Sézane becomes one of the first French brands to achieve B Corp status

Sézane, the digital first French brand which has a store in London's Notting Hill, has become one of the first French fashion brands to achieve B Corp status.

Founded by Morgane Sézalory 10 years ago, Sézane is a brand built on social media and eschews traditional season by season drops in favour of regular limited edition capsule collections with no promotions or sale periods (twice a year items from its archive are sold at special prices). Many of its collections are made in Europe with three-quarters of the materials in their current collection deemed "eco-friendly".

The achievement of B Corp, which is one of the most demanding certifications that evaluates brands’ social and environmental impact, follows on from the brand receiving five other eco-certifications (GOTS, Oeko-Tex, FSC, RWS and RMS) and the release of its first 100% eco-friendly denim line.

Since 2018 Sézane has raised over €45 million for the philanthropic programme DEMAIN. On the 21st of every month, 10% of global turnover and 100% of the proceeds from a dedicated design are donated to programmes which support access to education and equality of opportunity for children all over the world.

Sézalory said of the B Corp achievement: "It means that we are a little closer to becoming the brand we desire to be at our essence. We’re surrounded by noise and pressure to do things a certain way yet Sézane has always been a means through which we could celebrate 'la liberté Française'. Create, undo, challenge and improve. B Corp is a stringent, independent validation of what we stand for."

In 2018, US investment firm General Atlantic took a stake in the business, which also owns menswear brand Octobre Editions.