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Parisian label Sézane is at the fore of the “French girl style” trend and is an Instagram sensation, boasting 4.8m followers at the time of writing. But its rating is “Not Good Enough”, so we’re offering some alternatives to the brand’s casual and cool designs.
This article is based on the Sézane rating published in February 2025 and may not reflect claims the brand has made since then.
Sézane has been a leader in e-commerce—but not sustainability
If you like fashion and you use Instagram, chances are you’ve come across Sézane before—it’s a French brand that has won fans with its dreamy Parisian lifestyle inspiration, influencer champions, and city-ready clothes with signatures like trench coats, basket bags, and blouses.
The brand started small in 2013 in the bedroom of founder Morgane Sézalory, offering vintage-inspired wares that drew on Sézalory’s background selling secondhand clothes on eBay—an influence that’s still clear today. It has grown to have 20 apartment-style boutiques around the world, plus a handful of pop-ups, in addition to its thriving online store. The brand’s success is partly down to its early adoption of e-commerce (it was France’s first e-commerce brand, in fact), and to its celebrity fans who include Taylor Swift, Kate Middleton, and Selena Gomez. They’ve helped it to gain a cult following that ensures its products regularly sell out and become viral items. The brand’s ‘Achille’ cardigan, for instance, has been bought more than 30,000 times in the UK alone, according to Grazia. That sure is a lot of products, though, and it’s something longtime Sézane fans have picked up on recently, noting its increasing number of product drops and their concerns about the impact.
So, what exactly does Sézane’s impact look like, and how does it rate against Good On You’s methodology? Unfortunately, the brand is “Not Good Enough”.
Sézane is taking some actions to be more responsible: it uses a medium proportion of lower impact materials, makes products that are intended to last in people’s wardrobes, and has an animal welfare policy in place, but there are a few reasons why it isn’t scoring a higher rating.
Namely, there’s no evidence that it ensures workers throughout its supply chain are paid a living wage, and even though it says it has a code of conduct in place for workers, the brand does not disclose it—you’d expect a business with this level of success and purchasing power over its suppliers to be implementing responsible wage and labour practices by now. Elsewhere, our analysts couldn’t find anything to suggest it’s working to meaningfully reduce or eliminate hazardous chemicals in its manufacturing, nor to protect biodiversity in its supply chain. Check out the brand’s directory page to see more about what informed its “Not Good Enough” rating.
Sézane’s efforts in using lower impact materials, and its status as a B Corp, show that it is interested in doing better, but it still has some work to do before it gets there. If you love the brand but would prefer to support businesses that are already rated “Good” and “Great” for their actions, and who commit to paying their workers a living wage, scroll on to see our suggestions.
