agnès b. opened her first shop on rue du Jour in Paris in 1975. Since then, she has designed clothing for men, women and children that reflects the spirit of the age by creating a wardrobe that can easily adapt to every personality and can be worn for a very long time. Today, agnès b. continues to design each collection that bears her name, including accessories, watches, jewelry and sunglasses. The company has more than one hundred shops throughout the world. A family enterprise, a civic enterprise, agnès b. tries as much as possible to keep her production in France.
"I want to make clothes that can be kept for a lifetime."
agnès b. has since the beginning, been creating timeless pieces for every collection, defining her own vocabulary while mixing classic fashion codes with streetwear style. Snap cardigans, full-piece jumpers, petticoats, striped t-shirts, perfecto, strapless dresses, mini skirts, leather pants, cotton leggings...all unforgettable pieces adaptable to any and all styles of the moment.
“I would always wear a white sweatshirt I would have found at the flea market. Then one day in 1979, I thought to myself that this sweatshirt should be able to open up at the front. So I remade that sweatshirt with snap buttons, inspired by the 18th century vests whose buttons closely resembled that of my snap cardigans. This cardigan, which I’m always transforming in one way or another, has become the symbol of my style and of agnès b.”
A timeless, iconic style by excellence, it hasn’t ceased to be re-interpreted time after time through every collection. The snap cardigan was featured in an exhibition in 1996 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. 70 photographers; Dominique Issermann, Jeanloup Sieff, Steven Silverstein and also Jean-Baptiste Mondino re-interpreted the snap cardigan in their photographs.
The renowned striped t-shirt is created and quickly becomes one of agnès b.’s signature styles. In 1966, Agnès created a striped t-shirt for the movie “Qui êtes-vous Polly Maggoo?” by William Klein, and commercialized it 11 years later. Made from the same cotton which served as the fabric for rugby uniforms, it has been made into 4 different versions; long sleeves, short sleeves, thin stripes “the 12/12” and thick stripes “the 60/60”.