Serge Ruffieux launches fashion accessories brand 13 09 SR
Serge Ruffieux has launched his first independent brand, focused on accessories. The former creative director of Parisian label Carven is undertaking the new endeavour with journalist Émilie Faure, who left French newspaper Le Figaro last February. Faure will manage the new company and look after marketing and communications.
“I am pleased to announce today the launch of 13 09 SR, a new accessories brand. It is my first independent brand, and its name is made up of my date of birth and initials. I have been thinking about it for a long while. The times we live in have transformed this idea into a necessity. This is the right time for it,” said the Italian-Swiss designer in a press release.
During his three-season stint in charge of Carven’s style, Ruffieux distinguished himself for the inventiveness he injected into accessories, especially shoes. As he explained, “instinctively, I always start by picturing shoes and glasses. Accessories determine attitude, they mirror one’s personality.”
Ruffieux will begin with these two product categories, presenting his first collection in Paris in October, during the next fashion week.
“13 09 SR is a long-term project. I am determined to create a style that is distinctive, amusing and sustainable, using recycled and ecological materials. To begin with, hybrid shoes and jewel-like sunglasses, all made in Italy,” said Ruffieux, who since 2019 has been at the helm of a Shanghai-based ready-to-wear and accessories label as creative director.
Ruffieux, 46, has so far enjoyed a remarkable career in the luxury goods sector. A fashion enthusiast from very early on, he graduated from Geneva’s Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design (HEAD), then started working at Moschino in Milan, before joining Sonia Rykiel in Paris. After stints at Cacharel and Gérard Darel, he took charge of Dior’s ready-to-wear design studio, under the successive stewardships of John Galliano and Raf Simons.
When the latter left in October 2015, Ruffieux, who at the time was head designer for the haute couture and women’s ready-to-wear collections, found himself in the limelight together with his colleague and compatriot Lucie Meier, taking charge of design ad interim for the luxury Parisian label until Maria Grazia Chiuri stepped in to head Christian Dior’s womenswear collections in July 2016.
Six months later, in February 2017, Ruffieux was appointed creative director of Carven, a post he held until the label was acquired by Chinese fashion group Icicle in October 2018. Émilie Faure has a management degree from the French Fashion Institute, and has worked as a fashion industry journalist for 20 years.
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