THE FRENCH TWINS

THE FRENCH TWINS

We recently sat down with students Fiona and Anaïs Lefrique ’22, who took advantage of pandemic down time to start their own fashion business, The French Twins (thefrenchtwins.com).

How did “The French Twins” as a fashion business come to be?

Since high school we have been making our own clothes, but we hadn’t planned to create our fashion brand until after graduation. The pandemic changed that. We were back in France, in lockdown, taking online classes at night. So we started new projects such as sewing a corset which was the most challenging one. After making the first one, we decided to create a business out of it as our friends were requesting more and more. Our starting idea was to create affordable handmade corsets to make everybody feel confident and unique.

You were invited to Fashion Week, the premier event of the fashion world in New York City—how was it?

There were lots of feelings. Going to New York for Fashion Week was a dream since we were little. At first we were so excited, then came stress about timing. We had two days to plan the trip and create our two handmade dresses for LaQuan Smith’s after party in Soho. It was intimidating to be surrounded by all these famous people and designers but we worked our way up. Despite our fears we were excited and proud, knowing that everyone back home (France and Menlo) was supporting us.

What were your concepts for your dresses?

We want our clothes to represent our personalities, values, and culture. We have always been driven by elegance, exclusivity, affordability, and sustainability. For Fashion Week our main rule was to follow LaQuan Smith’s style, so we jumped on the opportunity to make a corset dress to show off our original satin corset. We added fabric to give it an elegant and feminine look, with folds on the side of the hip. We made the exact same dress for each of us to remind people that we are twins

How do you work together and apart?

We are best friends and we make a great team in most of the things we do. Anaïs designs and sews our products. Fiona cuts the fabric and assists Anaïs. She also does the marketing, including posts, videos, replies, and event planning. To align our vision, we mostly do the rest together.

How will your business education help with your creative careers?

Our education helped us be confident in taking risks, especially in the business world. To support our creativity, we needed the tools to launch our own business properly. Menlo has given us those tools, surrounding us with amazing and smart people, which is so beneficial for our personal and professional lives.

Interview by George Retelas and editing by Jeffrey Erickson.