fashion review by Chance Goode
image courtesy of Jitrois
A Discussion With Jitrois About His Dress-Up Box and Desire
There is nothing sexier than leather. No one understands this more than Jean-Claude Jitrois. The 81-year-old leather couturier started his career as a psychotherapist. In 1983, he took his tools of psychology and applied them to high fashion. To the fashion industry, he is better known as the King of Leather because of his revolutionary stretch leather that is worn like a second skin. As a leather aficionado, I was thrilled when I got the opportunity to meet with the Parisian King of Leather to discuss his latest collection.
Chance Goode: Good afternoon. Thank you for meeting with me today.
Jean-Claude Jitrois: It’s a pleasure, and on top of that, you’re wearing a leather shirt.
CG: Of course, I had to. I wanted to talk to you about your latest collection.
JCJ: Perfect, I’m ready to talk about our Autumn/Winter 2025-2026 collection.
CG: So what was the inspiration for this collection?
JCJ: My idea was to let it be like a treasure box. A dress-up box where you’re going to find everything you could need for the next season.
CG: I love that.
JCJ: The idea is not to impose a vision that is very monolithic of what the collection is. It’s not there. There shall be something for everyone. Fashion is about desire. What I have been trying to achieve all my life is to give the tools to be more yourself and to create desire for yourself or towards others. What matters is desire. Whether that be the desire for someone else or the desire to inspire.
Before becoming a fashion designer, I had an academic life where I was a therapist for kids. My work was based around psychodrama where I would dress up the patients. I was creating the garments myself and dressing them up. So that the patients with behavioral disorders or gender disorders could be treated in a non-psychiatric manner. What I was creating with the patients in the past is what I am creating now with the collection.
CG: How do you apply what you learned by being a psychotherapist to fashion?
JCJ: The psychodrama therapy in particular comes from an American therapist called Jacob Moreno. When there is discrepancy or sadness or even, dissonance, whether as children or as adults, we find that the way you dress can change your mindset, the way you relate to the world and how others relate to you.
Because leather is a second skin and where it meets the body it creates a form of protection. It also creates a very particular feeling, a particular intimate experience that completely changes the way we appear to ourselves and others. That creates desire.
CG: So why did you choose leather?
JCJ: The reason why I chose leather is because my father was a pilot in the French army, and he had this leather flying jacket that was covered with medals. As a child, I was not allowed to touch his jacket, so when my father was away, I would play with the jacket and tell myself stories about being a heroic pilot. And this is what makes me look to leather.
CG: I like that you mentioned desire and how whenever you put on leather, it protects you. Because my connection with leather is through the queer leather community. Like Tom of Finland and Robert Mapplethorpe. Which is all about desire and protection in a way.
photos by Omer Majiauk (courtesy of Jitrois)
JCJ: I like the idea of transgression. To wear that flight jacket was a type of transgression. Throughout my career, I have done a lot of transgressions because I specialized in this material. Starting in the eighties, I gave leather color and used it in my evening gowns. At that time, that was completely inappropriate. When you wear leather, there’s a certain strength. There’s a certain idea that can be very suggestive.
The reason why the collection is a dress-up box is because there’s a lot in it and there is the guarantee of catering for diversity. Diversity is very, very important for us because I believe that everyone’s different. Everyone has their own story to tell. So that’s why as a designer, when you propose a collection, once it meets the person that’s gonna wear it, they’re going to turn it into something else. It’s a bit like a book. The reader and the writer create the story as it is being read. At the end of the day, the message that I want to carry to a collection is that each one of us shall be free of our own choices.
There’s a lot of inspiration from movies. For example, there’s this director who is quite famous in the US now. His name is Pedro Almodóvar. Have you heard of him?
CG: Yes. I love his work.
JCJ: He released a movie like, thirty years ago, called High Heels.
CG: I remember that one.
JCJ: It’s this story of identity and transgression. There is this judge who becomes a drag queen. There is also a conflict between the mother and daughter. All the clothes, heels, and accessories get completely transformed with the characters. They even change gender.
I think that his movies are an incredible source of inspiration. I hope that for most designers this is a great source of inspiration.
upper image courtesy of Jitrois
lower image by Omer Majiauk
CG: I love his movie, The Skin I Live In.
JCJ: Yeah, it has similar themes. In the same manner, I am inspired by a lot of different forms of media. For example, Picasso was part of the inspiration for the collection. I was inspired by a painting of Picasso’s called, Harlequin. I was fascinated by the geometry of the shapes. As well, there’s a lot of color. The harlequin was wearing a ruff, which is why there’s a ruff in the collection. We removed the color of the painting because we do a lot of black. It created an incredible pattern of geometric embroideries on leather and silk. There’s a dress like this and leggings too.
To be a designer, you need to be a watcher. Like in my previous career, when you’re being a therapist, you need to be a great listener. And as I am watching you, I am observing that you have a really beautiful tattoo on your face.
CG: Oh, yes! I have two. Thank you.
JCJ: Brilliant!
CG: The way that you make the leather look so soft is incredible! I love leather, but when it gets hot outside in the city it’s almost unbearable to wear my leather. Your clothes look like they’re perfect all season long. How do you do that?
JCJ: In the nineties, I created stretch leather. Stretch leather has a certain quality. The leather you’re wearing, it’s extensible. You know? If you’re wearing a thicker jacket eventually, it’s going to get wrinkled underneath at the elbows. It’s natural because leather is not elastic.
With stretch leather, we take the best quality of leather. It’s called lambskin. It is the typical French leather that Hermès would use or Chanel would use. We slice it to the minimum and then we glue it on cotton so it’s just the surface. So it’s where you get the touch, but you don’t have the thickness anymore.
We have clients that come in the shop and they have stuff they bought, like, twenty or thirty years ago. They all say that our pieces last more than a watch or a car.
images courtesy of Jitrois
CG: Wow. That’s amazing.
JCJ: To answer your question, it’s because it’s so thin. The leather is very breathable. You get the combo of having a super sexy look while actually being comfortable in it.
CG: So what’s next for you? What can we expect next from Jitrois?
JCJ: Leather is the most ancient material that humankind has used to dress up. Then it became a material used in war for protection. Then, it was a very male material. So when I started, I brought color to leather. I feminized it and turned it into couture. Then I made it stretch.
I have always had this technological approach to leather. And now we’re starting to approach natural, non-animal leather. There are a few avenues we are exploring at the moment because something we don’t want to do is create something that would contain plastic. Because you don’t solve the problem.
Today, for example, we met this company that uses mushroom leather. They’re making lots of progress.
We are working on a collaboration with a company that puts electric engines inside older collectible cars. They’re going to launch the prototype at the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo in May. We’re doing a line of driving gear for them in this new mushroom leather.
I am always in motion. Researching new technologies is very exciting.