuses on neighbourhood restaurants over glossy Parisian flagships.
“It’s mostly restaurants that make you feel more at home because there’s no pressure,” she says. “Restaurants that haven’t changed over the years … you know the cook and the people around; you see the passing of time on the walls.”
This pinpoints the brand’s version of luxury. In an industry that often uses velvet ropes and queues to inflate scarcity, Lemaire recalls the early days of Martin Margiela shops – spaces where “there was a sense of kindness” rather than intimidation. “Luxury is when you enter a shop and can reconnect with yourself,” he says. “The clothes we design are about feeling confident. Luxury is not a social status or a social disguise.”

Of course, it’s impossible to talk Lemaire without mentioning the duo’s most ubiquitous accessory: the Croissant Bag dangling from every third shoulder in East Asia. It’s the closest thing Lemaire has to a viral product – an “if you know, you know” accessory that, ironically, lots of people do know, even if only by sight.
Lemaire remembers its design coming about during a styling session, when Tran experimented with the cross-body look. The croissant’s hands-free liberation – and its logo-free appeal – have clearly resonated with a younger generation that values mobility over ornament.
We share the desire to create something rooted in everyday life and special at the same time
Christophe Lemaire
The duo views the product’s success with a mix of affection and detachment: they’re grateful and also confidently designing beyond it. “The Croissant will remain an iconic piece of the brand, but there are many new proposals in the range becoming successful,” Lemaire says.
Listening to Lemaire and Tran discussing their creative process, one would be forgiven for thinking they were producing a feature film. In Tran’s words, the team doesn’t just design a shirt; they build a “scenario” featuring various “characters”. It’s an approach clear in their runway shows, where the models often traverse a space like it’s a city street, each with their own to-dos, inner monologues and layered looks.

In the studio, Tran often begins by researching artists and motifs, which Lemaire builds on, before the rest of the team contributes references like vintage objects and fashion. From there they hone in on holistic fabrics, proportions and silhouettes, before getting into granular product development.
“We are very different,” Lemaire says of their working relationship. “Sarah-Linh has a very rich personal world, and I have mine. We have different obsessions and visions, but we share the desire to create something rooted in everyday life and special at the same time.”

The partnership seems to thrive on a quiet, shared stubbornness. Perhaps this is how they’ve avoided the typical traps of being a €100-million brand: the team has been working on an in-house eyewear line, a rare approach when most brands ink lucrative licensing deals with a conglomerate. They also have a personal and lo-fi approach to working with artists like actors and musicians, where almost every other brand has top-dollar contracts with front row attendees and influencers.
Lemaire and Tran’s fresh ideas aren’t filler products to pad out the margins; they’ve invested time in collaborations with artists like leather designer Carlos Peñafiel and the late American painter Josef Yoakum. They worked with the estate of French ceramicist Annie Fourmanoir on some items in the latest launch; coming collections will see them work with the estate of the surrealist Roland Topor.

These partnerships are the duo’s way of stepping outside their comfort zones and introducing unexpected design cues into the Lemaire cinematic universe. “Collaborations show different dimensions of our taste,” explains Lemaire. “We love fashion, but we aren’t obsessed with the ‘fashion system’. Fashion is interesting when it’s an open window to other fields like cinema or literature.”
Lemaire and Tran also refuse to grow for growth’s sake. “We want to keep this sense of independence,” Lemaire says. Whether it’s choosing a specific shade of ‘mastic’ for a coat or deciding which vintage book belongs on a shelf in Shanghai, granular decisions remain theirs.

Many brands at this stage would dilute the dialectic for the sake of the dividend. But the designers seem intent on doubling down on the obscure and the personal – thankfully, it just so happens that this approach also scratches a lucrative commercial itch.

The Croissant Bag represents an attitude, says Tran, of being hands-free, but it also encapsulates the brand’s overarching philosophy for genderless, ageless and beautiful utilitarianism. As she notes, there is a reassuring beauty in things that don’t try to be something else. For a label that is increasingly everywhere, Lemaire and Tran have somehow managed the impossible – they’ve made Lemaire feel like a well-kept secret.


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Christophe Lemaire and Sarah Linh Tran co-helm Lemaire, an independent French label that shuns the traditional levers of the fashion industry yet has become remarkably, even reluctantly, ubiquitous. Photo: Pascal Gambarte, courtesy of Lemaire

Lemaire Mini Fortune Croissant shoulder bag. Photo: Handout

Lemaire spring/summer 2026. Photo: Luca Khouri, courtesy of Lemaire

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The Lemaire store in Shanghai. Photo: Handout

Lemaire leather accessories at the Beijing store. Photo: Rino Qiu, courtesy of Lemaire

Lemaire dress. Photo: Handout

Lemaire necklace. Photo: Handout

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The French fashion house redefines everyday elegance with globally influential designs, epitomised by the unique Croissant bag


The French fashion house redefines everyday elegance with globally influential designs, epitomised by the unique Croissant bag.


Why Lemaire’s quiet luxury is making waves, from Paris to Shanghai

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The French fashion house redefines everyday elegance with globally influential designs, epitomised by the unique Croissant bag

The French fashion house redefines everyday elegance with globally influential designs, epitomised by the unique Croissant bag