Isabel Marant talks about the courage it took to launch her brand at the Paris 'We are French Touch' event

This Wednesday, the creative industries met at the Brongniart Palace, 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, film, music, video games and fashion, all seen through the lens of entrepreneurship.

The 2025 edition of We Are French Touch, organized by Bpifrance, focused on the courage to create, to act, to promote projects and to defend a cultural identity. This topic was explored through round tables, in particular on (Re)made in France for fashion, workshops on exporting and integrating AI solutions and inspiring presentations from industry figures, creatives, musicians, as well as politicians, philosophers, doctors and, of course, entrepreneurs.

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

In the field of fashion and luxury, 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 place dedicated to the responsible fashion ecosystem in the 10th arrondissement of Paris – during the most recent Fashion Week. What started as an anti-establishment fashion stance by the social media critic evolved into a movement embraced by fashion enthusiasts and gamers across the ecosystem who wanted to participate in these live broadcasts, experienced as sporting matches and followed by a debate. There was courage to transform a frustrated reaction and a naïve initiative into a unifying and optimistic movement, one that looks set to continue in the coming seasons.

Naivety was also a theme when Isabel Marant reflected on her journey with the brand's CEO, Anouck Duranteau-Loeper. “I've needed a lot of courage throughout my career,” explained the designer, who launched her eponymous brand thirty years ago and started her first project in the mid-'80s. “It took courage to create my own house at 19… Although, at 19, it's more a matter of naivety and carefree. Just when you're dreaming about creating all day, you find yourself dealing with things you never expected, like accounting, bank loans, and the pursuit of unpaid invoices.” For the designer, who little by little has been able to rely on increasingly experienced teams, courage has meant learning to trust and delegate and, in her creative role, returning to work after each project. “We deliver four collections a year. It makes me feel like I'm taking my A-level exams every four months. It's exhausting and incredibly instructive to say to myself every time: 'I'll recover'. Sometimes it's very difficult to face the frustration of not achieving what you want to do with a collection. It's also a driving force to go further next season and keep going.”

This progress has been possible thanks to nine years of working together and in trust with Anouck Duranteau-Loeper. “As the director of a brand where creative talent is present and she is also a founder, the role is to ensure that that talent comes to light in the right places and in the best possible way,” she explains. “That means being the one who imposes the limitations, even, ultimately, the 'killjoy.'

Whether organizing innovative events, forging links between creative worlds or cultures or making a fashion company successful, the recipe seems to be, above all, having the courage to combine talents.