Rondinaud

Rondinaud has made charentaise slippers in La Rochefoucauld, in France's Charente region, since 1907, when shoemaker Theophile Rondinaud began producing woollen felt slippers using the cousu-retourne (sewn-inside-out) technique traditional to the area. The design traces back further, to the 17th century, when Charente shoemakers reused offcuts of wool felt left over from producing French naval uniforms to make indoor footwear - the origin of the charentaise. In the 1950s, Theophile's son James Rondinaud updated the slipper with a tartan wool top, creating the now-recognizable version of the charentaise and, for the first time, establishing it purely as an indoor slipper rather than outdoor footwear. Four generations later, Rondinaud remains a family business and describes itself as the last manufacturer still producing charentaises in Charente using the original techniques: slippers are sewn inside-out on machines no longer manufactured since the 1950s, joining the upper to the sole with heavy cotton thread before a finishing stage called detournage. The company today employs 16 artisans and offers three lines - the classic Rondinaud collection, L'Atelier Charentaises, and a children's line called Ron Dino. Charentaises received official geographical-indication protection in 2019, recognizing them as a traditional product of the Charente-Perigord region.