An exclusive collaboration

Journal — May 2026

A carte blanche is an exercise in restraint. You entrust the workshop, you listen, you sketch, you adjust.

The result belongs neither entirely to us, nor entirely to the one who receives it.

That is what makes it interesting.

This year, it is Éric Guérin who takes it on. Michelin-starred chef of La Mare aux Oiseaux, on the island of Fédrun, in the Brière. Wildlife photographer the rest of the time. A constant traveller.

What came out of it: a pair. And a pattern no one saw coming.

A shoe born of travel

For those who never stay long in the same place.

Ask him what he wears day to day, and he will tell you about his blue chef’s jacket. A second skin. Something you slip on without thinking, that follows you everywhere, that asks for nothing.

The idea for the shoe was born there, in that logic of a uniform. Something you put on in the morning and forget about until evening.

We took the Gattaca and reshaped it. A rounder toe, a softer line, a white sneaker sole for added suppleness. The wager: that it would slip under a pair of jeans as easily as under a dress trouser, that it would withstand a day on your feet in the kitchen as well as twenty kilometres walking through New York.

The line of the Gattaca, the suppleness of a sneaker.

The leopard

The pattern had to match the man.

Éric has been photographing big cats for years. Jaguars in Montana, tigers in India, panthers in Colombia and Brazil. The leopard imposed itself.

Except he, precisely, did not want it. “I can’t stand fake panther print. I would never have bought it.”

We made the prototype anyway. And the moment he held it in his hands, something happened. “This one, yes.”

That is the whole point of a carte blanche. To take the one who receives it a little further than where he would have stopped on his own.

Éric tells us he had done the same thing in the kitchen, years ago, with saffron. A spice he hated. It is now one of his signature dishes.

For the leopard, same story.

Wearing the pattern

The leopard is back. Not on the runways — on understated silhouettes, in men’s wardrobes, on pairs meant for everyday wear. The question is how to wear it.

It is not to be endured, it is to be measured.

Let it speak. Around it, calm things down: natural cotton, a black dress, light wool, raw denim. The contrast is enough.

For the bolder, layer it: tiger scarf, printed jacket, materials that play against each other. A free silhouette, but held with a firm hand.

The pre-order

Open until 31 May. Free shipping, worldwide.

After this date, the pair will remain available as a special order, at a higher price.

ACCESS THE PRE-ORDER