Unfiltered interview with Isabel Marant, girl next door and antisnob, whose collections have been striking for twenty-five years. Where she talked about her philosophy of fashion, her inspirations and her weekend house of 18 m2.

You will celebrate the brand's 25th anniversary in 2019. What are your views on all these years? I did not see them go by. When I was told of the anniversarsy, I was on the brink of apoplexy. Without thinking, I would have said it was fifteen years ago.

Any key moments, revolutions? No, there were no abrupt changes, breaks... The development of the brand has always been consistent and organic. Maybe because the core is still the same... That's right. At the beginning, we were two: me and a friend I have known since I was 14; we went to high school together. With the arrival of a female friend, who joined when we were 17-18 years old, a costume designer, who did a lot for the image of the brand, we became three. Both of them had always been there. 

 Has your fashion history been the same for twenty-five years? Yes, it's basically been the same fashion. There has never been a break, and it delighted me when a woman told me that she mixes pieces from ten years ago with those of today. It is something very nice and special to think that you do not have to change your wardrobe every six months. The brand evolved, of course, but stylistically, I followed the same thread.  

Were you surprised by your success? Yes, because I started very spontaneously, almost self-taught (I had vaguely done two years at Studio Berçot), on the premise that I was going to create what I wanted to wear. Just stupidly. I have neither dreamed of diva couture nor fantasized about fashion since childhood.

Contemplation of circumstances rather than visceral envy? Absolutely. I'll tell you the real reason: when I was a child, I was ugly. Ultra-ultra-ugly. Ingrate, I cannot tell you. While my little brother was very handsome.

You blacken the picture a little, don’t you? No, and I prove it to you. (She draws a picture of childhood).

It's true that you have... changed for the better. I would not have recognized you. And do you say that there I had long hair and not yet the horizontal teeth that ran after the steak - I had been sucking my thumb until very late. My brother was a marvel of beauty beside me and the fact that everyone is ecstatic about him eventually inflated me. But at 5 or 6 years old, we do not know how to express that kind of thing.

So what? I made myself a look. It was an instinctive reaction. I wanted to be noticed by my quickdraw.

What was this look? A very tomboy thing. As I was a fan of Patti Smith, I had a long bang; we did not see, it was perfect. I picked up the old Paisley silk bathrobes from my father, and I made dresses with them. I dyed my hair at Mercurochrome as I went to school in high school. Little by little, my female friends wanted some of the clothes I was making, and that's how I started.

What job would you have done, if not yours? I had left for economics studies. I loved that, the economy. Figures, statistics, sociological facts ... it fascinates me. But fashion is a bit of the socio, too. I'm doing tests at the red light: I count how many people who wear jeans and T-shirts, and I wonder why I'm so sweaty. 

Are the jeans and T-shirts you sell the best? Not necessarily. 

What is the recipe for your success? It's about being a woman who understands what women are looking for through clothing. Every day, I bring back everything I create. With immutable criteria that are to be different but not too much because I like to remain in a form of discretion, to make prevail the attitude, the comfort and the "dog," this great word which exists only in French. My success is to have translated a state of mind and created a quickdraw.

The girl you portray over your collections is a traveler, a bully. Like you? Yes. First, I had a fairly cosmopolitan education. My father could not be more French, a kind of Jean Gabin with a character and banter at the Audiard - hence my Parisian side. My mother is German; it is to her that I owe my sharing nature, green ... On top of that, we must add an Antillean mother-in-law, crazy fashion icon. The Black Saint Laurent in all its splendor. Beautiful woman, with a very couture elegance that I hated at the time because I was extra-grunge. I saw her come out with shoulders like that, makeup during lead time.