“It’s classy, ​​but you have to know how to wear it”: this fashion accessory is becoming trendy again

Want to add a sophisticated touch to your wardrobe? In the store in Saint-Etienne (Loire) where the TF1 news report above begins, straps are once again highlighted. To wear for special occasions, but not only. “It makes a fashion accessory that changes a little“, estimates a customer who has just been convinced. Another is much more perplexed: “Yes, yes, it's classy, ​​but you have to know how to wear it, have the little trick to wear it anyway. For me, it’s true that it’s not my thing“. “My children, when they were little, I put them with little suspenders to hold their pants, they liked the little characters“, says a woman.

If everyone is not yet convinced, the trend is coming back and attracting attention, with more sober fabrics. “I sell them for weddings, because now, young people have codes: very often, there is the bow tie and suspendersconfides Annie Duarte, manager of the “Casuowl” store. And then, I also sell them for people who are a little older“. In the 80s, suspenders had their place on the catwalks and on television, as shown in the archive images in our report. They were then abandoned, but not for long.

“We have the DIY strap, we have ugly straps…”

The small company in the Loire to which our team then goes has been manufacturing them since 1946. Cédric Granger and Stéphane Rovera embarked on the adventure by taking over the Gérard Boyer company three years ago, to breathe new life into the strap. . “There are 1200 references in total, so 1200 possibilities for pairs of suspenders. We have the DIY strap, we have cow straps…“, explains Stéphane Rovera, showing several models.

And orders are multiplying, with turnover increasing by 10% in two years. They are among the last in France to master this know-how: each strap is assembled by hand, like a tailor would adjust a suit. “The only machine we haveunderlines Cédric Granger, It's a pair of scissors. We really manufacture according to the specifics of the person who will wear the product, it's tailor-made“.

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The company of ten employees supplies prestigious clients such as the Lyon Opera or the Zénith de Saint-Étienne. Straps are engraved for artists passing through the region. “We have Vitaa, for example, the singer, we have Patrick Fiori“, confides Stéphane Rovera. Latest novelty, a model for pregnant women, which they are the only ones to manufacture in Europe, with the ambition of seeing women take ownership of the straps.