De Fursac names new creative director

What will De Fursac’a style look like from spring/ summer 2022? The French menswear brand, known for its formal aesthetic, succeeded in arousing curiosity with its announcement of the arrival or its new creative director on January 19.

Under the leadership of SMCP Group which took over the brand at the end of 2019, the De Fursac man could be in for a radical makeover. The brand’s silhouettes, designed for over a decade by Alix Le Naour, will now be conceptualised by a thirty-something media specialist, Gauthier Borsarello.

Borsarello, the co-founder of l'Etiquette magazine, a cutting-edge publication on men’s fashion and lifestyle published by So Press group (owner of Society, SoFoot and Pédale), is a vintage fashion specialist. Borsarello has collected over 2,000 vintage pieces, with a focus on military clothing. After notably collaborating with Ralph Lauren on his stock of vintage products, Borsarello went on to create his own vision with a showroom as well as a boutique in Paris’ 16th arrondissement named ‘Le Vif’.

“I am delighted to welcome Gauthier Borsarello to the De Fursac team,” said the brand’s CEO Elina Kousourna in a statement. “I would equally like to thank Alix Le Naour who, after 10 successful years at the head of the brand’s design, wanted to shift to other projects. With this appointment, we aim to open a new chapter. Our ambition is for De Fursac to become a truly international brand that offers a unique French style and identity that pays tribute to what has made it so successful in France for almost 40 years. I am confident that Gauthier’s profound knowledge of clothing, creative vision, and retail sensitivity will help us achieve this.”

The new creative director will thus be tasked with supporting De Fursac’s ambitions for international growth. The SMCP group has strong ambitions for expansion, especially in China. A stylistic approach which affirms the French roots of the brand appears to have been identified as an asset with which to seduce customers beyond its borders.

“De Fursac is a brand which I admire a lot. It has been dressing men in their daily lives since 1973, managing to combine quality with an accessible price,” said Borsarello.

“I like that it is anchored in the Grands Boulevards district in the heart of Paris and in its own time period. It seems important to me to study this history and the brand’s address on the rue de Richelieu. The panache, youth, eclecticism, and the fantasy of the Parisian nights of yesterday present so many ideas to explore and which I am drawing on to day to project the brand into the future. This is the starting point of my story with De Fursac.”

The brand, which reported a turnover of €41.4 million in 2018, currently counts around 60 points of sale, mainly in France. At the end of last year, De Fursac opened its first store in London. The brand aims to achieve 30% of its sales from outside of France by 2025.

De Fursac names new creative director

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