Where French women are really shopping (hint, it’s not Sandro)

I remember when Zadig & Voltaire opened on London’s Westbourne Grove in 2008. Model Jacquetta Wheeler attended the launch party for which Karl Barat of the Libertines played a DJ set. My friend remembers this opening as marking the era of the “going out scarf”, the must-have accessory of the late aughts, which we wore to look louche and laissez-faire over a slightly stretchy T-shirt with skinny jeans for that je ne sais quoi, which is ironic given how contrived it looked.

The Z&V store launch also marked the start of the so-called French fashion invasion as a profusion of chic mid-market labels from across the Channel followed suit with UK flagships, quickly becoming familiar names in our fashion vernacular: Sandro, Maje, BA&SH, A.P.C., Claudie Pierlot and The Kooples.

And we’ve embraced them enthusiastically. From the moment Coco Chanel taught us that an understated little black dress and pearls could be way more stylish than a more fussy ensemble, British women have coveted the seemingly inimitable notion of “French chic”. That only deepened in the 1960s, when Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Hardy and (honorary French girl) Jane Birkin arrived on the scene, and we’ve been infatuated ever since.

No wonder, then, that so many brands have identified the opportunity in peddling French style.

Relative new kids on the block Soeur, Sessùn and Sézane, all of which have stores in London to complement thriving e-commerce sites, are creating a nouvelle vague of excitement with their spin on polished Parisian style – as proven by the weekend queues that snake around Sézane’s Marylebone High Street flagship which opened in November last year. Soeur is shining bright too with profits up 30 per cent year on year since 2021 and plans to open “a few new stores” in the UK in 2025, according to its marketing team.

We all have our favourite labels. Mine are Rouje (kittenish elegance) and Aimé London (impeccably made own brand staples and especially ruffled collared shirts). Soeur, loved by Alexa Chung and Leandra Medine Cohen, is understated with a distinctive garçonne edge. Sézane has Sienna Miller and the Princess of Wales’ seal of approval thanks to its Gallic spin on everyday staples – coquettish knits, high waisted kick flares and ankle boots – hitting that sweet spot between achingly nonchalant and knowingly put-together.

They’re all very different, but variety is a key styling trick amongst my French friends, and as someone with a French passport but no French blood, they’re always happy to steer me, the “faux Frenchie”, towards the good stuff.

Wool blend coat, £500, Sessun

My stylish friend Adrienne, 32, who works for a luxury Paris-based jewellery brand has subscribed to the Soeur sisterhood for years. “I recently bought a long brown coat from there that elevates just about everything. I’m also obsessed with the leather ‘Méduse’ (jelly) sandals I got there last summer. I’m hoping to wear these with socks come spring with wide-leg wool trousers,” she says. Her other coups de cœur are Officine General “for great shirts and workwear” and Maje and Sandro for “cute skirts and dresses”. Her money saving tip is the supermarket: “Any French girl will tell you they have a few Monoprix items in their wardrobe. I go for great cashmere and lingerie.”

Mother of two, Capucine, has fallen out of love with Sandro and Maje. “The quality just isn’t the same since it went global,” she says. This is a matter of opinion but it’s true that SMCP, the holding company that owns Maje and Sandro along with Claudie Pierlot, claims to be opening ‘one new store every three days’ on its company website. Instead, she seeks out small labels on the rise: “I recently bought some fun stuff from Tressé [a great dress brand which now ships to the UK] and knits from Maison Kitsuné.”

Bordeaux-based lifestyle and fashion writer Mathilde Pittet, 33, whose blog LéonceChenal.com covers the latest French trends, drops and bargains, has a magpie eye for well-priced brands: “In recent years, I’ve noticed a growing interest in France in brands that bridge the gap between fast fashion and luxury, offering a more approachable price point than labels like Sandro. Sézane is, of course, a well-known example, but there are many others like Rosaé Paris, Balzac Paris, Petite Mendigote, and footwear label Bobbies.” The latter now has a bricks and mortar boutique in Marylebone High Street near Sézane and Sessùn, while the others are available online.

“There’s definitely been a turn towards quiet logo-less luxury and more affordable boutique brands after the recent price hikes chez Chanel, Vuitton and the like,” adds the jeweller Sophia Hélène Price, 37, who runs Salt Bijoux from Fontainebleau near Paris and who cites Sézane, Gerard Darel, Balzac Paris and cult handbag label Polène (which opened its first UK outpost on London’s Regent Street last month) as favourites.

“There is definitely a big trend for influencer-turned-designer brands, the obvious one being Rouje by Jeanne Damas but also Jaspe by Diane Perreau whose pieces are made in Paris and Seliijan by Lison Sebellin, who designs from her atelier in Nice. Et Paris is a tiny brand I’ve also recently discovered which creates super pretty things from upcycled deadstock fabrics.”

Wool blend trousers, £203, Seliijan

These independent labels are too small to stretch their tentacles across the waters to us for now, which may be part of their appeal. “My girlfriends in Paris think I look English because I seldom shop in France,” reveals Capucine.

Sophia echoes this: “I know we invented the word déjà-vu but no one wants to look exactly like someone else with their high street purchases. The key to Parisian chic is to mix, twist and keep special finds secret.”

So that explains the ineffable mystique: don’t overshare your fashion finds. How do you say, “This old thing?” in French?

Find your style...

Embroidered tulle skirt, £315, Soeur

Patent leather bag, £285, Sezane

Cotton blouse, £345, Aime London

Leather sandals, £275, Rouje

Denim dress, £160, Balzac