On May 27, Catherine Jacquet, the current Chief Operating Officer of Fear of God, was named CEO of Isabel Marant and will gradually assume her new role starting in June.
Isabel Marant is at a turning point. Since its founder’s departure in late 2025, the brand has been navigating a delicate balancing act, made all the more challenging by a tense market. Like many brands, it aims to reinvent itself without losing sight of its core values. In this context, every strategic decision counts, and the appointment of Catherine Jacquet makes perfect sense…
Who is Catherine Jacquet ?
After gaining experience at houses such as Courrèges, Sonia Rykiel, and Rabanne, the current COO of Fear of God in Los Angeles—who also holds a degree from the Institut Français de la Mode—is joining Isabel Marant, the queen of Parisian bohemian style. Her diverse background has equipped her with expertise in both international expansion and luxury brand management.
Her experience in international development, operational structuring, and brand image management makes her the ideal candidate for this position.
This appointment is significant for the brand. Indeed, following several periods of slowdown amid a tighter market—with sales down 17% over the first nine months of 2025, with wholesale particularly hard-hit—the need to strengthen brand image control and stand up to increased competition from “quiet luxury” has become paramount.
A new chapter at Isabel Marant
The end of 2025 was marked by the departure of its designer, making way for Kim Bekker, a longtime collaborator and familiar face at the brand. Her knowledge of the brand’s codes and her involvement in developing the “effortless Parisian” aesthetic make her the perfect operational creative director for Isabel Marant.
This new Jacquet-Bekker duo will help strengthen the brand’s codes and structure in the face of a tense market, secure its growth, and protect the brand’s strong identity. But a balance must be struck in this transformation: modernizing without losing its essence, because despite everything, Isabel Marant remains a highly codified brand: vintage influence, “cool girl” spirit, Parisian bohemian aesthetic.
Colossal challenges
This positioning must be modernized without becoming too commercial—an extremely delicate balance in contemporary luxury. All the more so since the brand is majority-owned by Montefiore Investment, which holds 51% of the equity.
As for Catherine Jacquet, several challenges lie ahead: while her role is to implement and steer the brand strategy, she must also rebalance the wholesale market—a sector currently suffering greatly, and one that many brands are trying to regain control of through retail and e-commerce. One of the most important priorities for Isabel Marant will be to reposition itself within “cool luxury” alongside brands such as Saint Laurent, The Row, and Lemaire.
The challenge ? Remaining desirable without falling into the trap of luxury that is too polished or too corporate. This appointment confirms the brand’s commitment to entering a new phase of development that is more mature and structured.
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Featured photo : © Linkedin
