Our new Spring collection - Le temps retrouvé part 2

Spring is here. Yes, the sun is shining again.

"At last!" some will exclaim.

Slowly, our trusty wool sweaters, overshirts and coats are giving way to lighter, more fluid in-between-season pieces.

So, following on from last year's spring collection, we bring you Le Temps Retrouvé, part 2. Available now on our website and in our boutiques.

Colorful shirts, vintage-inspired polo shirts, casual suiting in Italian wool seersucker... in this article, we tell you the stories behind the creation of all these pieces, the specifics of each fabric we've selected and all our style tips to make them your own.

And because good news never comes alone (or so it seems), Benoît and I are preparing several videos to tell you all about these new products.

The Otranto suit, soft tailoring is striking back (by Benoît)

Our unstructured Otranto suit is back, and not just in any material.

David presented the first version of this ensemble last year.

As for the changes, we've raised the shoulders slightly while maintaining the initial relaxed silhouette.

We have a lot of customers who order this suit for weddings where the dress code is casual, and it's perfect for those who want to go further than a traditional suit and tie.

But it's basically a suit designed to be worn off-the-rack, so don't hesitate to wear it in everyday life:

• The jacket alone will look great with a casual shirt, but also with a t-shirt. This was the combination I had in mind when choosing this fabric,
• The pants, with their navy blue colorway, will look great with a t-shirt and an overshirt. The possibilities are endless.

But let's see what fabric we've used to achieve this...

An intriguing Italian wool seersucker...

It's a 100% wool fabric, with a nervous hand that resists wrinkling well and ensures a fall with plenty of structure.

It's a seersucker reinterpreted in a contemporary way by the renowned Italian weaver Vitale Barberis Canonico.

Instead of a classic seersucker, Vitale Barberis Canonico has decided to emphasize the stripes, with strong tactile and visual texture, while retaining a slightly waffle appearance between two stripes. The result is a double texture on this fabric.

In addition to its texture, seersucker's weaving technique pulls the fabric away from your skin, making it more breathable. Another advantage of seersucker is its slight natural elasticity, allowed here without the slightest trace of elastane, making this jacket very comfortable and leaving you free to move.

The icing on the cake: this fabric is virtually wrinkle-free. Whether you pack it in your suitcase for a trip or wear it for a long day, this jacket will keep its shape, without forming unsightly creases.

Our Poetto pants are back (by Benoît)

You loved them, they're back - and in two colors - with two very special fabrics: here's the Poetto, our best-selling wide-leg pant.

We're starting with an ecru version, which is already a big hit, just a few days after it went online.

Undyed herringbone fabric, made in France

Like the very first Poetto, this ecru fabric is woven in France by Telatex.

The micro herringbone pattern gives it a visual texture that harkens back to vintage workwear. Best of all, you'll notice "neps" in the weave: those little impurities are due to the natural, undyed cotton used here.

It's these irregularities that give this fabric its soul.

The result is a beautiful summer fabric, both elegant and raw, that will accompany you through many sunny days.

A Poetto in technical fabric

It was our well-kept secret: we made this Poetto in navy blue, with an Italian technical fabric that I fell in love with.

It's a seersucker fabric, made of wool and Cordura, with a bit of stretch: it's light, hard-wearing, elegant and quick-drying.

In other words, this fabric combines all the advantages of wool (drape, odor resistance, elegance) with those of Cordura (drying speed and durability).

Indeed, Cordura is a type of nylon that meets specific specifications in terms of abrasion resistance and durability. That's why it's so popular within the military.

More precisely, Cordura is made from a nylon known as "6,6 " - a rather technical term referring to a particular number of carbon atoms - with superior durability compared to the commonly used "6" nylon.

It's a high-end nylon. In fact, it's as expensive as some of the finest Italian fabrics we've used in the past.

If we put this fabric into figures, we get :

• 59% wool
• 39% Cordura
• 2% elastane for stretch

The result? Extremely comfortable, long-lasting pants, with abrasion resistance that surpasses any wool pants(this fabric achieves 50,000 turns in the Martindale abrasion test, up to 4x more than a conventional woollen dress fabric).

And that's not all: this fabric is a micro-seersucker, featuring very slight waffle texture to further improve drying speed and thermal properties in warm weather.

It took a lot of research on the part of Marlane, the Italian weaver behind this fabric, to find the right balance between Cordura and wool, so as to maintain an elegant appearance despite the presence of a technical fiber.

If you were looking for a pair of pants that would accompany you intensively on your travels, comfortable to wear sitting down for long hours, you've found it!

These truly are pants at the crossroads of elegance and technicality, in a top-of-the-range Italian fabric.

Wear these pants with both elegant and casual outfits.

Kamikoshi pants, the bold alternative to cargo (by Benoît)

Want to know more about one of the team's favorite pants?

We're talking about the Kamikoshi, wide-leg pants that reinterpret British army pants, recognizable by their asymmetrical pockets.

