Mr. Herlory, you are the managing director of the swimwear brand Vilebrequin.

People who are interested in style come up with a very specific pair of shorts when this keyword occurs: colorful, loose, the emblem in dark blue on the rump.

Its founder Fred Prysquel came up with this idea 50 years ago.

Translated, Vilebrequin means: crankshaft.

Jennifer Wiebking

Editor in the "Life" section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

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The term is really awkward, no matter what language it is, Vilebrequin is one of the most difficult names to pronounce anywhere. But the story behind it is nice: Fred was a motorsport journalist, cars were his passion. In Saint-Tropez he met a woman and fell in love. He couldn't get it out of his head, so he moved there. That was the time after 1968, Saint-Tropez was the epitome of a free life. Until then there was no beach life, and in Saint-Tropez it became an art. The men wore small bathing trunks, and Fred Prysquel was uncomfortable in them. In order to win the woman over with dignity, he came up with another solution, the swimming shorts. Fred had seen surfers in California wearing pants like this before, but his wasn't there to exercise inbut to spend the whole day on the beach.

Could he end up with the woman?

Yes, he was successful, they got married, had children, and lived together all their lives.

The woman, Yvette, ran a boutique, fashion was her passion, and she realized that this man's shorts were also interesting.

So they sold these in their store and they needed a name for that.

Because cars were his passion, and there was a metal staircase in Yvette's shop that looked like a crankshaft from a distance, they named the shorts: Vilebrequin.

The worst name for marketing.

Even the French misspell it.

Beach fashion is a tricky topic then as it is now.

You live on St. Barth, near the beach.

According to your observations, are women really that much more sensitive than men?

Both are sensitive, each in their own way.

Women pay more attention to looks, men pay more attention to comfort.

That still sounds like: women put pressure on themselves, men are relaxed.

Women view their bodies very differently, and there are also great regional differences.

They don't like their bodies the same everywhere, and that determines the way they show it.

What are your main cultural insights into beachwear?

There are always exceptions, but the trend in Europe is: women feel comfortable in their bodies in a global comparison.

They don't want to change it either and accept it for who it is.

That's how they show him too.

In the US, they design more, for example they use pushups.

The body issue is more explosive there: You can show this part of the breast, but not that part, such as the nipple.

So it needs more padding.

There are certain social boundaries that must not be exceeded.

In Asia, many women are super thin, but they want to give their bodies a little shape, so it's important that bikini tops have flounces, for example.

For them it is also about the feeling of being clothed, although they are not wearing very much.

And South American women?

Many people there have no problem with nudity, the less material, the better.

They have a few shops in Sanya.

Is this really the Saint-Tropez of China?

This is the beach place for the Chinese.

But it's completely different from Saint Tropez: big hotels, everything is new, even the swimming and the sun are new.

In Asia, traditionally, people don't lie in the sun because they don't want to get tan, and swimming was never an issue.

That is changing with water parks and water sports.

In addition to swimming, they are now learning to surf there; by the way, three-quarters of them are women in the surf schools.

And swimming pools are being built everywhere in the big cities.

There, too, many learn to swim.

But that also reminds us that the beach culture is still quite young here, too.

Back then in Saint-Tropez ...

Yes, it started in the seventies. We have been doing this for just five decades: spending the whole day there. We haven't been on the beach that long.