Jean-Claude JITROIS 

Fashion designer. 

Executive Ambassador of Le Soleil Foundation.

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Jean-Claude Jitrois is the founder and current creative director of the luxury ready-to-wear brand, Jitrois, since 1983. 

Jean-Claude Jitrois was born in 1944 in Narbonne, his father graduated from the Ecole Militaire de Salon-de-Provence, an officer in the French Air Force. He grew up in Aix-en-Provence then followed the assignments of his father, military, in Algeria: Oran then Algiers.

At the age of eighteen, he left for Paris to study psychomotility at the Salpêtrière hospital. He begins to perceive fashion through his studies, where he deals with children with behavioral disorders. During therapy, he sets up role-playing disguise sessions. By making costumes through which children identify with firefighters or soldiers, he tries to strengthen their personality. During this period, he wrote several books relating psychomotricity under his real name, Jean-Claude Coste.

In 1975, Jean-Claude Coste was appointed by Simone Veil, then Minister of Health, to head the Higher Institute of Psychomotor Rehabilitation in Nice from 1975. He co-wrote a book with Giselle Soubiran, then director of the Higher Institute of Psychological Rehabilitation in Paris, in 1975 entitled Psychomotricity and psychosomatic relaxation, then Body and Graphie.

In 1975, Jean Claude published three other books, The 50 keywords of psychomotricity and Psychosyntonic relaxation (both in 1976) and finally the "Que sais-je ?" on Psychomotility in 1977.

History

He taught psychomotility until 1976, when he opened his first shop, rue Tonduti de l'Escarene, in Nice. It is at this time that the creator begins to mix Nikki of Saint-Phalle or Ben.  Another shop opened a few months later in Juan-les-Pins, then in Antibes and finally in Saint-Tropez. Quickly established on the Côte d'Azur. The codes and aesthetic vision of the brand that endured were deeply influenced by the contemporary artists of this period, who gathered in Provence, known as the New School of Nice. During the war and occupation, the south of France had been the ‘Free Zone’, and had since remained a hotbed for artists. During that time Jean Claude was regularly attending the Auberge de la Colombe d’Or (The Inn of the Golden Dove) in Saint Paul de Vence where one could bump into the artists Juan Miro, Alexander Calder, Yves Klein or Cesar Baldiccini. By the late ‘70s, leather was still heavily associated with motorcycle toughs, punks and the armed forces. Jean Claude Jitrois started a fashion revolution when he elevated the oldest material worn by man to the status of couture, fit even for a princess.

Indeed, the royal family of Monaco - Caroline, Princess of Hanover was amongst Jean Claude’s earliest and most loyal client. The creations of Jean-Claude Jitrois are carried by personalities from the world of music such as Brigitte Nielsen,,Brigitte Bardot, Elton John, Cher, Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, FKA twigs, Beyonce Knowles, Barbara Palvin, Mary J. Blige and Johnny Hallyday and filmmakers such as Liz Hurley at Gong Li, Monica Bellucci, Sharon Stone, Charlotte Rampling, Heidi Klum, Liane Foly, Brian de Palma, Nathalie Baye or Reem Kherici, Jane Seymour, Ursula Andress. 

Top models such as Kate Moss,  Naomi Campbell  and Stella Tennant also wear Jitrois collections.

In 1995, Jean-Claude Jitrois created the first pieces in stretch leather. Jean-Claude Jitrois becomes Jitrois: The stretch leather, This material is then developed with the company Dupont de Nemours. By combining technologyand fashion, the designer pushes the limits of the use of leather. In 2009, he managed to make leather ironable and machine washable, especially in a sustainable development approach.

In 1998, the fashion designer created "Skin Jean". It is a pair of trousers whose colors vary according to the extension given by the muscles in movement; this thanks to the technique of "hallu stretch leather" that skates over time. The same year, he draws the Minoray line where leather bands are sewn on silk organza. This collection will be photographed by Helmut Newton for the "Jitrois 1998" calendar. From then on, the leather bands became the hallmark of Jean-Claude Jitrois.

Collaborations. 

Jean Claude Jitrois worked with photographers such as Helmut Newton, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Karl Lagerfeld,  Bettina Rheims, Tyen, Marcus Mam. Since 2006, he began a collaboration with the English photographer John Rankin Waddell, founder of Dazed & Confused and Hunger Magazine. Many stylists and creative producers have worked with Jean Claude, Jeremy Scott, Vicky Lawton,  Vincent Peters, Anna Hughes-Chamberlain and Katie Grand. He developed his first perfume, named Jitrois in 1988, designed by the perfumer Jean Claude Ellena, legendary nose of Hermès since 2004. Brigitte Nielsen was the muse. In 2016, Jean-Claude Jitrois marked the launch of the great retrospective of Kerry James Marshall at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in one of his shops on Madison Avenue in New York. Jean-Claude Jitrois has started many collaborations with artists such as JonOne, César, Peter Beard and Stanley Wong . Recently Jitrois collaborated with Parisian architects Corpus Studio for a project that mixes sculpture, technology and interior design. The minimalist structure was created with the studio Jitrois; it is inspired by Louise Bourgeois and works by Alexander Calder.

Greece. 

Thanks to the contribution of Ms Ada Iliopoloulou, Jean Claude Jitrois, a philhellene who literally adores the Hellenic history acquired a room dedicated to him at the 5* hotel St. George Lycabettus Athens, recently voted as the hotel with the “Best View in Europe”.
The room was designed and decorated by Greek architect, Katerina Efthymiou, of Positive+ Architects. Gold is the predominant color in the room, along with some touches of blue, thus paying tribute to the French designer’s latest collection. The decor of the room

is photoes from the golden collection of JITROIS from the shooting in London by famous photographer Ratkin. 

After his huge collaboration with Le Soleil Foundation and the events we organised together in Greece ,JITROIS created the Ada dress to honor the President of Le Soleil Foundation, Mrs Ada Iliopoulou for her remarkable charitable work and her movements for art and the ideals of Greece.

https://jitrois.com/