If, meanwhile, Vilebrequin were a Shakespeare play, it would surely be a romance: one
whose narrative begins with a young itinerant motoring journalist by the name of Fred Prysquel who, one summer’s day
in 1971, found himself take on an amorous mission. “He fell in love with a lady in Saint Tropez, and travelled back there to seduce
her,” says Herlory. “They spent one whole day on the beach, and he didn’t feel comfortable with the very tight
‘spyros’ trunks popular at the time. So, having seen what surfers in Borneo and Australia were wearing, he made for
himself what would become modern swim shorts.”
What happened next calls to mind the inception of the dinner jacket, whose existence
can be traced to an American friend of Edward VII, James Potter, having a copy of the king’s Henry Poole
evening-wear made and taking it back to Tuxedo Park in Orange County, where it became a vast hit. Prysquel’s
invention proved so popular, it prompted requests for a similar pair from hoards of his companions on the coastline
uniting France and Italy and, before long, he was recruiting any local woman who had a sewing machine, and sourcing
ever more colourful fabrics from Africa, to keep up with demand.
He then persuaded his new belle, who went on to be his wife, to sell his line of
vibrant swimwear in her store. The brand name he settled on for his enterprise soon after, by the way, derives
fromPrysquel’serstwhile profession
rather than being anything to do with the sun-broiled sands of southern France – it translates as
‘crankshaft’,
Over four decades later, the name still packs the same unfathomable phonetic
resonance with the company ethos, while the basic tenets ofPrysquel’s vision
remain the same. “In terms of design and style, we’ve retained
whatheoriginally invented,” says
Herlory. “The brand still stands for seduction, comfort, freedom, attractiveness, just as it did in the beginning.
For me, the secret of the brand has always been about combining fun and elegance - the patterns and colours we
choose all fit in the overlap between these two concepts.”
Herlory has pointed out that “You can wear a bathing suit from us with green penguins and pink elephants, and not
look ridiculous”, and Vilebrequin’s gloriously brazen approach to patterns and prints knows no bounds. A
collaboration with Massimo Vitali saw the Italian photographer’s enticing beach scenes transferred to swimwear.
Another, with The Rolling Stones, who spent time in exile in Saint-Tropez (Mick and Bianca Jagger got married in its
city hall), saw a patchwork print created from the band’s album covers, while a more recent alliance with Karl
Lagerfeld conjured up less busy but equally eye-catching designs dominated by deep, vibrant blue hues. Turtles and
other sea-life commonly crop up in Vilebrequin designs, and they’ve even produced a garment embroidered with gold
thread.
They’re no slouches on the manufacturing front, either.Turning soft cotton polyamide – their material of choice - into shorts which boast a
perfect drape, whether the wearer is wet or dry, takes 32 manufacturing steps.“There are only two [fabric] printers that are able to accomplish what we need — one in Italy and one in
France,” says Herlory, “and we always make sure that the pattern on the back
pockets line up perfectly with the rest.” Other neat touches includethe
linings having no seams, which makes for a better feel - these garments are designed to be like a second skin – and
two metal eyelets in the back that release air, so they never inflate underwater.
There’s more to Vilebrequin’s passion for all things coastal than its aesthetics and
brand ethos. An ongoing commitment to preserving the very milieu Vilebrequin celebrates last year saw a new
partnership forged with the charity Te Mana O Te Moana, which was founded in 2004 on the island of Moorea in French
Polynesia, and aims to save sea turtles and to raise local awareness when it comes to their protection. It’s a more
serious side to the brand, and one which comes at no expense to that ethos of weapons-grade fun and freedom, first
conjured up by a love-struck young Frenchman in 1971 and these days finding ever more flamboyant, diverse and
elegant modes of expression.
