User:Jean-Claude Jitrois

Biography
Jean-Claude Jitrois was born in 1944 in Narbonne. His father graduated from the military school of Salon-de-Provence and was an officer of the Air Force. He grew up in Aix-en-Provence, then follows his military father in Algeria : Oran and later on Alger.

At the age of 18, he leaves for Paris in order to follow psychomotor studies at l’hôpital de la Salpêtrière.

In 1975, Jean-Claude Coste is appointed as director of l’Institut Supérieur de Rééducation Psychomotrice of Nice by Simone Veil, the Health Minister at that time. In the same year, he wrote a book with Giselle Soubiran, then director of the Institut Supérieur de Rééducation Psychomotrice in Paris. The book was called Psychomotricité et relaxation psychomatique and then Corps et Graphie.

In 1975, Jean Claude published three other books : Les 50 mots-clés de la psychomotricité and La relaxation psychosyntonique (both in 1976) and then « Que sais-je ? » about psychomotor in 1977.

He will teach about psychomotor up until 1976, date on which he opened his first store rue Tonduti de l’Escarène in Nice. He mixes there with a lot of artists and he mostly met Stéphanie de Monaco who invites her friends to come try on jitrois’ creations in the store. He will also meet Niki de Saint Phalle and Ben. Another store is open few months after in Juan-les-Pins, then Antibes and finally Saint-Tropez.

In 1995, Jean-Claude Jitrois created his first stretch leather pieces. Jean-Claude Jitrois becomes then Jitrois : The stretch leather. This revolutionary material at that time is developped with the company Dupont de Nemours. In 2009, he managed to make the leather machine washable and ironable.

In 1998, the stylist created « Skin Jean » : a pair of pants with colors that fluctuates when muscles are in motion. The same year, he sketches the Minoray line where leather strips are sewed on silk organza.This collection was photographed by Helmut Newton for the « Jitrois 1998 » calendar.

Jean-Claude Jitrois was appointed Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and then Officier in march 2012.

Artistic collaboration
In 1988, he created his first perfume called jitrois with the Grasse perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. At that time, he also collaborated with the photographer Peter Beard or the graffiti artist and painter JonOne. In 2016, Jean Claude Jitrois took part in the great retrospective of Kerry James Marshall at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in one of his store on Madison Avenue in New York.

Stores
Jitrois developed itself through the United States by opening a store on Madison Avenue in New York, followed by Aspen. All the jitrois stores are designed by Christophe Pillet, Phillippe Starck’s collaborator for over a decade. Each store has its own identity: An appartment-store looking like a nightclub and build with noble materials: Black or gold leather, smooth or perforated, glass and smoked mirrors, thick carpet.

Followers
Jean Claude Jitrois’ creations are worn by celebrities from the music industry like Brigitte Nielsen1,15, FKA twigs16, Beyoncé17, Rita ora18, Mollie King19, Cher1 or from the cinema like Liz Hurley20 Sharon Stone21, Jane Seymour22, Ursula Andress23 Caroline de Monaco1. The brand also dresses models like Kate Moss24, Naomi Campbell24, Stella Tennant22,