Bonne Maison Adds Pizzazz to Socks
French designer Béatrice de Crécy describes socks as a tiny space for play and creativity
Featured in our colorful sock story earlier this year, Bonne Maison keeps catching our eyes with their unusual design motifs for feet. This lead us to dig in deeper and learn more about the indie French brand. Béatrice de Crécy and her partner Jean-Gabriel Huez worked in product and brand development for two decades. When they decided to venture out and create something of their own, socks were the perfect go-to. ”I always liked to design patterns, and socks are a super space for creation—a very tiny space, but everyone can try to play with it because it’s not so visible,” de Crécy tells CH. “So I tell little stories on this allowed space.”
Made from high-quality Egyptian cotton spun in Italy, Bonne Maison’s socks are produced in France using rare sock-knitting machines—thanks to the fine gauge, detailed and intricate patterns can be created. De Crécy creates three “stories” for each season, with 12 different sock designs telling the whole of each story. This Fall/Winter 2015, for example, the stories are titled Kimono, Olympe and Métropolitan. “We dye our own colors so I begin with choosing colors,” says de Crécy. The leading colors in Olympe, for example, are storm sky blue and cinnamon, balanced by the more neutral faux noir and shades of beige, soft grey and nude. Graphically, the motifs are inspired by ancient Greece and its temples, ruins and column.
Kimono, on the other hand, centers on green, yellow and pink, with a touch of vermillion, exploring paint brushstrokes, lines and geometry. The knee-high Métropolitan collection is set in the year 1900 and channels art nouveau, natural history museums’ collections and bugs.
“I go where I want, I follow my inspirations, not really planning anything. And that’s really great to be a little company and do not have a sales or marketing team asking to do this model or this one because it will sell better,” says de Crécy, who works with three other people, including her partner Huez, on the brand. (De Crécy is also currently designing leather products for another French brand, Carré Royal). “My subjects are different each time, no limits.”
Shop Bonne Maison socks directly from their website, where the socks are organized by stories. We’re already excited by what’s in store next spring; de Crécy took inspiration from seaweed plus other underwater fauna and flora, the fresh color palette of David Hockney, and bodies in motion—like classical ballet. They are her most adventurous motifs yet.
Images courtesy of Bonne Maison
