Jacques SaintTropez engraved on the sole iron

Neither parade on the red carpet of the Oscars, or marches in Cannes with a Kate Moss or a Sienna Miller displays his taste for signed Spartans K.Jacques! Step a summer without a celebrity in glasses is in the boutique of the famous tropézien manufacturer, installed 25, rue Allard. The greatest designers asking to "Customize" their models. Because often imitated, the K.Jacques is unprecedented.

Everything is possible on the docks of Saint-Tropez - thank you for never say "Saint-too", except to go to a camper... - who have been born and die more modes than any other Mediterranean port. Only prohibits: the port of the tie, contrary to the spirit of relaxation and relaxing place. A spirit found in swimsuits at large Hawaiian ultra-shiny crankshaft or Kiwi beachwear.

Ready-to-wear colored

Other purely tropéziennes but now claws: Mic Mac and her ready-to-wear colorful, Philippe Calvet and his pants lace, Lothar's for its Saharan. At the time where Eddy Barclay launched its total look white, girls are beckoned by the Gas charms and the "clobber" Jean book afghan style, yet not speak of "hippy chic". Going a little more time, Miss Bardot was a small privateer in pink gingham. A creation of Madame Vachon, Manine of his name, the local seamstress who also reimagined Provençal prints by recycling cotton and old-fashioned petticoats stocks...

In reality, the "tropézien style" was born in the 1920s. Some painters like the fishing villages in particular light. Turning his back on the sea, Saint-Tropez is exposed to the North, of famous sunsets in the axis of the port. Artists and writers attending its beaches and adopt the outfits of the fishermen. The marinade striped, clear canvas trousers and beach shoes which are resistant to sea water. The first "tourists" are a pleasure to wear the "tropéziennes", these Sandals sold and manufactured on-site in small stalls in markets.

Fleeing his native Anatolia to escape the genocide of the Armenians, the Kéklikian family eventually arrive in France. Children seek their way in small trade. In 1933, the youngest, Jacques, found his own in the village where he opened a workshop of sandals Street Allard, current headquarters of the shop.

Formed by brothers forains markets, he noticed that the tropéziennes were sold well. Barely speaking French, Agop (Jacques) Kéklikian is obviously not a creator mode or a contractor. He can't imagine that three quarters of a century later, his Sandals would be known all over the world. He was writing business correspondence by Baker neighbor! But he has a strong sense and good ideas. First, it converts the name of his workshop in "Jacques Bottier", which quickly became "K.Jacques." Then, he filed the name of "Spartan" terrace Above all, it treats the manufacturing. Particularly well designed and comfortable, its tropéziennes are not slow to point out for robustness. The special leather tanning makes them impervious to sea water and seams, very solid, take several years. The original model - a flat sole which are sewn leather straps to keep foot - draws on the corner pescadous sandaled. It also reminds the Egyptian savate papyrus or Roman caliga. A few focused will find them a type check "show" return from pilgrimage!

The years thirty regulars of Saint Tropez, whether they are painters (Picasso), writers (Colette, Cocteau) or idle rich, go the address. The tradition will continue after the war: Mediterranean summer toes air, girls first, and then the boys claims. Donning a pair of sandals to strips, it is sacrificing elegance and good urban practice on the altar of vacancière recklessness. It is break the feet at the same time as the imagination: happiness than that by which the sandal comes!

Third generation

A marriage and a few children later, House K.Jacques survived fashionable barefoot hippy years and the return of Italian moccasins with or without teeth, as well as the invasion of the baskets. Two brothers and a sister picked up the torch: the second generation of the Kéklikian kept the Provencal accent and takes the reins of the company. 30 000 Pairs of Sandals made now a year, three-quarters are exported to the United States, the Japan or Italy, in a network which has three hundred points of sales. The idea to open these markets returned to Bernard k., "trade" of the three children of Jacques, one who has sold his first pair of Spartans at the age of twelve years. He wanted to "really" a claw which products are sold in France only five months of the year. Purchases of foreign networks to ensure a spread of orders throughout the year and emerge the sandal from his seaside tropic. Today, models K.Jacques face in the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair American. Japanese magazines analyze wish, close-up in support, their identity markers such as the reference to "K.Jacques Saint-Tropez" engraved on the sole iron. Brand authenticity because they are still manufactured in their village of origin by twenty craftsmen. Georges, the eldest of the k., lives in the villa that overlooks the sea and where the small-scale and family factory that evokes the novels of Pagnol is still installed. Some machine tools were over half a century, because here, are still suspicious of mechanization and it boasts ignore automation.

Each sole of shoe (from 26 to 50) is cut in skins which special tannages guarantee strength. The strips are decided at the scalpel in the thickness of skin that tell the sores and bumps endured by cattle or goats French. The bite to the white wire of the overflowing sole also part of the genetic code of K.Jacques. The polishing of the instalment of the soles is always realized hand, to highlight the grain of the leather. In total, making a pair of sandal lasts 55 minutes. A tradition of seven decades allowed to select the best know-how case applied to these Spartans of rawhide. Even in the smallest detail: the angle of the strap passing between two toes, his invisible by a wick of Nylon reinforcement to make it flexible without buckle. Can of course also order in K.Jacques of custom sandals, by choosing from the range of 120 colors and different peausseries, including python. K.Jacques creations meet, instinctively, luxury guns: product exclusivity, quality worship, craft control and authenticity of the original "narrative". At the time of globalization, a third generation family, formed in business schools, preparing the succession with the reinforcement of a few Armenian cousins to lock the key positions of the SMEs of the planet mode remained "100 " tropézienne.