Longchamp (company)

Industry Fashion
Founded 1948
Founder Jean Cassegrain
Headquarters Paris, France
Area served
 Worldwide
Products Leather handbags, small leather goods, shoes, clothes
Revenue Increase 495 million euros (2014)[1][2]
Website www.longchamp.com

Longchamp is a French luxury leather goods company founded in Paris in 1948 by Jean Cassegrain. The Longchamp House is still owned and managed by the family. The company is primarily known for its leather and canvas handbags, its travel items, and numerous fashion accessories.

The brand is present all over the world through more than 290 boutiques and a total of more than 1,500 stores in some hundred countries.

History

Owner of a tobacco shop since 1940, Jean Cassegrain created his company (Jean Cassegrain et Compagnie) in 1948[3] to broaden the distribution of his leather-covered items for smokers. However, the products were marketed under the Longchamp brand, the name of the racetrack in the Bois de Boulogne, since another company was already using the name Cassegrain.[4] In 1955 the small family business extended its activity to small leather goods (wallets and pouches for men), then in the 1960s, Longchamp offered leather and nylon fabric luggage.

In 1971 the brand launched its first handbag for women. Little by little, the company began focusing on leather goods and luggage, and in 1978 the items for smokers disappeared from the catalogue.[4]

After the death of the founder Jean Cassegrain in 1972, then of his wife Renée in 1980, management of the company was taken over by their son Philippe Cassegrain.

In 1988, Longchamp opened its first dedicated boutique in Paris at 390 rue Saint-Honoré.[4] The brand developed a network of mono-brand boutiques in addition to the existing distributors (department stores and airport shops). In 1993, Philippe Cassegrain designed Le Pliage,[3] a nylon fabric tote bag whose handles and flap are made of leather and that folds so that it can be stored flat. The bag's simple shape and the wide choice of colors offered (and renewed in part each season) made it the brand's most successful product.[5]

In 1999 the Paris boutique moved to 404 rue Saint-Honoré to offer a larger sales floor. Later, the brand added Comité Colbert.[3]

In 2006, Longchamp opened its American flagship store in the SoHo district in New York City. In 2011, Longchamp opened its new boutique in Asia, La Maison 8. This boutique, in the heart of the luxury shopping district of Hong Kong, is the brand’s second largest in the world (after the SoHo location) with 400 square meters of floor space.[2] In Fall 2011, La Maison sponsored the first Chinese tour of the Comédie-Française.

Longchamp is managed today by the 2nd and 3rd generations of the family:

Longchamp is distributed in some one hundred countries through a network of around 1,800 retail stores,[6] company-owned boutiques and franchises, department store concessions, multi-brand fine leather goods dealers, airport shops and on-line sales. The group directly manages 236 Longchamp Boutiques[7] through 18 distribution subsidiaries. France represents around one-third of sales.[6]

Workshops

Initially, Jean Cassegrain purchased items for smokers (particularly pipes) and had them covered with leather by Parisian craftsmen.[4] Faced with the brand’s success, and to support the diversification of the products offered, he decided to create a workshop. Thus in 1959 Longchamp’s first workshop was founded in Segré.[4] The production capacity increased regularly in Segré and through new facilities: Rémalard in 1969, Ernée in 1972, then during the 2000s Combrée, Château-Gontier[1] and Montournais.[3][4]

In 1982, the Cassegrain family decided to expand its manufacturing activities outside France by installing a factory on Mauritius, then, by setting up a production partnership with China, in 1997. In 2001, workshops were opened in Morocco and in Tunisia in order to increase the brand’s production capacity.[4] These days, these countries account for one-third of production.[6]

Creation and artistic collaborations

The artistic direction of the brand is handled by Sophie Delafontaine.

Longchamp often turns to designers and artists who propose special versions of their bags and luggage, sometimes sold in limited editions. Thus, in 1971 Serge Mendjisky added leather patchwork to bags.[4] In 2004 Thomas Heatherwick invented the “zip bag,” a bag constructed around a long zipper.[4] In 2004 and 2005 Tracey Emin personalized luggage.[4]

Jeremy Scott has regularly proposed special editions of the Pliage bag since 2006.[8]

In 2008, to celebrate its sixtieth birthday, Longchamp reissued its LM collection originally only available in Asia,[9] also offering a version illustrated by Jean-Luc Moerman.[4]

Kate Moss, the brand’s icon since 2006, also became a bag designer in 2010 with the launch of the first Kate Moss for Longchamp collection.

In spring 2012, the brand launched a new all-leather version of its Pliage bag.[6]

Since 2006, each season Longchamp has also offered a range of clothing and shoes for women.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Nagard, Alan (14 February 2012). "Les sacs de luxe Longchamp échappent à la crise". Ouest-France. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  2. 1 2 Garnier, Juliette (8 February 2012). "Les ventes de Longchamp bondissent de 22 %". La Tribune. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Coop, William (16 November 2004). "Longchamp mène sa course au triple galop". L'Express. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Aucouturier, Marie (2008). Longchamp (in French). Éditions de la Martinière. ISBN 978-2732437767.
  5. ↑ Martin-Bernard, Frédéric (30 March 2013). "Le Pliage de Longchamp : un sac mythique !". Marie Claire. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Denis, Pascale (6 February 2012). "Longchamp prévoit un tassement de ses ventes à cause de l'Europe". Challenges. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  7. ↑ Deslandes, Marion (8 February 2012). "Longchamp attaque 2012 avec confiance". Fashion Daily News. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  8. ↑ Maléfant, Roxanne (28 October 2010). "Jeremy Scott donne un coup de jeune au pliage de Longchamp". Elle. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  9. ↑ "Longchamp, 60 ans, ça se fête !". Elle. 1 August 2008. Retrieved 17 April 2012.

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