From Givenchy to Marquis: Youssef Marquis on Fashion Communication
Show Notes
Summary
With an impressive amount of experience in the luxury lifestyle branding, Youssef Marquis has been one of the key players in shaping the image and narrative of some of the most iconic fashion houses, such as Givenchy and Louis Vuitton. His Paris-based agency Marquis, with a content-centric, digitally savvy vision, offers innovative services that bridge traditional branding strategies into the brave new world of social media. With a distinct strategic vision, creative flair, and strong relationships with media and influencers, Youssef is a trusted partner and a visionary leader helping his clients to navigate the ever-changing and challenging landscape to achieve their goals and elevate their image in the competitive and dynamic market. Today, designers are no longer defined by outside, third-party media; rather, they are empowered—and expected—to communicate by broadcasting directly and thoughtfully to their target audiences. Marquis crafts and determines its clients’ brand messaging: honest, targeting the right audience, and with visual and verbal identities that uphold their core values. In this episode, Youssef shares his thoughts with Christopher Michael on the fashion sector's stance on sustainability, ethical practices, and technological and social challenges. To him, brands are responsible for the messages they put out in the world. What’s contemporary now? “Shaping brand messages that leave no one behind."
Episode Highlights
- Pop culture monster: Youssef’s obsession with image-making and creating awareness drew him to fashion communication.
- Getting specific: A general approach to communication and image can fall short in capturing what designers bring to the table in a particular era at a particular house.
- Bottling the magic: The importance of communicating the core values, identity, and messages that define the interplay between a house and a designer.
- Stepping beyond: Youssef launched his agency to broaden his perspectives and develop his rhythm beyond corporate frameworks.
- A voice emerges: Youssef’s signature style organically evolved, and he sought expression beyond any single brand or designer—project diversity.
- The LVMH relationship: A 15-year journey has sparked magical campaigns, and Youssef’s commitment to the brand now shapes his daily workflow.
- Radical clarity: For young designers pulled in multiple directions, Youssef offers a roadmap to establish that all-important identity and fearless differentiation.
- Critical components: Visuals. Community. 360º Comms Strategy. Creating a young designer’s messaging means figuring out “Who am I, and why am I different?”
- Changing landscape: Youssef straddles, remembers, and leverages his experience with both the traditional media space and today’s fluid social media and digital platforms.
- Where to focus: Given the range of options, Youssef encourages clients to commit to community and social networking platforms as a contemporary driver for messaging.
- Playing the channels: Young and established brands must be deliberate about who they are speaking to, in what voice, and with what emphasis.
- The golden ticket: A cohesive brand voice creates connections and consistency, advancing visibility and identification.
- Not optional: Youssef’s commitment (one he sees increasingly mirrored in the fashion sector) to sustainability, ethical practices, and core values of respect, inclusivity, diversity, and kindness.
- Racing toward the new: Technology can be a double-edged sword, with the allure of immediacy and the “wow” factor often followed by disappointing results.
- Pro advice: When it comes to highly sensitive decision-making around elements like technology, Youssef knows what he knows—and when to seek outside expertise.
- Keeping up: Controlling the avalanche of input and flow of influencer talent that crop up across the new (and ever-changing) field of platforms.
- Instagram shopping: Deploying unfamiliar lenses to untangle the demographics of online commerce.
- Looking ahead: Youssef proposes innovative, partnership-based services focused primarily on raising brand awareness through community-building strategies.
- Staying nimble: He balances his vision for a self-sustaining celebrity, talent, and influence ecosystem and ongoing legacy brands' “bonus” needs.
- What’s contemporary now? A sense of reality about our world and how the fashion industry can promote equity by expanding the conversation.
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