Dropping out of high school doesn't usually prove to be the wisest of life decisions. But for the Corthay brothers, their joint truancy was the first of many steps toward cobbling success. "We stopped at 16," Christophe Corthay says, smiling roguishly while standing inside the Paris shoe shop he and his older brother, Pierre, have run for the past decade and a half. He looks like a grown-up version of one of Truffaut's Small Change characters, with his lanky slouch and rumpled chambray shirt. "School really wasn't for us," he adds. "Why shoes? Because of working with your hands, because of the leather. It's very, very difficult to make a pair." The brothers' shod-dy calling has had its rewards. Corthay is now represented in stores from Lyon to Dijon, in addition to the Paris location. Pierre handles the ready-made line, which is crafted outside the city and is now beginning to get its due worldwide. (This fall, Bergdorf Goodman will bring the trademark Corthay arched sole and slim toe to the U.S.) Christophe, meanwhile, oversees the construction of 120 to 150 bespoke pairs each year, all in the back room at 1 rue Volney, where three tradesmen hammer and sew. Customers range from art folk to businessmen. "There are people who just buy one pair, but the pair," Christophe explains. "And I have some customers who have 120 styles" — a startling investment given that bench-made varieties start at €2,600 and go up to €5,700 for anything cut from exotic skins (roughly $3,600 to $7,800 per pair). "In Paris, you're lucky because you have three styles of shoes," Christophe adds. "Italian, it's kind of feminine. English, comfortable but very rough. The French, with us, is very elegant, masculine. They are the best." Clearly, he's not shy about stepping on the competition.