What Carel is known for
Founded in 1952 by Georges and Rosa Carel, who opened their first shoe boutique on Boulevard Saint-Michel near the Sorbonne, favoring low 'trotteur' heels over stilettos. Its signature Kina Mary Jane launched in 2010.
When Georges and Rosa Carel opened their first women's shoe shop on Boulevard Saint-Michel in 1952, they positioned it deliberately close to the Sorbonne to reach the university's young female students. Their core idea ran against the era's fashion current: rather than the high stiletto heels then in vogue, Georges Carel designed low 'trotteur' heels of three to five centimeters, built for women who actually walked through the city. The brand also broke from the muted palettes favored by competitors, using saturated color that made its shoes identifiable at a glance. Carel's production has long depended on Italian workshops, a partnership the house still credits for its craftsmanship. Its best-known model today, the Kina, launched in 2010: a three-strap Mary Jane-style 'babies' shoe with a four-centimeter heel, cut low over the toes to wear from daytime errands into an evening out. Over seven decades the house built a run of collaborations with photographers and designers, but its identity still traces back to that original Left Bank shop and its founders' bet that comfort and color, not towering heels, would define a Parisian shoe brand.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — The Kina Mary-Jane flat from Paris's shoe institution since 1952
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Where next
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