Last year, we told you the story behind the development of these pants, which required several prototypes to find the right waistband height and, above all, the right positioning for the pockets.

They're made from a wide, comfortable cut in a robust Italian fabric, perfect for those who want to explore something other than fitted cuts.

Made of 70% recycled cotton and 30% organic cotton, its dense, durable canvas weighs 385 g/m². It is woven by Manteco in Italy, a weaver who has been a pioneer in cotton recycling for 80 years!

Those who tried its loose, comfortable cut (23.5cm leg opening for a size 48) immediately loved it.

We're very happy with the way it was received last year! So, in addition to the return of the coyote color, closer to its military heritage, we're offering it this season in a very urban navy blue that will patina with wear, perfect for wearing with a white button-down Calvi shirt or sweatshirt.

Its richly nuanced color is obtained through a garment-dyeing process that consists of making the garment in an unbleached color, then dyeing it by immersing it directly in a dye bath.

Wembley tobacco loafers, or the essential suede penny loafer (by David)

It's always a pleasure to talk to you about loafers.

I'm wearing some at the time of writing. I was wearing them yesterday too. And I'll probably be wearing some tomorrow.

Last season, we introduced you to the Wembley loafers.

After bringing you the smooth leather version, it seemed obvious for us to make a suede version.

We've taken the casual look a step further with this suede leather, which we've chosen in a warm, luminous shade of tobacco brown, perfect for the summer months. This supple, deeply hued leather is sourced from Mastrotto, a family-run Italian leather specialist with over half a century of experience.

You'll also notice that the sole is of a lighter color, to match the rest of the shoe.

This is truly an easy-to-wear moccasin:

• For all your upcoming weddings, with a bright, textured suit
• For all your spring and summer outfits: they're perfect for adding a touch of chic with jeans and a t-shirt or polo shirt, for example.

The multicolored Calvi shirt, or our interpretation of the iconic American fun shirt (by David)

I've always found the fun shirt to be a fun piece.

"Well, yes, that's why it's called a 'fun shirt', precisely."

To be more precise, I mean "fun" in the sense of "intriguing and stylistically interesting". Diverting the shirt, a garment sometimes considered very formal, into a much more creative and colorful version is an approach that appeals to me. Because sometimes you have to have fun with clothes.

So I was very excited when I saw this shirt pass through our offices for the first time a few months ago.

I think about it, but you might not know exactly what a fun shirt is. Well, this shirt wasn't meant to be.

Context: it's the 1970s, in the Brooks Brothers workshop.

A little less well-known in France, this American brand is emblematic of the preppy, casual chic style, much in the same vein as Ralph Lauren.

One day, the vice-president at the time, Ash Wall, was visiting the workshop.

During this visit, dear Ash came across some very unusual shirts, with lots of different colors and fabrics. These are actually pieces made by the workshop's new dressmakers, from fabric scraps lying around for practice.

The story goes that Ash Wall declared "these are some fun shirts! He then decided to market these shirts, which were an immediate success... and that's how the "fun shirt" was born.

It has survived the decades and is still popular today.

Although there are many ways of designing it, its most iconic version is striped, in oxford cotton. So that's the shape we've chosen for this Calvi shirt.

For the rest, the main challenge is to find the right level of contrast between the different colors. If they're too bright and contrast too much, the garment becomes visually unreadable. If, on the other hand, the colors are too close together, the garment lacks the bright, colorful look so characteristic of the fun shirt.

We've struck the right balance by selecting three striped fabrics on a white base in soft, almost pastel hues, to create a coherent, pleasing ensemble. On this shirt, you'll see a pink stripe, a green stripe and a yellow stripe.

The other challenge was how to arrange the panels: what color to use, and where? With this in mind, we chose to dress the front and back of the shirt in a green stripe, and place the stronger colors (yellow and pink) on the sleeves, collar and chest pocket.

This oxford fabric is both dense and supple, giving the shirt a good hold yet light enough to be worn on sunny days. This fabric, or rather these three fabrics, come from Portuguese weaver Vilarinho, with 90 years' experience in creating textured shirt fabrics.

And if you were wondering how to wear a fun shirt, I'd say it works best around fairly simple pieces.

Whether it's with jeans and loafers, or chino and sneakers, it brightens up the outfit with its colors, while keeping the shape simple.

I also think it goes well with a navy blue suit, to add a touch of originality.

The Numana polo returns to brighten up your life (by David)

To go beyond the simple cotton pique polo, there's the knit polo, which adds a subtle touch of elegance with its knitted construction.

And to go further than the plain knit polo, we brought you the Numana polo last year, in a vibrant honey color, with a zigzag stitch on the front to enrich your outfits and an elegant open, unbuttoned collar.

(This collar is perfectly proportioned to sit over a blazer lapel, by the way. I'm just saying).

First good news: after last season's success, the Numana honey polo is back in stock.

Second good news: we're offering two new ones.

