What Paule Ka is known for
Founded in Paris in 1987 by Serge Cajfinger, who had run a multi-brand boutique in Lille since 1974, Paule Ka fuses 1950s-60s Parisian elegance — inspired by Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jackie Kennedy — with color influences from Cajfinger's Brazilian childhood; the name honors his aunt Paule and his surname.
Paule Ka was founded in Paris in 1987 by Serge Cajfinger, born in Lille in 1955, who spent part of his childhood in Brazil before returning to France in 1968. He entered retail in 1974 by opening a multi-brand boutique in Lille that already carried the Paule Ka name, before relocating to Paris to launch a designer ready-to-wear label under the same name in the Marais district in 1987. The brand's design language merges two influences Cajfinger cites directly: the graphic, tailored elegance of 1950s-60s Parisian style, embodied by muses such as Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jackie Kennedy, and the vivid color sense of his Brazilian upbringing. The label's name is a tribute to his aunt Paule, combined with 'Ka' as a phonetic nod to his own surname, Cajfinger. For close to three decades Cajfinger served as both chairman and creative director, building Paule Ka into an established premium ready-to-wear house before stepping back from those roles in 2014 amid a change in the company's governance. In July 2017, after the Marco Polo group became the house's main shareholder, Cajfinger returned to lead the design side of the business again, working alongside the in-house creative team on subsequent collections.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Serge Cajfinger's bow-detailed daywear with a sixties-couture spirit
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