
The Making Of | Christophe Lemaire’s Striking, Sculptural Leather Bags
Even two-plus decades into his distinguished and varied fashion career, the Paris-based designer Christophe Lemaire is still very much a man of the moment. He recently stepped down from his post as the artistic director at Hermès to focus on his own namesake line, which embodies fashion’s tilt toward discretion while maintaining its own specifically French brand of chic. As it has grown in renown, Sarah-Linh Tran, Lemaire’s studio director, muse and partner, has also become more prominent, reliably appearing on tastemakers’ Pinterest and Tumblr feeds. The two met eight years ago, when Tran was still a student and Lemaire was just restarting his business. “Very naturally, very quickly, we discovered that we had a certain sensitivity and complicity about aesthetics and style and art and movies,” Lemaire says. “And very naturally, we ended up doing what everybody said we shouldn’t do: work together.”
Christophe Lemaire and his studio director and partner Sarah-Linh Tran.Credit Charlotte Tanguy
Among the many compelling silhouettes in the line’s fall/winter 2014 collection were two styles of molded, seamless leather bags: a caramel-colored cross-body and a tall, elegant tote. Now in production, they’ll be available in a limited edition of around 15 at Lemaire’s Paris boutique next month. Their prices (1,925 and 2,085 euros, respectively) reflect the long, painstaking process required to make them. Each is hand-sculpted in a Paris workshop by the master craftsman Carlos Penafiel, who specializes in a technique to create stiff 3-D leather shapes on large surfaces. Lemaire and Tran are “obsessed by the beauty of cigar cases,” Tran says. The company has made hard, round leather goods such as coin purses and pouches, but those utilized a different manufacturing method. “It has never been done like this before,” she says. “And never on a bag.”
The results are both functional carryalls and striking decorative objects. “There is a strange beauty about them,” Tran says. “They’re very sensual and call to be touched.” And Lemaire adds, “Above all, we were amazed by the technique.” Here, the duo provide T with a behind-the-scenes peek at the process.
Tran meets with the craftsman Carlos Penafiel, who is making each of bags by hand.
Vegetable-tanned leather is cut according to a pattern.
The leather pieces soak in water for several hours.
After the leather is removed from the water, it becomes “hard to control,” says Lemaire.
Each bag style has a corresponding sculpted mold with two halves.
The wet leather is wrapped around the mold.
Using a special tool, Penafiel pushes and stretches the damp leather so that it will adhere to the mold’s shape.
The leather dries on the mold (shown at left), which causes it to become hard and retain its shape (at right).
A metal frame is inserted into the molded shape along the outer edges, and a lining, strap and snaps are attached with invisible stitching. Soft leather pieces between the two clamshell halves allow each bag to open and close.
The finished product requires an annual waxing to maintain its luster. Over time, Lemaire says, “all the little defects and irregularities of the leather will be revealed.”
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests