Luxury menswear brand Sebastien Ami is looking to establish its footing in the New York men’s market.
The four-year-old brand helmed by cofounders Sebastien and Marianne Amisial is gaining attendance after being nominated for the 2024 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award and hosting its first New York Fashion Week runway show. That show, which was a see now, buy now format for its fall 2024 collection, came after a short pause following the brand’s presentation at New York Men’s Day in September 2023, after which the designers took time to reevaluate their approach to the brand.
“We realized we should really home in on the brand and make it something that we truly, personally resonate with, instead of it being a brand that was just doing things based off of what was believed to be popular,” Sebastien Amisial said. “We felt like there was a way to meet ourselves halfway.”
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The cofounders used their yearlong break to restructure the business, relocating from Los Angeles to New York City and bringing their teams in-house. They explained they felt they “needed to have a redo” following their New York Men’s Day presentation, given that they had lost the samples of their collection just one month prior to the showcase. They faced a similar hurdle prior to the fall 2024 runway show in September, as their venue fell through at the last minute.
“We really spent that time [exploring] what we wanted,” Marianne Amisial said. “The energy that we wanted to emit was calm and nice, and everything that we wanted, we got out of it. The time that we did spend [working on the show] was so valuable.”
Sebastien Ami’s fall 2024 collection highlighted the brand’s design aesthetic of luxury-meets-workwear. Standout styles included boxy, bomber-style denim jackets, leather shorts, double-zip hoodie jackets, puffer vests, wide-leg cargo trousers and more.
“We have this pretense of elevating workwear, and our silhouettes do a bit more than just that,” Sebastien Amisial said. “Our silhouettes actually have more of a unisex attribute to them, so it’s not just about a guy wearing it. Any sex really can wear what we produce. It’s really just about comfort.” The fabrics too are chosen to not only be durable, but reminiscent of vintage clothing from the ’40s, ’60s and ’80s, he said, “Whatever you consider to be vintage. And we’re pulling not just from the U.S. [but] from all over the world in terms of utilitarian garb and just cleaning it up and reinterpreting it in our way.”
As part of their relocation to New York City, Sebastien Ami’s next plan of action is to expand its wholesale partners. The brand is currently offered at Bloomingdale’s in New York City and Beverly Hills and at specialty stores such as Ssense in Montreal; Machus in Portland, Ore.; Now or Never in Phoenix, and several retailers in Japan. Sebastien Ami is also planning on fine tuning its production and manufacturing operations.
“Come February and the rest of next year, we really want to be able to showcase our collections and revamp that sector of our business,” Marianne Amisial said. “It’s so imperative that we jumpstart it and are able to be [in New York] for market and be the one selling and in front of buyers.” At the same time, manufacturing will be ramped up by “taking some things overseas to Japan by way of China,” she said. And they’ll also take the lessons they learned from the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and put that to good use as well.
