Toulouse: The Colette Idrac store “drops the shirt”
The boutique, which specializes in Colette Idrac shirts in rue des Filatiers, closes on Saturday 27 November. A sign in Toulouse.
Half-empty shelves where a few old-fashioned boxes are piled up, clothes racks where sadly hang a few elegant shirts and dressing gowns in Pyrenean wool, the softness of which we can guess … The Colette Idrac shirt, installed at the corner of the rue Filatiers noticed by the passer-by by its facade of another time, ends its activity Saturday, November 27 after several decades of commercial presence in the city. “I have not found a buyer, it’s a heartbreak, admits Colette Idrac, 74, born rue des Filatiers, in charge for twenty-one years. Annie and André Izard founded this store over sixty-five years ago. You imagine yourself. It is one of the last shirts in Toulouse. The customers are distraught ”.
A brand valued by the author Christian Authier in his latest book
In this shop preserved “in its own juice”, with woodwork and period chandelier, customers could find everything they were looking for in terms of shirts, of course, but also dressing gowns, pajamas and even socks: “We still have not dressed the man, continues Colette. Demanding customers, who often arrived as a couple, with whom we talked a lot, who liked the quality made in France and for whom we had all sizes including very large (58). An asset compared to department stores. Just like the advice aspect ”.
Colette remembers some clients and funny anecdotes: “We had a lot of singers from the Capitol and also actors like Philippe Noiret, who, during a shoot in Toulouse, did not have pajamas and who found what he was looking for. with us. Or Claude Nougaro who sometimes lived to buy a few shirts. Always with a smile “.
A preserved brand, valued by the author Christian Authier in his latest book “Little eulogy in love with Toulouse”, which lists these stores which have made the identity of the Pink City over time.
Always loyal, Mariethé, saleswoman, also feels a pang in her heart: “We were very attached to our customers. It was a family. It will be hard not to see them anymore ”.