G.Kero

The spirit

One artist, one brand.

After studying art in La Cambre school in Belgium, the artist broke free from the strict confines of the art world to have some fun in the ever-changing world of fashion.

Marguerite finds inspiration in everything that brings joy, whether life, music or nature.
For the 2015 Fall-Winter collection, the designer brings together Karl Lagerfeld, the Beatles, François Hollande, and Daft Punk on ski runs (15/16 FW collection). For the summer, she presents Bowie and the Stones and speaks of love and sex in a poetic and uninhibited manner with a Kama Sutra shirt (SS14 and SS15 collections), one of the brand's classics.

The unique and graceful portrayal of these colourful characters is part of the G.kero brand signature. This bohemian artist usually paints her collections in her friends' homes and willingly shares stories of her encounters. "I started by drawing handsome boyfriends that I didn't have, and then I drew pretty girls on their T-shirts."

Marguerite completes this joyous world of characters with expressive animals that she exalts by painting them in bright colours that you wouldn't find in nature – such as her multicoloured zebra and tiger, two other classics from the first collections (2012). This winter’s collection will feature a polar bear on black, hand-printed cashmere.

Finally, the artist evokes nature by designing dreamy, idyllic landscapes. G.kero's tropical prints stand out from others. Her designs are free and wild, often bursting with shades of turquoise blue. Painting on fabric gives these drawings a sense of beauty and unique depth. Her strokes are poetic and incredibly expressive.

This world that is naive, powerful, childish and mature, all at the same time, is available in the form of raw edge T-shirts, sweatshirts, shirts, light blouses, teddy jackets, and cashmere pullovers. In the summer, the collection includes dresses, skirts, and mini shorts. The clothes are crafted in the best family workshops in Portugal. Her pen and brush strokes may be raw and impulsive, but the clothes are designed with the utmost attention to detail and are made from high-quality, refined, soft fabric (cotton, cashmere, and silk). This accurate offhandedness makes every G.kero creation a unique technicolour fashion statement that goes beyond a simple printed garment. A true artistic expression that conveys freedom and inspiration to live a daring and spontaneous life.


The Story

Marguerite grew up with six brothers and sisters on a remote beach south of Cap Ferret in France, a place where tumultuous ocean waters meet the calmer waters of the Arcachon basin. In the late 1970s, her parents built wooden houses on a sandbank. This was their way of carrying on the spirit of May 1968 while everyone else went back to work. Step inside and you will find 18th century furniture alongside guns, chainsaws, antiques, and many books on art and photography. It was in this library at the age of 6 that Marguerite discovered Adieu l'Afrique by Mirella Ricciardi. This book was her first source of inspiration, introducing her to the unique dancing characters that are now one of her trademarks.

Two of Marguerite’s older brothers build wooden houses for a living. Her older sister is a horse-riding instructor. Another older brother, a musician. Her younger sister is, to put it simply, a mum. Philippe and Marguerite weren’t destined to share a common future, even though Philippe always collected his sister's drawings. He would help her with her philosophy essays, and the year she finished school, she thanked him with her drawings, which he has always cherished.

In 2007, Philippe had just quit his job in Brazil, and Marguerite was growing tired of her art school in Belgium. Philippe couldn’t find any T-shirts he liked in Rio de Janeiro, and asked his sister to send him a drawing. A pretty, topless girl was the first G.kero T-shirt ever printed.

The photo of her brother walking proudly in the T-shirt on Ipanema beach was just the push Marguerite needed. As she didn't have silkscreen printing equipment on hand, she would paint directly on T-shirts, which she bought at thrift stores. She quit art school and took this up as a full-time job. During the winter, she lived like a bohemian in Paris. She painted T-shirts for friends who put her up. In the summer, the wooden cabin in Cap- Ferret became her workshop, where she had already started signing her creations as G.kero. T-shirts and sweatshirts became her canvas.

Marguerite is a multi-faceted artist, playing music on small local stages in Cap-Ferret and Paris. She goes by the name Giselle Kérozène, a salute to Jan Kounen's short film by the same name and the inspiration for the G.kero pseudonym.

Was it the ocean that gave her a taste for freedom? Or was it the trying times with her audacious siblings, or the big illustrated books in her house? It's probably a mix of all those things, just like how red mixes with blue and then yellow to create a joyous, bold, and strange world without inhibitions.

In August 2011, the brother-sister duo, along with a childhood friend, experimented with selling the T-shirts in a store in Cap-Ferret, and launched the G.kero brand.

Today, G.kero is available in over 200 shops in 24 countries. Some of the most famous stores around the world carry G.kero, such as Ron Herman in Los Angeles. Celebrities such as Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne, Elle Fanning, and Marion Cotillard have been photographed sporting G.kero. Each G.kero article is branded with a tag and serial number. Take a closer look at G.kero's patterns and it becomes clear that G.kero isn’t following trends but setting them.