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Vanessa Seward fans, rejoice. The Buenos Aires-born, Paris-based designer known for her reinterpretation of the 1970s bourgeois style is returning to fashion. Since putting her namesake brand (backed by APC) on hold in 2018, and collaborating with La Redoute in 2019, she has been focusing on her portrait paintings and writing a book — but, she was missing fashion as an outlet for creative skills.
She is returning with a womenswear collection for French luxury childrenswear brand Bonpoint for Autumn/Winter 2024, launching in September. “It’s a full wardrobe, it goes from denim to cocktail [dresses],” says Seward. Her creations for Bonpoint have “resonances” with the childrenswear offer. She added heels to Bonpoint signature black patent shoes for girls, twisted the classic lace collar, and picked out Liberty prints to use on silk for women. “I wanted to make it funky,” she says.
Bonpoint will produce a dozen childrenswear pieces that echo Seward’s designs, says Bonpoint CEO Pierre-André Cauche. “It’s not ‘mini me’ because we didn’t want to copy the models and make them in smaller sizes, but we’re using prints, fabrics and shapes that are more feminine for women and a little more functional for children,” he explains. The collection is due to be presented to buyers and editors in late January.
The designer says she has long been “impressed” with Bonpoint, having bought it for her daughter to wear. “It’s fashion but slightly aside from fashion, timeless, which really resonates with me.” Her daughter is now 13. “She will be among my youngest clients,” Seward says.
Seward’s resume includes Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Azzaro, where she was appointed creative director in 2003 following the death of Loris Azzaro, and left in 2011. She started designing collections for APC in 2012 and launched her own label for autumn 2015 in partnership with APC founder Jean Touitou. It rapidly gained traction thanks to her fresh take on femininity and Parisian chic, opening boutiques in Paris, Los Angeles and London. Seward halted it after parting ways with APC.
Can she now help Bonpoint turn its fledgling womenswear business into a significant one?
“Vanessa has always been in contact with us, she has always loved the collections and has always been quite close to this universe,” Cauche says. “[This project requires] a kind of agility for her, because the objective is not to make a women’s collection. It’s a collection that tells the brand’s story and also interacts with the [childrenswear] collection itself.”
Bonpoint was founded almost 50 years ago and, in 2007, was acquired by EPI Group, owner of luxury footwear company JM Weston and Piper-Heidsieck champagne. It generates annual sales of around €150 million, with a double-digit growth in recent years led by childrenswear and beauty. The brand revived womenswear in 2022 after a two-year break.
Down the road, womenswear could represent around 20 per cent of the brand’s revenue, according to Cauche. Seward’s collection will be available in around 20 Bonpoint stores worldwide (out of a network of 130) plus selected wholesalers. “Some might be orphans from the historic collections of Vanessa,” Cauche notes.
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