Jean Claude Jitrois

Jean Claude Jitrois had an unusual career path since he first began by psychology. In his early years, he taught psychology at Nice University. Also a clinician and a therapist in psycho-motility, his start was a recognized and promising one, being the author of several books (among which one « Que sais-je ? » about psycho-motility). Jean Claude Jitrois found his love for fashion in the most unusual place – in the hospital working with disabled children as he created costumes for the children to play with.

The love was found and the catalyst came next. Jean Claude Jitrois father’s aviator jacket was the first piece that inspired him. After creating one for Stephanie of Monaco after a chance meeting, Jean Claude Jitrois left psychology behind and began a new career as a fashion designer, opening his first boutique in 1976 in Nice on the rue Tondutil de l’Escarene.

He considered fashion as a language where bodies, very much like in dancing, communicate through a system of signs that can vary and be modified, and a basis on which to work. Jean – Claude Jitrois realized that it was possible to adapt a lot of elements of his theory and of his therapeutic practice to Couture. His first intuition, his vision of fashion was that clothes were like a second skin, a second self, a non – verbal language within the social body. Jean Claude Jitrois simply changed his activity, but he surely did not change his trade.

Going from strength to strength, anotherJitrois boutique soon followed in the town of Juan-les-Pins, near Antibes and then another in St. Tropez.

Quickly establishing himself within the influential circles on the Côte d’Azur, he continued to design for the royal family of Monaco, for both Stéphanie and her sister Caroline. In 1980 he created a complete bath robe for Brigitte Bardot.

This marks the start of a new period of designing for Jean Claude, as he launched his first leather line, J3 in 1981, which included his first men’s wear line. The success that followed resulted in the first Parisian boutique in 1983, opening on the world famous rue Faubourg Saint Honoré, the Rodeo Drive of Paris.

Well-respected in the fashion circle, Jean Claude Jitrois already has an assured place in fashion history when he revolutionized the leather industry in 1995 when he launched the first stretch leather in the world.

Over the years, Jitrois has continued to push the physical properties of the oldest material worn by man. Combining state of the art technology, Jitrois has created leather garments that go far beyond normal expectations of leather.

In 1998, Jitrois opened a new boutique on the prestigious Sloane Street in London, followed by one in Puerto Banus in Spain and then one in Cannes, on the Croisette.

In 2002 Jean Claude Jitrois received the ‘Légion d’Honneur’, the highest decoration in France for services to the fashion industry and the promotion of France abroad.