GATTACA ÉRIC GUÉRIN X CAULAINCOURT

The loafer for her and for him.

A shoe born of travel.

For those who never stay in one place for long.

Bird enthusiast, wildlife photographer, traveller… Michelin-starred chef Éric Guérin lives with a permanently open suitcase.

Renowned for his exceptional work at La Mare aux Oiseaux — his gastronomic restaurant perched like a marsh bird on the Île de Fédrun, in Brière — he creates an instinctive cuisine, nourished by his travels.

For this second carte blanche (after Paul de Lanouvelle’s white loafer), Caulaincourt is proud to partner with Éric to offer you an exceptional preorder.

The idea?

To design, four hands together, a shoe that would work like his kitchen uniform: slip it on without thinking, wear it like a second skin, ask nothing in return.

The starting point? The Gattaca.

Our signature loafer, reimagined with and for Éric, set on an ultra-light white micro-cellular rubber sole.

More supple — in every sense of the word.

More versatile.

(Even) more comfortable.

And a leopard print — which he didn’t want.

Until he saw the prototype.

“I never thought I’d one day wear leopard print… and yet! From the very first glance, there was this strange sensation — like the silent appearance of a big cat after hours of tracking, camera in hand, deep in a tropical forest.

The almost living shimmer of the fur in the light, that fine, slender line — at once soft, nervous and athletic… an instinctive allure.

Perhaps also because my craft has taught me to follow my intuitions, to study materials, reflections, every detail, and to let myself be surprised by pairings I hadn’t yet imagined.

So I let myself be carried by this new energy: freer, more feline, almost wild… and which, in the end, looks like me.”

Product details.

For Éric: a slightly rounder toe, a slightly less strict line. Enough to slip under a dress trouser as easily as under cargo pants, to hold through a day on your feet in the kitchen or a twenty-kilometre wander through New York.

All mounted on a white micro-cellular sole of remarkable comfort and lightness. Just that contact with the ground that matters so much to Éric, the great traveller — that way, he says, of feeling the terrain beneath your feet.

The signature silhouette of the Gattaca, with the comfort of a slipper.

The cherry on top: an unlined leather, in direct contact with the skin. A material that breathes without overheating. Absolute comfort.

The leopard.

We needed a print worthy of the man. Éric is a wildlife photographer. Jaguars in the Pantanal, tigers in India, panthers in Africa… The leopard print imposed itself… naturally.

Except he, precisely, didn’t want it. “I can’t stand fake leopard print. I’d never have bought that!“

Alexis Lafont, the house’s artistic director, held his ground and had the first prototype made… exactly as he had pictured it from the start. And when the unveiling came… “That one, yes.“

That’s the whole point of a carte blanche. Capturing the essence of a personality and blending it harmoniously with our own vision of the object.

It’s mixology, alchemy — and it’s almost always born of a human encounter.

Éric tells us he did the same thing in the kitchen with saffron. A spice he hated. Today, it’s one of his signature dishes.

Between saffron and leopard, it seems, there is but a single step.

Our advice: between two sizes, choose the smaller one.

The GATTACA LÉOPARD Éric Guérin x Caulaincourt is available by preorder exclusively, for two weeks from the launch date.

As always with our preorders, shipping is on us — worldwide.

The images were taken in the wonderful guest rooms of La Mare aux Oiseaux, and the portraits of Éric, in the intimacy of his home in Brière.

Find Éric Guérin on social media.

To follow Éric day to day — in the kitchen, on the road, behind the lens.

Instagram  @chefericguerin La Mare aux OiseauThe loafer for her and for him.