Entering Marine Serre's expansive premises on rue d'Aubervilliers in northeastern Paris, it's impossible not to recall the studio where she started out in 2016. Back then, her workspace was 150 times smaller – 20 square meters on the fifth floor of a building with no elevator behind Montmartre. It had a bathroom, a kitchenette and a main room that doubled as a bedroom, living room and office. After graduating from the Belgian school La Cambre and growing up between Corrèze and Creuse in south-central France, this is where she created her first collections, her first photos, her first interviews and her first sales to the retail chain Dover Street Market.

How, then, could one dispute her claim that "luxury is space"? In one of her previous headquarters – a Haussmannian apartment – she recalled, "at lunchtime, we would always set up camping tables in the middle of the living room. But it soon became too cramped." She spoke with her petite figure, keen eyes and straightforward way of talking mingled with the "Frenglish" typical of those who are constantly switching from one language to another.

In 2019, Serre was one of the first to respond to a call for applications from the city of Paris to join Métropole 19 – a complex of two five-story rectangular concrete and brick buildings, connected by metal and glass suspension bridges. The complex was designed by Jean-Paul Viguier in 1988 to accommodate "small, non-polluting industries, enabling them to remain within the Paris city limits with modern working conditions and low rents," as the architect's agency put it.

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