A free creative studio at the crossroads of the arts, imagined by Willy Cartier
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I. LETTER OF INTENT

“Jacques Cartier was born out of a fundamental need: the need to create with sincerity. This project echoes my story, my path, and my desire to open a space that is free, fluid, where intuition guides every gesture. Jacques Cartier is a space for full expression, shaped by my roots, my travels, and my encounters. What I’m offering here is a vision: an invitation to experience creation as an inner, sensory, and collective journey. A place to reconnect with oneself through art and to celebrate what makes us profoundly unique.”
— Willy Jacques Cartier

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II. MANIFESTO

Jacques Cartier is a free house, one that follows no imposed framework other than the one it chooses for each launch. Creating here is not a response to demand, but a necessity. Each project is born from an emotion, an encounter, or a glance. What matters in an object is what it evokes and what it tells. Jacques Cartier believes in the power of sensitivity, in art that moves, in gestures that speak. Intuition is always the starting point. It is a house rooted in the present, yet reaching toward the unknown. A space where creativity retains its freedom, its risks, and its share of uncertainty.

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III. THE JACQUES CARTIER UNIVERSE

Jacques Cartier is more than a name—it is an alter ego, drawn from the founder’s second name: Willy (Jacques) Cartier. This inner figure gives birth to an artistic laboratory that reflects his free and intensely creative spirit, where his deepest inspirations come to life. Jacques Cartier draws on Willy’s personal history, his Senegalese, Vietnamese, and Breton roots, as well as his inner and physical journeys. Conceived as a platform at the intersection of disciplines, Jacques Cartier gives rise to unique projects at the crossroads of fashion, art, design, and lifestyle, weaving together the worlds of singular collaborators. It invites artists from all backgrounds to engage in dialogue, to co-create, to merge their languages and give rise to new forms. Jacques Cartier is a multidisciplinary studio—both intimate and open—that rejects fixed calendars and follows the rhythm of inspiration. Its logo, inspired by marine and aerial compasses, embodies a quest for personal direction. The aesthetic is structured, delicate, and dark. It is a free brand, in constant transformation, part of a new era in which brands no longer just produce but propose a vision.

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IV. WILLY (JACQUES) CARTIER: BIOGRAPHY

Behind this ambitious and poetic project stands Willy Cartier, a true free spirit of the contemporary art scene, who embodies the soul of the brand. International model, actor, painter, photographer, and now designer, he has made a mark with his singular presence, intense gaze, and hybrid world—on the runway as well as on screen. A multifaceted artist, he moves across genres and formats without ever betraying his inner path: a quest for authentic expression, nourished by a rich cultural heritage and a bohemian childhood spent between the backstage of the Opéra Garnier and television sets. Trained in dance and theatre, and quickly noticed for his magnetic aura, Willy has collaborated with major names in fashion, from Givenchy to Jean Paul Gaultier and Karl Lagerfeld, while also pursuing an acting career in France and internationally. He is also a photographer and painter whose work has been exhibited in Paris (The Mute, 2023) and New York in 2024, in solo shows acclaimed for their visual and emotional intensity—foreshadowing the DNA of Jacques Cartier: a bold, nomadic, and artistic style.

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V. COLLECTION 01 – JUNE 2025

In June 2025, Jacques Cartier will unveil its very first collection: a gender-neutral wardrobe of around twenty fashion and accessory pieces, conceived as a dialogue between material, form, and emotion.For this inaugural collection, Willy Cartier, as artistic director of Jacques Cartier, joins forces with designer Nicolas Theil. A fashion and accessories designer trained at the École Duperré, Theil honed his craft at houses such as Jean Paul Gaultier before launching his eponymous brand and later collaborating with Jacquemus, Christophe Lemaire, Andrew GN, Renault, and more recently with St Dupont. Known for his artisanal leatherwork and narrative sensitivity, Nicolas Theil conceives each piece as a living object. He shares with Willy Cartier a common approach: living material, free form, and strange sensuality. Their meeting sparked an alchemy. Together, they present a collection of powerful, timeless pieces.