THE ESSENTIALS FOR MOVING FORWARD SIMPLY
Many models and sizes are missing, I’m sorry.
A new collection is coming for November 2021.
99% natural origin handmade shoes without metal parts or plastic even in the hidden components.
You are faithful to our shoes for their quality and their remarkable comfort. Today I’m working to make it more natural. Models will be slightly different but you’ll find the color ranges and the purity of the shapes specific to the brand. Thank you again for all the understanding and support that you regularly send me in your messages.
WHY SO MANY TIME SINCE THE LAST COLLECTION?
In 2019, my body stopped abruptly.
I had to go out from the rhythm of the collections and the life it imposed. To find myself alone, to separate myself from my beautiful team who were with me from the beginning of Pairs in Paris.
The brand was born from the desire for a simpler product, in its aesthetics, but also in its values: a local production, an honest price for all and the quality of the materials.
My past experiences with artisans in China, India, Italy, Portugal or Spain, had constantly questioned and inspired me on the responsibility of the manufacturer and the designer.
From the first season in 2013, the Pairs in Paris collections were quickly received warmly in a selection of prestigious shops around the world.
The more the brand and the team grew, the more my concessions were put to the test. More and more distant shipments, more and more intermediaries, shorter deadlines, stronger pressure on the craftsmen’s schedule, more and more polluting collections for events, gifts or marketing operations.
The picture was nevertheless beautiful, but a few years later, as I was by nature amazed by the ordinary, I felt guilty at the idea of remaining impassive to these extra-ordinary events, which were considered as a success.
In addition to these initial values, there was a personal awareness of the ecological urgency and the mission that I wanted to live, without being able to operate it within my company. I missed the regular proximity with the craftsman and my “real” final customer, or the creative part of life in general.
A BARE NECESSITY TO COME BACK TO THE ANCESTRAL, SIMPLE, AND NATURAL PROCESSES
I no longer understood the world that was playing in front of me, I wanted to redefine who I was and what I had come here to do. I voluntarily made myself invisible, the products have gradually disappeared from the shops.
I had to go back to zero, and I went far into the void.
I left, learning how to build ecological beehives, clay and straw houses, understanding the richness of nature and dye plants. And my unnecessary fears began to leave me.
Creating a bit of autonomy made my tomorrows more certain and this freedom allowed me to go step by step with honesty and resilience. At that time, I walked slowly and mostly barefoot, to feel the world more intensively. So I couldn’t see how I was going to continue designing shoes that fit me.
And then, there was already so much “everything”, everywhere, and so many compromises to made, to be honest with the living. Doing everything I could to do nothing often seemed the best solution. Anti-action seemed beautiful, like a lake whose water would not be used up for an industry, but rather for the benefit of its biodiversity.
I felt that my responsibility as a consumer was already huge,
the responsibility as a manufacturer was bigger and it petrified me.
One day in October 2019, I was listening to the words of Deepak Chopra, an Indian doctor. He explained our true “Responsibility” is to be seen as a “Response-Ability”, our ability to offer a creative response to the situation as it is. The burden of responsibility was then transformed into a virtuous impulse to be invented.
I could see, while experimenting “creative sobriety” at home, that it was easy and pleasant to reduce the consumption of our clothes and accessories, which we enjoyed making, repairing or buying second-hand. But for shoes, it was different, buying it second-hand is not always recommended, making it is not easy and the diversity of components makes recycling complex.
So there was an answer that I was obsessed to create.
I understood that I need to be barefoot to feel the world, but to build the world I believe in, I have to have the right shoes, not the best in the world, but the best for myself and for the world.
TODAY PAIRS IN PARIS IS BORN AGAIN AND RENAMED PAIRS,
…. to move forward more lightly and smoothly with like-minded people.
PAIRS is out from the fashion calendar, to free the collections from the deadlines of seasons and sales. Products are now only online and without intermediary between you and me.
Our uncertain times also offer many opportunities to redefine the rules of our business, profession, to give it the shape of our values.
To have integrity in what we want to support is the ultimate goal to achieve every day.
There is no longer any fear of “success” or “failure”, because the only fear we should have is to miss out on the person we are, I still have a long way to go, but it’s beautiful.
99% NATURAL ORIGIN MODELS AND OTHERS 100% VEGETAL, HANDMADE BY CRAFTSMEN IN FRANCE AND PORTUGAL, AVAILABLE FOR NEXT NOVEMBER.
I have taken a lot of time and chosen each component, one by one, for an extraordinary comfort and quality
, but a simple and beautiful everyday life.
