Feine Herr: Who are you and what do you do in the fashion industry?
Justo Gimeno: I am Justo Gimeno. I make coats, trench coats and various jackets in my company. For example, shirt jackets, safari jackets and above all the Teba jacket. This is our jacket. I am also an agent for selected brands such as Drake’s, William Lockie and, most recently, Hiltl. I only want to represent the best products. I want to travel around because of my own products, which I sell myself. That’s where the idea of representing other brands came from.
Did you found your company Justo Gimeno?
No, my grandfather Justo Gimeno.
They are also called that.
And my father too. I am the third Justo Gimeno in the company and the sixth in the family. My grandfather started making raincoats in Zaragoza in 1907. He had been to Argentina and learned about the manufacture of ready-made clothing there. We started with raincoats. However, our best-known product is the Teba jacket. We could also make normal jackets, but there are many other manufacturers.
Can you tell us anything about the history of this jacket?
Count Teba had this jacket made for him by his tailor. Teba was a friend of the Spanish King Alfonso XIII and went hunting with him. That’s when the king noticed the jacket. The jacket was green at the time, which is the color of the Spanish countryside. My grandfather started making the Teba jacket in the 1920s. He did very good business during the First World War. As a neutral country, Spain did not take part in the war and the Spanish manufacturers were able to continue production. My grandfather made a lot of trench coats back then. My father took over the business in the late 1060s. He supplied Old England in Paris, for example.
It was a beautiful store.
Yes, there was the English style. But refined in French. I have been running our company since 1992. My brother is responsible for our business in Zaragoza.
Which color is the most popular for the Teba jacket?
Our bestseller is the Teba jacket made of jersey in “Navy”. Followed by the one in dark green, then the one in the lighter green, blue melange and the color “toasted”. This is a light, slightly mottled olive brown. We also make the teba from harris tweed or herringbone tweed. We can change details at the customer’s request; some want a collar and lapels like a normal jacket. We can also add a small extra pocket in the outer pocket. There are many possibilities.
Why does your Teba jacket only have an inside pocket on the right?
Because we have the breast pocket on the left. If you put something in the breast pocket and then also something in an inner pocket underneath, this would unbalance the jacket and it would hang down on the left. That’s why we only have the inside pocket on the right, which makes sense. A very convincing justification.
I’ve only ever seen you at Pitti Uomo with a Teba jacket. Do you wear them exclusively?
Yes, I even wore them at my church wedding, in dark blue. In winter I usually wear a green Teba, in summer I wear an airy hop sack from Vitale Barberis Canonico www.vitalebarberiscanonico.com in “Navy” or dark blue linen.
I first saw the Teba jacket in Spain at the end of the eighties. In recent years, they have been increasingly popular with well-dressed gentlemen in Northern Europe. Michael Jondral has also been selling them for several seasons. Where does this interest come from?
I think that my jacket simply catches people’s eyes when I walk around in it. At some point Douglas Cordeaux sent me a light, dark blue fabric from Fox Brothers because he wanted a Teba. Now he also sells them in his online store. We also make shirt jackets and robes for him.
Thank you very much for the interview.
