Over the years, we’ve heard the question many times - what does “Bertelles” mean? Maybe you’ve asked yourself the same question? In this short post, we tell you everything there is to know about the origin of our name - and if you read the article to the end, you will also know why we have a crab as our logo!
To understand the name, we need to bring you back to the early days of our label, back in late 2014 when we took the decision to launch a braces / suspenders brand. There were a few things we knew from the start - first, we wanted to be specialists, not another accessories brand that does a bit of everything without real focus. Second, we knew we wanted to focus on the casual side of the market - there are plenty of excellent brands of very formal and classic braces / suspenders, we had no intention of competing with them directly.
With this in mind, we wanted a name that was both full of heritage and ready for the future of the label we were about to launch. The name Bertelles came quickly to our mind and we loved it immediately. Some of you might have already noticed that it is quite close to the French word for braces / suspenders: “bretelles”. But there’s more to it!
In Walloon, the dialect of southern Belgium, as well as in different dialects in France, notably in Picardy, people called their braces / suspenders “des bertelles”. So, with this name, we had it all: the specialist side, focusing only on braces / suspenders and the countryside non-formal or even workwear style.
Having this strong local heritage behind our name reminds us that we are on a mission: offering products that are as resistant and long-lasting as vintage pairs were, while maintaining and developing local craftsmanship.
So now you know everything there is to know about our name, but do you know why we have a crab as logo? The answer is simple: the claws are a reminder of the clips of our braces / suspenders (it is the same word in French: “pinces”).
Now that you know all this, we hope you will see your pair of Bertelles in a new way.
