Q&A with Marion Rabate Founder and CEO of Ernest Leoty

Marion Rabate is the Founder and CEO of Ernest Leoty, a French fashion brand dedicated to creating luxurious, yet sustainable, activewear tailored to the modern woman. Marion worked at Goldman Sachs from 2005 to 2011 in the firm's Asset Management Division in London.

Tell us about the inspiration for the brand and how Ernest Leoty himself played a role in the vision for the original designs.
Marion: My vision was to build a chic, high quality activewear brand. I saw the trend of activewear/wellness lifestyle coming, however, I was unable to find the high quality clothes that I wanted to wear myself! If sports and wellness were to become mainstream, why couldn’t the clothes for that be as chic and high quality as the clothes I wore every day?

I then fell in love with an old French brand from the late 1800s, Ernest Leoty. He was a corset maker (whose designs are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum), and he revolutionized corsetry by introducing stretch and making them comfortable. I loved his ethos around not sacrificing comfort for beauty, and thought it would be great to revive his heritage brand in today’s world – as an athleisure brand. I was incredibly helpful to have his original designs, branding and ethos as a reference to re-build Ernest Leoty today.

What, if any, experience did you have in the fashion industry before deciding to develop your own brand?
Marion: After Goldman Sachs, I joined a private equity fund, Searchlight Capital, where we invested in consumer brands. We would do the due diligence in a lot of detail, then hire management, set strategy, etc. At that time, I thought I knew about fashion, however I soon realized there was a massive difference between sitting on a board or operating committee and executing on the day-to-day!

In some ways, not being a fashion insider helped me. I would think about everything either from the consumer’s perspective or from a business perspective – which I think are the two best ways of thinking about fashion. The fashion industry isn’t always rational. This is why I consider Ernest Leoty to be more a wellness brand than a fashion brand.

What about Ernest Leoty do you consider unique and what sets you apart from other brands in the athleisure industry?
Marion: For me, the most unique point of difference is the quality of the product. We make our products with luxury fabrics from Italy. These fabrics have all the technical properties required (moisture wicking, breathability, four-way stretch, etc.), but they are also incredibly soft and comfortable.

Also, we work with a mix of fashion experts (designers and pattern makers from the luxury world) as well as technical sports experts, and that unique combination makes a final product which is both beautiful and performs!

Explain the brand’s commitment to sustainability and how you manage to get more sustainable products into the hands of your consumers.
Marion: Sustainability us a must-have for any brand today, and a topic very close to my heart.

Our ethos around sustainability is built around three main pillars: factories, fabrics, and mindset.

We only work with some of the best-in-class EU factories, which means that we have a head start, because these best-in-class factories have commitments to sustainability and multiple certifications (HIGG Index, Global Recycled Standard, Green Energy, etc.).

Our fabrics come mainly from Italy and, as much as we can, we choose recycled fabrics (60% of our production) or natural ones (TencelTM, LyocellTM, merino wool). We are working hard to get to 100% of recycled fabrics.

Finally, I believe that sustainability is a mindset consisting of mindful production runs and timeless products. Like a Hermes bag, our products withstand the test of time, and that is true sustainability.

How has the global pandemic affected sales and the brand overall? Being an online business, where there any strategic changes that were necessary to ensure success of the business?
Marion: We were lucky that one, we were an online business and two, we were selling athleisure, which is a product segment that did well during COVID. Like all businesses, we had to adapt to working remotely whilst continuing to inject that “start-up” mentality, and we had to adapt to the global supply chain challenges (delayed fabric deliveries, factories being closed) and be opportunistic.

Another strategic change is that we decided to reduce our exposure to wholesale and refocus our business on our direct-to-consumer channels. Finally, we took advantage of our extensive relationships in the wellness space to offer digital content to our audience – engaging them with authentic content and experiences around wellness.

A main learning point for me is that you never know what can happen and that you need to stay nimble and adaptable – that flexibility is, at the end of the day, the great strength of start-ups vis a vis larger corporations.

What are some of your focus areas for the company heading into the new year?
Marion: This year, we will be focusing on our organic content and on influencer partnerships, as well as consolidating our operations and product merchandising. We’re basically building on what we already have. We find that for a brand our size, our organic marketing channel has the best return – re-engaging our existing database with authentic content with a different point of view. We also want to tap into our strong network of influencers which works really well for athleisure brands.

How did your time at Goldman Sachs contribute to your success as an entrepreneur?
Marion: My time at Goldman Sachs gave me the work ethic, attention to detail and discipline for success. Success as an entrepreneur doesn’t come easy – you need to work hard for it – and I do think Goldman Sachs is a great training ground for this.

The firm showed me what “success” looks like, what it feels like to be surrounded by smart people and how it is when “things flow”. It gave me a vision for the type of success I am looking to achieve with Ernest Leoty. Also, my biggest investor and business partner is a former colleague at Goldman Sachs!