The Bridge Pants
History of fashion
Our wardrobe will very soon be enriched with a Marinière whose story I told you here , so what could be more obvious, you might ask, than to add a pair of bridge pants. Far be it from me to offer you the total sailor look strolling the quays of Trinité sur Mer, don't panic!
Just offering you 2 timeless essentials, which after these next reservations, will undoubtedly join our iconic ones!
Let me tell you his story.
Unlike the sailor top, born military, the bridge pants found their origins in the hard work of seafarers, merchants and fishermen, in the 18th century in Brittany.
How many bosses died with their crews!
[…]
No one will know their end in the abyss plunged
Each passing wave of plunder was loaded;
One seized the skiff, the other the sailors!
I will not have the irreverence to claim that the great Victor Hugo, in his sublime Oceono Nox, evoked bridge pants, but I, through the twists and turns of my wild imagination, cannot help but see and remember why deck pants were able to improve the lot of fishermen and sailors.
Another “ Tar te Tatin ” phenomenon , (serendipity)! Innovation born by chance or constraint. The sagacity and practical spirit of the seafarers soon made them discover that they would have less risk of being snagged by trawls, nets and lines while maneuvering close to the rail, if their pants did not have central buttons. This is how the idea of pants with a flap on the stomach and buttoning on the edges was born .
As happened with Jean denim , which passed in a century from the status of work clothing to a universal fashion icon, the bridge pants will magnificently take advantage of their original singularity to evolve into a becoming garment for women. In a high waist and straight cut, here is the martingale to refine any figure , most designers – Lagerfeld, Sonia Rykiel, Chloé, and so on… – gave it a good place in their collections, during my time at Sézane, I I also designed one which was a great success .
I wanted, in turn, to bring this item of clothing into your wardrobe. The paths of inspiration are mysterious; in the “forest of symbols” dear to Baudelaire, which I evoked when telling you about La Marinière, there is no doubt that the image of my Mother in 1970 nonchalantly wearing bridge pants and a hippie blouse - or almost! Psychedelic vapors being much less its subject than the joy of living! – has made its way through the labyrinth of my inspiration.
The silhouette of the magnificent Françoise Hardy was undoubtedly no stranger to my pencil stroke.
🎶 The first happiness of the day
It's a ribbon of sunshine
Which wraps around your hand
And caress my shoulder
It's the breath of the sea
And the beach that waits
[…]
How can you not be inspired by listening to this song by this incredibly talented fashion icon?
On the occasion of this new creation , we will continue our movement of refocusing in France . I met Sylvain in a workshop near Paris. This is where your bridge pants will be made from dormant stocks of beautiful 100% cotton twill denim, “zero waste” obviously, for these badge buttons, they come from Lyon, our preferred supplier.
What is certain is that Armand will respond to all our promises “to make something beautiful and do it well”, 100% French, from start to finish, from the drawing, to the prototype, to the “zero waste” material, and to manufacturing near Paris!
To be honest, I named him ARMAND... and I don't really know why!
Nothing to do with Armand Duval, the frozen lover of the Lady of the Camellias, I simply find the musicality of this first name very pleasant, could it have other resonances, a mystery?
Creativity is just about connecting things together, Steve Jobs argued, and things that are often foreign to each other, like Mister K.
C H