“
There are professional playboys dressed by
Cardin
and shod by Carvil, who drive Ferraris, on the beach and in town,
who go to
Cartier
as they go to Fauchon
,” intoned Jacques Dutronc in 1966 in
Les Play-boys
.
The singer may not be one of those, but for the record, he will forever embody one of those “
little twinks who eat their purrs at the Drugstore.
The text is by Jacques Lanzmann, then editor-in-chief of the magazine
Lui
, self-proclaimed "
the magazine of the modern man
".
In September 1968, Dutronc "
turned (his) jacket, always on the right side
" in
L'Opportuniste
.
And five months after the events of May, it ends with an
anthological “
until the next revolution, I'm turning my pants over ”.
Guitarist of the group El Toro and the Cyclones, late singer, the young man, accustomed to the rock scene of Golf Drouot, likes the second degree and schoolboy humor.
Jacques Dutronc in a Renoma costume, Paris, June 1967. Getty Images Entertainment
His costume is branded Renoma.
One of these new suits that Maurice Renoma, the founder of the Parisian brand, is restructuring: he shrugs his shoulders, changes the padding, lightens it, breaks the codes.
"
Maurice is
'the king of the suit'
and, on the same register, he will say himself that
'wearing Renoma is a sine qua non for flirting with a girl'", writes Gabriel Bauret in the preface to
Maurice Renoma, a unique adventure
(La Martinière editions, 2013).
The gun-eyed chansonnier doesn't need that.
With his “
girl trap, a taboo trap, an extra toy that cracks boom huuuu, the girls fall to [his] knees
".
The fact remains that he wears short hair when the fashion is for long manes, a tie suit when his congeners wear tunics and flared floral pants.
A twink in the land of beatniks.
With Dutronc, the French song becomes cool, even if the word does not yet exist.
Cool and casual.
Cover of the album And me, and me and me in 1966 All rights reserved
Still today, the photos (often signed by
Paris Match
photographer Jean-Claude Deutsch) of the young guitarist-songwriter-composer-performer who lives in a maid's room above his parents' home, rue de Provence in Paris, are cults far beyond our borders.
Thus, one can read on the US
Vogue
website under one of them: “
Yes, French women have an inimitable style.
Yes, we would like to do the same.
But there's one category that can rival their nonchalant cool, and that's French boys.
After all, where do you think Parisiennes find all those well-cut shirts that they wear unbuttoned, without a bra?
To be convinced of this, just look at Jacques Dutronc, the musician and actor husband of
Francoise Hardy
.
“He met in 1967 the interpreter of
All the boys and the girls (1962)
.
Their love story (just as cult) will last almost three decades.
Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc at Nice Côte d'Azur airport on August 26, 1968. AGIP / Bridgeman Images
Over the years, the Frenchman who became an actor (César for best actor in 1991 for his interpretation of
Van Gogh
by Maurice Pialat) swapped his suits for a leather jacket and took refuge behind an eternal cigar (Cohiba) and the opaque glasses of his Airman.
The famous Ray-Ban model, emblem of men who impose (from Marlon Brando in
L'Équipée sauvage (1953)
to Robert Redford in
Les trois jours du condor (1975)
passing by Jim Morrison and Keith Richards) does not leave his nose any more.
An accessory that would hide vision problems dating from childhood.
From the end of the 2000s, Dutronc only left his refuge in Monticello, in Corsica, for rare appearances in dark glasses (always) and leather jacket, in particular the multiple concerts of the Vieilles Canailles with his former friends from Golf Drouot. : Eddy Mitchell and Johnny Hallyday and more recently, his farewell concerts last December alongside his son, Thomas.