The first is a declination in a warm, organic olive color, which adds a touch of light and goes equally well with other light colors (like ecru pants and tobacco loafers) or deeper colors (like a navy blue jacket or even black shoes).

The second is more daring. It deserves a little more explanation. It's terracotta with olive and cream vertical stripes.

On seeing it, Morjane, our retail manager, said: "It reminds me of my father's polo shirts from the '70s!"

She hit the nail on the head.

This version of the Numana draws its inspiration from the vintage knitted polo shirts with colorful stripes that were available from the 1950s to the 1970s. Look, for example, at the characters played by Ray Liotta in Goodfellas or Viggo Mortensen in Green Book, each sporting colorful striped polo shirts of this type.

We've taken this inspiration and applied it to the Numana with a terracotta base, oscillating between burgundy and brown, and wide olive and cream stripes. Note how all three colors are in intermediate shades, neither too dark nor too light. Thus, they contrast in hue, but harmonize in their similar levels of clarity. If we had put an optical white on the middle stripe, the contrast would have been much stronger, less gentle on the eye.

This is a piece I really like, as it adds originality to an outfit while being easy to wear. It brings a little vintage vibe to your outfits, without falling into the bad side of vintage (synthetic materials, overly showy patterns, old-fashioned cuts).

The Maurice polo shirt, for the love of the oval ball (by David)

Rugby polo shirts have long been off my radar. I had a slightly old-fashioned image of it, shaped by the models I saw in the 2000s.

Then, more recently, I started to see them regularly on certain lookbooks from more style-conscious brands. Worn sometimes more streetwise, sometimes a little more chic, I started to take a closer look at this piece.

As you'd expect, it's a piece that was born on the rugby field. In the early days, players' shirts were made of raw wool, which was not very comfortable against the skin. Eventually, they evolved into thick cotton jersey, more comfortable and resistant.

Colorful stripes were used to distinguish the teams, and the collar was contrasted to differentiate the rugby polo from other sportswear, but also to make the players more visible, both to spectators in the stands and to the referee.

From the mid-20th century onwards, rugby polo gradually moved out of the field. In particular, it was adopted by students at American Ivy League universities, who, in their desire to dress in a freer, less codified way, appreciated this garment for its casual side, while remaining sufficiently elegant thanks to its polo collar.

So to broaden your style palette, this season we offer you the Maurice, our contemporary interpretation of the timeless rugby polo.

The Maurice is distinguished by :

• Horizontal stripes

Specially developed by our Portuguese supplier, we've designed the stripes a little narrower than on real rugby polo shirts, to give it a slightly more urban, less sporty feel.

• Contrasting polo collar

The collar is made of ecru cotton twill, providing a softer contrast than optical white. The button placket is in textured grosgrain fabric.

• 100% regenerative cotton jersey

But what is it? It's a new way of growing cotton, which has been on the rise for a few years now, and whose aim is to get closer to natural ecosystems, in order to restore the health of fertile land and have a positive impact on soil quality rather than degrading it through over-intensive cultivation.

This is a slower approach to cotton cultivation, which involves in particular:

• Limiting tillage,
• Covering the soil with a cover crop, between harvests, to protect it,
• Integrating livestock: while livestock is disappearing in intensive farming, the integration of livestock that naturally fertilizes the soil reduces the use of chemical fertilizers and other pesticides.

The result: a cotton that's more respectful of the environment, but also of the people who grow it, and which appears on this polo shirt in a jersey that's compact yet soft and comfortable.

The Benton (over)shirt, when one pocket can hide another (by Benoît)

During spring and summer, I'm a huge fan of overshirts in olive / foliage green / sage tones, and I strive to offer one every spring in our collection.

I'm looking for a soft, pastel green with a summery vibe, whose huge advantage is that you can wear it with ecru, white, beige or blue pants.

And as it's a piece I wear very often, I insist on it being in a fabric that exudes sturdiness, one that can accompany you on your many travels - be it evenings by the seaside or with a backpack for your next adventure.

So that's the brief for this new shirt: to be worn next to the skin or as an overshirt, it's up to you!

But before we talk about the fabric, let's talk about the visual element that catches the eye: the interlocking pockets.

It's the brainchild of Édouard, our product developer, who was inspired by a photo of a very vintage work shirt.

So you have four chest pockets that allow you to organize your personal belongings very finely - which is very useful in spring or summer for storing your headphones, identity papers, a pack of tissues, a micro-bottle of hydro-alcoholic gel, etc.

Portuguese canvas

For a fabric that will develop a patina as your adventures unfold, I chose this 300 g/m² canvas from Portuguese weaver Somelos. It's a pretty hard-wearing fabric for a shirt, so it'll last a long time.

This sage hue evokes exploration clothing and military wardrobes rethought in a contemporary way, in a vegetal and organic ambiance. And it's the texture of the canvas that highlights this color.

In short, this is a piece that I wanted to be as everyday as possible, as much for its functionality as for its color.