How Marithe + Francois Girbaud made a comeback in the fashion world — especially in Korea

In this collage of photos made by Hago Haus, social network fashion influencers promote Matin Kim by wearing its apparel and accessories. Courtesy of Hago Haus

If you're up to date on the latest fashion trends, there's a chance you've heard names like Matin Kim and Mardi Mercredi. Fashionistas these days can often be found wearing a Matin Kim tank top, or a T-shirt and cap adorned with Mardi Mercredi's signature flower. Both are Korean brands — yet you might not be able to tell if you were to walk into one of their stores for the first time, or heard their names in passing — both are derived from French ("matin" meaning morning, and "mardi mercredi" referring to days of the week, Tuesday and Wednesday).

You may also be familiar with Marithe + Francois Girbaud. Named after its founders — Marithe Bachellerie and Francois Girbaud — the brand was first launched in 1972 (though the partnership dates back to 1964). The original company filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and went quiet for several years before the brand name was revitalised in 2019 by a South Korean company, Layer, which acquired the label's licensing rights in the country.

Marithe + Francois Girbaud's unmistakably French logo — complete with the word Paris at the bottom — is now just as likely to be found on the streets of Asian cities as it is across Europe. So what's the story behind the label's big comeback? We break down how Layer completely rebranded Marithe + Francois Girbaud for a new generation of consumers, why the Korean distributors behind Matin Kim and Mardi Mercredi later got involved, and how these cult brands have taken off so quickly, with a growing number of stores in Hong Kong and beyond.

The label has a storied history and first made a prominent impact on pop culture at its peak in the 1980s and 1990s. Founded in 1972 as Paris' self-proclaimed first concept store, Marithe + Francois Girbaud soon became home to several different lines and other brands hand-picked by Bachellerie and Girbaud. In 1983, the designers launched a line of men's sportswear, Momento Due, while the star of the moment, Flashdance actress Jennifer Beals, wore the brand's Maillaparty knitwear line for her French Elle magazine cover shoot.

Marithe Francois Girbaud fans from its heyday know the brand for pioneering designer denim and producing elevated workwear pieces, the likes of which were worn by celebrities including Janet Jackson and Michael Jordan, who famously donned a full denim look for his first pitch at a Chicago White Sox Major League Baseball game in 1993. The brand would go on to become famous in hip-hop circles, name-checked by Outkast, The Notorious B.I.G. and more, its signature Girbaud Shuttle jeans taking off during the early 2000s.

The brand ran into trouble soon after with the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, while controversy surrounding co-founder Francois Girbaud saw the brand's image take a hit. At a 2007 party in New York celebrating the launch of a new denim line, a reporter caught Girbaud making seemingly disparaging comments about the hip-hop community that made his brand famous.

"I'm not the rap people," Girbaud said at the time. "Sure, we introduced the baggy jeans, we introduced stonewashed and all this stuff in the 60s or 70s. I never target just to be ethnic. It's stupid." Though Girbaud would later distance himself from those comments by claiming they were misinterpreted, the brand began fading into obscurity anyway, overtaken by the rise of competing denim brands such as Diesel in the years leading up to its bankruptcy filing.

Shoppers line up outside the Shibuya store of Korean designer brand Matin Kim, run by Hago Haus, as it opens its first location in Japan in April. Courtesy of Hago Haus

Though the Marithe + Francois Girbaud brand fell out of favour with the general public, it still retained a small cult following, including in South Korea. Its ownership has changed hands between multiple parent companies several times over the years, while many of its lines have come and gone. Its international brand licenses were sold off, likely due to its mounting financial troubles. Brand license contracts allow other businesses to use the brand's name, trademarks, logos and intellectual property for their own products or services.

After Layer acquired the brand's South Korean license in 2019, it quickly rebranded Marithe + Francois Girbaud to have more mass-market appeal, especially among young women. Those efforts were a huge success, particularly among visiting tourists, inspiring a regional expansion effort which saw Layer secure exclusive distribution rights for the Marithe Francois Girbaud brand name across Asia, working with the Jaspal Group in Thailand and another Korean company, Seoul-based Misto Holdings, in mainland China.

Formerly known as Fila Holdings, Misto is home to the sportswear brand Fila and also handles licensing and distribution for Matin Kim, which was acquired by the Korean company Hago Haus in 2021, and Mardi Mercredi. Partially thanks to Misto, all three brands have seen skyrocketing success throughout Asia, rapidly expanding their footprint with new store openings. Korean celebrity endorsements have helped solidify their cultural cachet, with stars including Cha Eun-woo and Blackpink's Jennie sporting their designs.

The brand name "takeover" method, so to speak, is nothing new in South Korea. Firms like Samsung, which now distributes the French brand Ami across the country, have found similar success acquiring licensing deals. Whether it's Korean marketing savvy fuelled by the country's celebrity culture or purely a nostalgia-driven vintage brand revival in the making, one thing is for certain: Marithe + Francois Girbaud is back and bigger than ever.

Perhaps thanks to the renewed visibility, Marithe + Francois Girbaud's original French headquarters and designers are also back in business. In 2023, the brand signed a license agreement for the United States and Europe with a company called We Care About, and quietly rebranded itself in those markets simply as "Girbaud."

To make matters more confusing, not only do the French Marithe + Francois Girbaud and its Asian outposts often promote different products, they retain entirely separate websites and social media accounts. Yet there's no denying that the brand's revitalisation strategy, however fragmented, has paid off in spades. The brand name is everywhere these days, and no one — not even Girbaud himself — seems to be complaining.

Read the article at SCMP.