Manege en Sucre: interview with founder Marine Lloris

Marine Lloris, founder of Manège en Sucre, chats about the new Christmas collection, her girls and the sweet story behind the brand’s name.

The luxury girlswear launched its Christmas collection in Harvey Nichols in London last week. But not before we managed to sneak in a few moments with its founder, Marine Lloris…

Tell us about Manège en Sucre and its Christmas collection.

I started Manège en Sucre in June of last year. It’s now 18 months since we launched our first collection. Now, we’ve done a few dresses for Christmas, a capsule collection.

How does Christmas collection differ from the rest of the range? 

There is more glitter and sparkly things – all the kind of things girls like. It’s really shiny for this time of the year. And you’ll see it’s always French touch with the shape. You can definitely recognise that it’s been done by a French woman!

Do you have a favourite item in your Christmas collection? 

The red Rania Dress. Because it’s the proper Christmas dress that a lot of mums try to find for their kids just before Christmas. It’s so beautiful and impactful. It’s my favourite.  

Do your two daughters influence your clothes?

Yes, every day. Every day I know what they like and what they don’t like in terms of shape. If they aren’t comfy with something then I know I’ll never do this kind of thing. And when I try  something new, they’ll wear it and tell me, “This is great – we’re so comfortable in it. It’s so nice,” or “I don’t like this”. They are my markers. I know from them what’s going to work and what isn’t.  

Does your husband, Hugo [Lloris, Spurs‘ goalkeeper], have any input?  

He loves to say what he thinks. My daughters model the clothes in front of him and he’s like, “That’s nice, that’s pretty,” or “I prefer the other one,” or “I like that but this is my favourite,” He has fun saying what he thinks. It’s nice.  

Are you the sole designer? 

I design all of them with a designer, Claudia, from Italy. She’s great. She’s my hands. We put all the ideas together and then create everything together.  

How do you go about fitting in your work with being a mum?  

Like all the other mothers that work, it isn’t easy! I’m lucky because I have help for my girls because we don’t have family here, only friends. So it’s not easy when you work. We try to have a routine. I take the girls to school in the morning and then go to work. I’m not really able to get them at 3 or 4pm, so it’s more my husband who goes. And when I’m not here he can look after them. When he’s not here I try to work less so that I can be here for my girls.  We are team.

Where did the name Manège en Sucre come from? 

It takes me a quite long time to find the right name. I said to myself, “What do kids love the most?” And I didn’t just want an easy name. For me, when kids see a carousel they go mad and want to go on it again and again. But I thought that it wasn’t sweet enough and so I said what if this carousel is made of sugar? Then the logo came to me with the candy and the horse on top of it. And I thought that this was great because it’s a world that I can work and create things, to build a story around. And I said that this would make every kid happy: carousel and sugar.  

Finally, what’s next for Manège en Sucre? 

For the future I really want to be strong in the UK because I’m based here and want to control the production of the quality. So for the next two seasons I want to stay focused here and see if things go well. Then I’ll be happy to spread into Europe.

Manège en Sucre is available in Harvey Nichols, London, as well as their website, and manege-en-sucre.com.