Sezane: A Love Story

Uniqlo coat (similar)
Sezane dress (similar)
Sezane boots (similar)
Anthropologie beret
Sezane bag
RayBan sunglasses
& Other Stories necklace (similar)
Wolf Circus necklace
Location: 17 Vaughan Street – Winnipeg, Manitoba

By the time you’re reading this, I will be in Paris. My trip to the Sezane apartment on rue Saint-Fiacre will already be checked off my travel bucket list. It’s the first place I’m going shopping when we arrive, no question about it. And I will, I have no doubt, have left weighed down by several shopping bags, grinning from ear-to-ear.

My relationship with Sezane is a love story. There is no other way to describe it. I still can’t help but marvel when I look back on how the iconic and highly coveted French brand now known as Sezane came into my life. It was 2012. We were moving to Paris, and I was preparing for a year of professional blogging. I should be doing research, I thought. (At that age, I frequently told myself that I should do things that didn’t really interest me, for reasons that were poorly thought out at best.) I should expand my reading list even further, especially into bigger websites, to see what kind of content appealed to a wide range of people. That’s how I started reading Glitter Guide.

I did not read Glitter Guide for long. The publication appeals to a wide range of people, but I am not one of them, and I figured that out very quickly. I spent more time distracted by sidebar ads than actually reading. One in particular, for a brand called Les Composantes, caught my eye. When I clicked through, I instantly fell in love.

Back then, Les Composantes was primarily a collection of shoes and handbags, with a few pieces of clothing in every collection. Sales happened once a month, and pieces sold out in minutes. We were moving. I was supposed to be saving every penny. But somehow, I managed to rationalise buying a beautiful brown leather tote bag from their next sale. It’s been part of my wardrobe ever since.

Moving to Paris meant increased proximity to this brand that I was officially very much in love with. Les Composantes first in-person sale took place in an event space just down the street from my apartment. It was December, and I happily stood in line in the cold until the doors open. We had very little disposable income, which meant I could only make the smallest purchase – a black leather clutch. But it was enough just to be there, and to meet the designer behind the pieces I craved. (I still laugh, looking back at how nervous Morgane and I both were during our brief conversation.)

The Les Composantes name was retired shortly after that sale, replaced by Sezane. In the years since, I’ve watched the little brand I found on Glitter Guide’s sidebar become a force in the international fashion industry, with stores in Paris, London, New York and Aix-en-Provence. So much has changed, but just as much remains the same. Sezane’s timeless aesthetic is refined but otherwise unchanged. I still fall in love with every new collection and often rationalise making purchases despite the inevitable duties and taxes that come with shipping to Canada. I can’t resist. I’ve changed since 2012, too – I don’t tell myself to do things out of a sense of imaginary obligation to no one in particular, for one thing. But my love of classic French fashions remains. And Sezane designs them better than any other brand I can think of.