Press article from The Week
Alexia Aubert welcomes me in her boutique-cum-atelier on Paris’
Left Bank, in the city’s prestigious 6th arrondissement. “It’s a busy residential area just a few steps away from the famous Saint-Germain-des-Prés and close to Montparnasse, where I grew up,” she says of the address. Opened just a few months ago, the first boutique of footwear make Jacques Solovière Paris has quickly become a mecca for those in search of shoes that are as comfortable as they are elegant. For as long as she can remember, Aubert has been fascinated with shoes:
As a teenager, she regularly spent all her pocket money at local thrift stores, building a collection of finds. And before launching her own brand in 2014, she worked for two icons of French footwear: Christian Louboutin and Pierre Hardy.
Then, after a successful stint working and living in New York City, where she headed up the footwear atelier of Oscar de la Renta and fell for the charms of the city’s Lower East Side, Aubert and her family settled in Paris.
Here, she started her own company, Jacques Solovière Paris. Its named after her grandad, who she today describes as “the most elegant man I have ever met. He was passionate about shoes and adapted his outfits around them.”
A mother of two, Aubert is a family person, which is why her designs take their name after the ones closest to her: the ultra-light Matt slippers, hand-crafted from a single piece of khaki suede – her signature fabric – is a nod to her husband Matthieu. The lace-up Oli low boot in smooth brown calf leather is named after her father Olivier. The Alexis slip-on loafer in vintage tweed is a reference to one of her best friends, screen-writer and director Alexis Michalik.
Michalik is a ‘Solo’ fan, as are many other Parisian tastemakers, among them French actors Jonathan Cohen and Alex Lutz.
With shelving hand-crafted from ash, larch and birch woods, matching benches and a discreet checkout counter, the Jacques Solovière Paris boutique is minimalist in design. The interior’s natural hues reflect the brand’s elegance. As a designer, Aubert prefers an earthy palette; she never works with “fluorescent” or “chemical” colors.
Tucked into the back of the shop is a studio space, where on any given day, one might bump into Aubert sketching, meeting with buyers or chatting with her clients.
“Using the same space for my studio has been the best decision, now I know what my clients think about my styles in real time,” she says. “It’s a constant dialogue”.
Aubert keeps it simple: the Jacques Solovière Paris team counts just four members and she takes all made-to-measure orders personally.
Once a design is finished, Aubert sends her sketches to a family-owned workshop in Portugal, to the North of Porto, where the shoes are manufactured from Italian materials and hand-stitched.
Why men’s shoes? “There are more stories to tell,” Aubert explains.
“My main inspiration is a classic man, the French monsieur.”