The radical innovation of Marithè + François Girbaud The brand that invented baggy jeans and has been rediscovered by archive fashion

Today jeans are such common garments that any brand, from the most exclusive to the cheapest, produces its own version. And if in response to this trend the experts and connoisseurs of selvedge denim, of Made in Japan denim seekers, of washing and aging experts are beginning to spring up, one brand that seems to be systematically forgotten by the general public is Marithè + François Girbaud - a French brand that is fairly well known in the rounds of archive fashion but today largely forgotten by the younger generation. Which is strange: it was Girbaud himself who invented the industrial technique of stonewashing jeans, also Girbaud invented stretch jeans by mixing elastic fibers with cotton, and baggy jeans in 1977 under the name Cargo Baggy that became famous in the United States and even ended up in Michael Jordan's wardrobe; they were also the first to experiment with laser cutting, ultrasonic welding, and a technique called "techno-fusion" to assemble their pieces without seams. Today, the creative duo's influence is still being felt in fashion - and not just because of the return of the Y2K aesthetic or the cultural weight that streetwear still holds, but because of the Girbauds' ability to mix aesthetic and technical innovation in a way that fashion, before them, could never have conceived. 

These successes, however, were the beginning of the end: if around 2005 turnover with their Italian partner Stefanel touched $83 million by 2007, as Quartz reports, sales had dropped to $37 million, and having entered into partnership with Alberta and Massimo Ferretti that same year when the Stefanel agreement expired, the two designers hoped to raise turnover to 100 million within three years by moving to Italy, to San Giovanni in Marignano to be precise, with a new factory and a new strategy of expansion in Asia. However, no one had taken into account the long wave of the post-2008 economic crisis: if in 2011 Le Figaro spoke of a retail turnover of 200 million euros for the parent company, in fact, something went wrong and a local Italian newspaper speaks of a «balance sheet collapse in 2011 to a liability of about 21 million, an insolvency that the company could only clear for a fraction» for the Italian manufacturing company, which was put into liquidation by the same shareholders in March 2012 while the French parent company went into receivership. In a statement dated April 23 of that year, the Filctem-Cgil union wrote that «the enterprise had been in trouble for more than a year not because of the crisis but because of reckless management», finding itself, among other things, in a market increasingly dominated by brands such as Diesel or Guru and not adopting the e-commerce turn with the right timing.

In January 2013, the Italian manufacturing company went bankrupt while Indian entrepreneur Anupam Kothari at the head of the FFI (Fibre & Fabrics International) group took over part of the French parent company, saving it, but transferred its production to Bangalore. Between crisis and competition, the brand found itself having to close several stores in Europe and cut staff, a spiral that ended in 2014 with the termination of the contract with FFI and the cancellation of the SS15 show at Paris Fashion Week. After this trainwreck, the creative duo reinvented themselves the following year with Mad Lane, which the brand's website describes as follows: «The store-less concept avoids the permanent store formula, preferring to go on tour in France, Belgium and Italy to meet fans. Sale by appointment in temporary pop-up shops thanks to a unique ticketing system to offer a unique experience and service. More than 60 stops have been recorded on the Mad Lane Tour».

At the moment, however, the brand's social media have been inactive since June 2021 (the brand's last Facebook post dates back to this date) while there are no Mad Lane Tour dates on the official website. But if in its official capacity the brand appears to be almost abandoned, the archival fashion world has rediscovered the Marithé + François Girbaud of the golden years, fueling its fame once again. Today the name of Marithé + François Girbaud is synonymous with archival fashion, hardly any brand from the past with such a long history has perhaps aged better with its avant-garde constructions, composite textures, asymmetries and total experimentalism. But the brand's heritage has not been lost: one only has to look at some of the old fashion shows to notice, in that architectural and intricately layered denim, similarities to the work of Glenn Martens or, in its huge jeans carpeted with pockets, a precursor to Balenciaga's monumental jeans.