The Rake Exclusive! Stark & Sons x Paul Fournier denim trousers
More often than not, dressing up denim can look makeshift. Thankfully, the Paris-based bespoke tailoring house Stark & Sons has crafted a single-pleated pair of trousers from a mid-weight Japanese denim that has the ability to appear both formal and casual.
The “Tailor of the Republic” was how General de Gaulle liked to call Stark & Sons, which has since then garbed countless politicians, elegant gentlemen and been in charge of dressing the French Académiciens in their Habit vert, consisting of a long black coat richly embroidered with green leafy motifs. The Habit vert could very well be the epitome of French know-how, entirely made bespoke, by hand and requiring an outstanding 600 hours of embroidery. Since 1910, three generations of Stark & Sons tailors have cut and dressed elegant gentlemen. When the house sadly lost its head tailor after a 38-year-long tenure, Camps de Luca, the discrete yet extraordinary Parisian tailor, confidently took over the operations and admittedly took the work to yet another level. Now spearheaded by Julien and Charles de Luca who, like their father Marc, are master tailors, Stark & Sons has introduced a new made-to-measure tailoring offer with a product mostly made by hand in Italy and finished in Paris for buttonholes and fittings. This is, by any measure, at the higher end of the made-to-measure spectrum with refined handmade details.
Inspired by Charles’ appetite to stretch the limits of traditional tailoring and our shared love for unusual fabrics, Stark & Sons and I ventured into the construction of a new pair of trousers that could be as easily worn with a sport coat, shirt and tie as with a t-shirt, leather jacket and sneakers. The fabric that inspired this and that represented a challenge in itself, is a mid-weight Japanese denim in a relatively dark shade of blue. The cut had to prove radically different from denim jeans; I had this vision of double-pleated denim trousers with a high-waist wide band. The pleats give just enough shape to the top part to be flattering and manly. I usually opt for 2-inch turn up cuffs on my trousers but went with none for these trousers due to the fact that denim jeans are often rolled up to show the selvedge. Charles perfectly executed this pair of crafted trousers with Stark & Sons’ Italian workshop and the result is a unique and dégagé style.
These double-pleated denim trousers are not casual, yet not smart. Who would want to be in a box? That would be terribly boring and we can all agree there is nothing boring about this pair.
