Designer Agnès B. receives French Legion of Honor

French designer Agnès Troublé, better known as Agnès B., was awarded on Tuesday night the French Legion of Honor by President Emmanuel Macron for the creative accomplishments and humanitarian initiatives achieved through her eponymous label. 

The prestigious award, born under Napoleon’s reign and described as France’s highest order of recognition, is attributed to those who’ve demonstrated outstanding merits in the service of the nation, in a military or a civilian capacity. 

The Versailles-born designer founded Agnès B. in 1973 and gained great success by offering  clothes marked by the Parisian stamp of elegant simplicity. Nearing an almost fifty-year span, the label now boasts 300 stores worldwide and has been worn by musical icons such as David Bowie or Patti Smith. 

If her creative triumph was a prominent factor in her receiving the French distinction, so was her philanthropy and support for humanitarian and solidarity initiatives. Her endowment funds foundation, named « Agnès Troublé dite agnès b. », works with 25 to 40 associations and NGOs each year, helping with a vast span of issues that range from literacy and child protection to welcoming migrants and refugees, as well as access to water and healthcare and support for isolated women. 

The multifaceted designer is also recognized as an art aficionado. In 2020, she created “La Fab”, a 1400-square meter gallery in Paris’s 13ème Arrondissement, that hosts her collection of nearly 5000 art pieces, as well as a library. 

As the longtime tradition demands, it is the French Chief of State, Emmanuel  Macron, who handed the decorative medal (an insignia shaped as a six-armed Maltese asterisk) to the couturier, alongside an emotional speech: “For this commitment to others, to France and its creative forces, for what you’ve contributed over the past five decades, not just to French fashion, but also to beauty, to taste, to so many artists, to the battles you have waged. This evening, I am happy and proud, dear Agnès, to elevate you to the dignity of Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit.”

As a fresh recipient of this award, Agnès B. joins the ranks of other notable fashion-figure titleholders such as Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent and Maria Grazia Chiuri.