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The French designer Marie Marot doesn’t come from a fashion family and didn’t go to fashion school. But she did grow up in a home where there was a real appreciation for beautiful fabrics and quality clothes.
“My mother was already wearing Repetto when she was young, and she used to make a lot of her own clothes,” Marot says. “So my relationship with fashion was shaped much more by observation, instinct, and my family environment than by any formal training.”
Marot’s eponymous brand, based in Paris, focuses on women’s shirts, ranging from classic, straight-cut essentials for the office to well-structured western-style numbers in sunny pops of yolk and crimson. The designer’s personal fascination with shirts stems from watching her father’s commitment to formal shirting, as well as the casual Levi’s denim shirts that Serge Gainsbourg used to wear. “That’s probably still what I love most about a shirt: It can be very formal or completely relaxed depending on how you wear [it],” Marot says.
As part of our “Model’s Own” series, Marot confided in us about her favorite Ralph Lauren pieces, the supremacy of a good pair of vintage Levi’s 501 jeans, and the importance of keeping her wardrobe (and skincare routine) as minimalist as possible.
What garment have you owned the longest?
Probably a navy Barbour jacket. I wore Barbour as a child and carried on wearing it as an adult. The one I have now is really worn-in with a great patina, and I’ve kept it for years. I love that kind of very functional outdoor clothing — I have a fairly short Filson fishing jacket with big pockets that I wear a lot, for example. These are clothes that almost become better-looking once they’ve lived a little. I like clothes that show their age.
Who’s the most stylish person you grew up around?
My parents, without hesitation. When I think about it, almost everything I love today was already there in the way they dressed: shirts, well-cut trousers, suits, loafers, navy, brown, green, checks, stripes…
They’re also passionate about the mountains and hiking, which introduced me to another relationship with clothes: more technical and functional but still well-cut and, above all, really well thought-out. It was never about following fashion. It was more about owning beautiful clothes, choosing good fabrics, and knowing how to wear them. A huge part of my taste came simply from watching them.
What item do you receive the most compliments on?
My Ralph Lauren canvas worker jacket. It’s the exact same one Ralph Lauren himself wears on the cover of Ralph Lauren: 50 Years. It has that very simple American workwear quality, but everything about it feels right.
What’s your favorite shirt to wear that isn’t your own design?
A Ralph Lauren Purple Label shirt with a wing collar and bib front. It’s a tuxedo shirt, so extremely formal, and that’s exactly what I love about it. To me, it’s hard to get much chicer than that. But I’ll happily wear it with a vintage 501 and my Chrome Hearts jewelry. I love that contrast between something very formal and something much more everyday.
Tell us about your favorite pair of jeans.
There are so many great denim brands today working with traditional methods. But despite all of that, I always come back to a vintage Levi’s 501. For me, it’s hard to beat a 501 with a beautiful faded blue patina. It works with absolutely everything: a blazer, a crewneck, a turtleneck, a T-shirt, a shirt… There’s something about a great vintage 501 that’s difficult to explain. You recognize one without really knowing why. The cut, the color, the way the denim has aged — it already has a story.
For something more contemporary, I also really like Nili Lotan’s jeans. I love the cuts but especially the denim itself. [It’s] thick and substantial, exactly how I like it.
What’s the last thing you bought in person?
The Wool Bouclé Half Zip from AARON LEVINE. Aaron is a friend, but I genuinely love what he does. It’s beautiful, practical, incredibly well-made, and easy to wear.
There’s something about the brand that reminds me of Patagonia in its great years: clothes that are really desirable but actually made to be worn and lived in. And their imagery is some of the coolest I’ve seen in a long time.
What do you start with when building out an outfit?
Very often I’ll start with a shirt or a pair of shoes and build everything else around that. Shoes can completely set the direction — Tecovas cowboy boots, J.M. Weston loafers, or my Red Wings, for example.
One constant is my Chrome Hearts jewelry, which I wear almost all the time, especially my Classic Oval Star and Emerald Infinity rings. Chrome Hearts is almost impossible to categorize, and its world is instantly recognizable. I think you either love it or hate it; there’s rarely much in-between. I picked my side a long time ago.
Describe your go-to airport outfit.
I’m definitely not someone who wears sweatpants or leggings to fly. I tend to dress pretty much as I normally would, so usually jeans. The one thing I avoid, rather paradoxically, is a shirt. I prefer a soft James Perse long-sleeved T-shirt, often with a Jamieson’s Shetland wool sweater. I love that slightly rough, textured wool. It almost feels as though the sweater has already lived a little from day one so it never really seems to get ruined.
And I always have something around my neck because I’m permanently freezing on planes: a Hermès silk scarf or just a simple cotton bandana.
Are you an impulse shopper or a deep researcher?
Actually, neither. I don’t buy that much. I don’t even like having too much choice in my wardrobe because I want to really wear my clothes and wear them out. I think you become much more creative when you own fewer things. You learn to wear the same pieces differently, play with layering, mix textures and find new combinations.
Paradoxically, I’m often looking for the same things because I know quite precisely what I like. I always have one or two very specific pieces in my head that I’m looking for everywhere. Right now, it’s the perfect khaki-green sweater.
What goes on your face in the mornings?
The first thing I always do is splash my face with cold water. It wakes me up and, strangely, resets me a little, too.
I recently discovered EADEM, an American skincare brand, and I’m currently trying their Cashmere Peel, Cloud Cushion, and, inevitably, Mami Wata, their calming face mist — I have a real weakness for face sprays.
And I always finish with Aesop’s hydrating facial mist. It’s one of those products I can’t really do without anymore. A few sprays at the end and my skin immediately feels fresher.
What are you grabbing at the pharmacy?
I think French women have a particular relationship with pharmacies and parapharmacies. We love going in, and we rarely come out with only what we went in for. There are all those brands we’ve sometimes known since childhood and always go back to: Avène, La Roche-Posay, Embryolisse… Bioderma Créaline H2O too, which is a real classic. Creams, lip balms, all those little things you somehow end up adding.
And I have another obsession: toothpaste. I love Marvis and all their different colored tubes. I’m always looking for a color — and therefore a flavor — I haven’t tried yet.
What goes on your face before bed?
I always cleanse my face. I never go to bed without doing it. I really like Susanne Kaufmann’s Soothing Cleansing Milk. I also have a little rule with skincare: When I start a routine from a brand, I like to stick with it and actually finish the jars before moving on to something else. Right now, at night, I’m using Laboratoires Botanique, a French brand I absolutely love: their Sérum en Crème Régénératif, followed by the Crème Fondante Régénérante. I’d much rather have a few products I know well and actually use than a ten-step routine.
