Rubens Bressanin is the man who’s supposed to revive French brand Stephane Kélian. The Venetian designer, who runs, along with Luciano Ferraresso, the Stra RubensLuciano studio, where they make collections for a number of brands, around 40, has been appointed, as art director, to relaunch the historic French brand which is currently owned by Groupe Royer, the most important French footwear importer and supplier (they also own Charles Jourdan). In 1960 two Armenian brothers, Georges and Gerard Kéloglanian, created a men’s footwear brand. In 1974 one more brother, Stephane, joined them, and in 1978 they launched together their women’s footwear line, Stephane Kéliane, a contracted form of Kéloglanian. The brand won the French market thanks to their comfort types made of braided leather. After their hits in the 1980s and 1990s, in 2007 the brand was sold off, then Groupe Royer took it over. In the last few days they presented their new collection: product types match the core of the brand, that is braided leather, in a palette of limited colours (white, blue, red) as a tribute to France and some artists, with modernity. “I travel a lot and I see around the globalization of collections. Several brands are doing great, but they are cornering fashion; therefore room for independent designers gets more and more limited”, says Bressanin.
Kélian’s renascence: the history of the French brand. Rubens Bressanin, Kélian’s fashion designer, tells about his plans
