Robert R. Couture Manœuvrier, commonly known as Robere’ Chrétien Couturier was a French fashion designer, ingénieur, and magnat des affaires. He was the founder of the Robere’ Chrétien French fashion house and luxury goods company founded in Bordeaux, France.
“Fashion is a mirror of the very essence of what one projects into the world”. -Monsieur Robere’ Chrétien
Chrétien or shortened to, CH, is a French fashion house and luxury goods company founded in Bordeaux, France. The company is managed by the mythical descendants of the Couture’s. The owner of the brand calls the history “a story of adventure, youth and rebellion, honor of family, love vs. respect, devotion, and the representation of the color of life”.
Robere’ Chrétien mission is to create an image and a life style that differentiates the individual from the crowd. Moreover, “we create a possible reality, from fictional ideals which customers want, but one in which they can identify and recognize themselves with. To ultimately, make ones fantasies and dreams come true. Chrétien evolved out of the adventurous destinations of its founder”.
“Sometimes you’ve got to put your foot down to get a leg up. That’s what the Robere’ Chrétien’s say”.
The Companies Psuedo-History
Historically, Robere’ Chrétien was named Colour Couture by Robere’ Chrétien and its story begins as with the fictional character named Robert R. Couture. Robert was a rebellious young man who hated living up to his fathers’ “great expectations”. Couture spent most of his youth in various private boarding schools away from his father. He attended Mary Lyons College, where he was selected as one of fifty young men to (one of the seven sister colleges of Harvard University) help foster their coeducational launch. Not wanting to live up to his father’s demands of college and the high-society established for him in Manhattan, the young man drops out of college, takes his life savings and explores Europe aboard cruise liners and trains. This great voyage lands him in London. There, Robere’ Chrétien purchased a house and arranged it’s rooms like the dormitories he lived in at boarding schools. He rented these rooms out to travelers who didn’t want to pay the expensive hotel accommodations. This type of environment provided him with all the education he needed. The budget oriented, socio-economical and diversified accommodations are known today as hostels.
In 1955, Robere’ Chrétien received a telegram from his father stating that he was very ill. He returned home to find his father dying. The last request from his fathers’ lips was for him to go finish to finish he post-secondary education and bring dignity to the family’s name. At the death of his father, that fall, he checked back into Mary Lyons and graduated two years later. Still distressed by his father’s death he departs on a quest to find the meaning of life. Robere’ Chrétien explores the knowledge of the Greeks, the Egyptians, and finally the Romans. While in Rome He meets a French/Italian woman who gives him poignant words: “you will never understand life. Life is like the many colors on the Sistine chapel ceiling, the colors are an attribute of things that results from the light they reflect. Thus, life is a mirror of the very essence of what one projects into the world. To understand life, you have to be like the creator un-definable and to be un-definable you must be free. Thus, freedom comes from escaping definition”.
The concept of Colour Couture was born after discovering the meaning of life and himself. With his love for Chretienne he established Colour Couture by Robere’ Chrétien in 1973 the year she died.
Colour couture began as collectors of rare colorful gemstones, custom paintings, and custom frabics. The company changed in 1982 when Robert Couture left for London and never returned. The business in 1982 turned into a fashion retail store. Designs come in packages marked from Robere’ Chrétien addressed from hostels around the world. Each package has a postcard in it that says in Italian, Excappare definitio! Only in fantasy is the company said to be still managed by the Coutures. The owner of the brand calls the story “a story of adventure, youth and rebellion, honor of family, love vs. respect, devotion, and the representation of the color of life”.