This day in December 2022, at nightfall, Serge Ruffieux receives us in his new office at 10e district of Paris. Sitting at his work table, playing with a ribbon, the designer seems fulfilled. “It was the right time”, he said. Many fashion designers first launch their brand before joining a big name in luxury. Serge Ruffieux, he took the opposite path. After a flawless career, for more than twenty years, at Sonia Rykiel, Dior or even Carven, the designer decided to found his own label a year and a half ago with the former fashion journalist Emilie Faure.
However, he systematically kicked into touch when asked if he was tempted by the entrepreneurial adventure. “But, in a corner of my head, I always thought that one day I would create something in my name. However, I didn’t want to do it alone. My meeting with Emilie, my pygmalion, was the trigger,” says the creator.
“We said to ourselves that there were already too many clothes on the market and then I always start by drawing the extremities of a silhouette, the head and the feet. »Serge Ruffieux
This is how in the summer of 2021, 13 09 SR was born. The brand, which focuses on shoes and sunglasses, is named in reference to the day and month of birth of Serge Ruffieux as well as his initials, “like a registration number”. “We said to ourselves that there were already too many clothes on the market and then I always start by drawing the extremities of a silhouette, the head and the feet, before advancing on the proportions. It was therefore natural for me to focus on these two categories of accessories. » With one non-negotiable factor: comfort. So flat for the shoes.
Chic and crazy
Passionate of driving shoes, these shoes designed for driving racing cars, very fashionable at the end of the 1960s, he equipped his models with a rubber studded sole, which gave them a relaxed all-terrain look. “As a designer, we are always obsessed with certain constructions that, moreover, often nobody notices. Me, it’s the technique of sacchetto [sac, en italien], which consists of making ultra-flexible shoes that wrap around the foot, like slippers. » He then dresses them with mini-bows, rhinestones, crystals and twisted fabrics found in dormant stocks – in a logic of recovery and upcycling.
Which gives very singular, hybrid, amazing and unique shoes, oscillating between sportswear and couture. Leopard moccasins submerged in long fringes that sweep the floor, pointed-toe evening ballet flats resting on a rubber heel as comfortable as a sneaker sole, wide flip-flops padded with shearling and hemmed with a protective roll like a bumper car, etc. . These chic and crazy shoes leave no one indifferent. As for the sunglasses (launched with the French optician Marc Le Bihan), their branches are perforated and decorated with metal piercings paved with mini-crystals. We can add some straps (tie cords) in Neoprene, embroidered with pearls and rhinestones.
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