Inside the new Brooklyn Sézane store.
Photo Courtesy of Sézane
On any given Saturday, even during heavy rainfall, it’s not uncommon to see a line formed outside of the Sézane’ Le Appartement’ boutique on Rue St. Fiacre in Paris’ 2nd arrondissement. Considering the oft-beleaguered state of retail, especially post-pandemic, it’s refreshing to see a store so genuinely crowded with shoppers that customers must be staggered in. Founder Morgane Sezalory, who founded the brand in 2013after her vintage find curations reached cult-status level, is behind the brand’s momentum and growth as it expands into more US markets and adds to its offerings. Ahead of the new Brooklyn store location, Sezalory checked in from her late summer vacation to break down Sézane’s success story and its next steps.
Just after high school, Sezalory homed in on her artistic eye and found she had a knack for vintage hunting, reworking pieces, showcasing them, and subsequently selling them, as eBay and e-commerce in general were taking off in 2000. At 18, she pioneered the medium and soon generated a significant income from sales at a time when establishing a business on eBay was rare. “At some point, I realized it was the beginning of something, and I needed more than the eBay sales experience,” Sezalory said via Zoom.
Morgane Sezalory of Sézane.
Photo Courtesy of Sézane
She launched a website called “Le Composantes,” still comprised of her vintage finds, but soon demand outpaced supply. “People were complaining and frustrated because I had monthly drops of about 100 pieces, and they would sell out in a minute. I needed to create my own product,” she continued. Next, the offerings were a mix of vintage-sourced styles and pieces that Sezalory designed, produced, and sold online.
By 2013, the name Sézane was launched, and the curated vintage offerings were phased out to focus on the product she created. Her team was building alongside the brand, which was still primarily online at that time.
She credits her lack of a fashion industry background and connections to her success. “At that time in France, the belief in fashion was that you can’t make a brand by starting online,” she recalled, adding, “I would’ve never imagined that 20 years later I would have a company with maybe 700 people. Then I was so independent and feeling free, but I worked a lot. The more successful it became, the less free time I had. I was a prisoner of my own success,” she said, without regret.
A look from the Fall 2025 Sézane collection.
Photo Courtesy of Sézane
Her first store in Paris opened with the same organic luck; she stumbled upon a space, and it opened in 2015. The Rue St. Fiacre location also pioneered the area, which, at the time, was mainly comprised of wholesale fabric businesses.
Since founding “Le Composantes”, Sezalory has had a strong US customer base. Thus, she set her sights on New York and opened her Elizabeth Street store in 2017 after a chance meeting with a sales associate in a nearby shop. The United States has quickly become Sézane’s second-largest market globally, behind France.
“That’s the magic of the internet. Again, everyone can see it. We had people wearing Sézane in the online communities for a long time, and it helped us grow,” she reflected.
Fast-forward today, and Sézane has stores, both permanent and pop-ups, in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, San Jose, Boston, Nashville, and Charleston, many of which opened in 2025 as the customer base continued to expand across the US. Summer 2025 also marked the first time for a Hamptons pop-up hosted at LDV at The Maidstone.
The exterior of the new Brooklyn Sézane store.
Photo Courtesy of Sézane.
Beyond the Brooklyn store, located on Wythe Avenue, is a collection of like-minded stores, including J. Crew, Still Here, Brooklyn Denim Co., and Faherty Williamsburg, and is situated near the bustling shopping corridor on North 6th Street.
“Sézane is about the local community, and the broader community in the US that loves to come out to support it. With every single space that opens, there is a community celebration that feels on brand, where you experience everything from the decor to the food. It’s part of the culture of the brand; It’s beautiful, and that’s why people aspire to it because every detail is very considered,” she surmised.
A second store in Los Angeles, at The Grove, opened last month and a pop-up in Atlanta is planned for November and will run until January 2026, bookending the Brooklyn opening. Stores in second-tier cities are key to Sezalory’s approach. “We have customers everywhere, so we want to cultivate and keep those clients and not only direct our efforts to the big cities,” she noted.
The United States has quickly become Sézane’s second-largest market globally, behind France, with a third of customers based in California, New York, and Texas, while the remaining two-thirds are divided across the rest of the US. In 2025, the customer base expanded further to include states such as Washington, Illinois, and Massachusetts, among others.
On her wish list beyond the current store openings are Chicago, Seattle, and Dallas, for example. Currently, Sézane’s men’s offerings, Octobre, in the US are located within the Sézane boutiques, but Sezalory even sees room for free-standing men’s stores and more.
A selection of fall 2025 home goods from Sézane.
Photo Courtesy of Sézane
“I would love to find a vast store in, for example, New York, where we could have all the family [women’s, men’s, kids, and home] like a small department store. In Paris, the largest store we have will become even bigger to house all the lines,” Sezalory continued.
One place the entrepreneur says that you most likely won’t find Sézane merchandise for the time being is in other US multi-brand retailers.
“Right now, we are holding off on a US wholesale business as we don’t allow markdowns. It’s the definition of the brand. If we touch this, it won’t work because we offer the best price at the beginning,” she noted. The label still routinely sees 100% sell-through on its seasonal drops with more notable launches and collaborations selling out within 24-48 hours.
The decision speaks to Sezalory trusting her gut. “I am instinctive and spontaneous in life, which made everything feel like it was very fluid since day one. I’m still working a lot, but it never feels like it because I never force things. So, I need to feel it brings happiness, motivation, and desire. It’s obvious when you do, and it’s very intuitive.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/roxannerobinson/2025/09/25/szane-opens-its-first-brooklyn-store-as-part-of-us-expansion/
