Anne Liauzun: Choosing Linen to Create the Wardrobe of Tomorrow

Anne Liauzun: Choosing Linen to Create the Wardrobe of Tomorrow 

.Anne Liauzun, founder of the sustainable fashion brand Cécance 

After working for 15 years as a designer and collection manager for ready-to-wear brands, Anne Liauzun decided to "return to the essentials" by embracing a more sustainable approach to fashion. In 2020, she launched her own clothing brand, entirely crafted from linen. Here’s a closer look at the woman behind Cécance.

She describes herself as "an extremist." As the creator of the responsible fashion brand Cécance—whose name partly pays homage to her seamstress grandmother—Anne Liauzun is now fully committed to using linen as the cornerstone of her collections.  

"I love the rustic and raw nature of this material, but also the touch of elegance it brings to clothing. I see this duality reflected in my personality," smiles the 41-year-old entrepreneur from Toulouse.

Far more than an aesthetic "love at first sight," her choice to work exclusively with this natural fiber—grown in France and Europe—is also a way for the designer to stand out in the high-end ready-to-wear market.

Linen ensemble: Ava jacket and wide Jaro pants by Cécance.

The Rana Plaza Shock

"I didn’t want to launch a new brand unless it had a real purpose. It had to have a dimension of sustainability," explains the founder of Cécance.

Her awakening began in the early 2010s. At the time, this Esmod Paris graduate was working as a freelance designer for several ready-to-wear brands, including Carlin Creative. "I sold my designs and collections with fabric suggestions," Anne Liauzun recalls.

On April 24, 2013, the collapse of Rana Plaza—a building housing garment workers near Dhaka, Bangladesh—shook the fashion world. This tragedy, which claimed thousands of lives, deeply impacted the designer, prompting her to reflect on the social and environmental implications of her profession.  

It wasn’t until 2017, however, that she decided to make a significant change. "At that point, I had been working for four years as a collection manager for a mid-range French menswear brand. Through this experience, I began to see more clearly what was happening behind the scenes, especially through my interactions with workshops in China where production had been outsourced. There was also immense pressure to deliver faster and faster," she recalls. .