INSPIRED by the Honoré de Balzac novel of the same name to create products of great craftsmanship is Peau de Chagrin, a British luxury goods brand which is based on employing tried and tested applied traditional craftsmanship and expertise in the production of the company’s accessories. Inspired by Balzac’s Faustian tale of talent, decadence, debauchery and warnings against the worship of materialism into the mix, the brand’s philosophy is an essential foundation of these limited edition objects made by European artisans.
Brand values are of equally importance to Peau de Chagrin with their range designed for posterity, intended to last not only years, but generations, and are handmade in a limited amount, and stem from the company’s belief that everything they bring into the world should be as environmentally sustainable and socially responsible as possible.
The Peau de Chagrin bag
The two products Peau de Chagrin has just released – the Peau de Chagrin bag and the Carré Alchemique No 1 scarf – are both items of great quality which have been made entirely in direct collaboration with artisans to ensure the workmanship and craft techniques are of an appropriately excellent level.
The Peau de Chagrin bag
Limited to 100 pieces, the Peau de Chagrin bag is the brand’s premier object. Hand-crafted by a single master artisan in the Jura Hills of Switzerland, an area known for its small ateliers and precision watch-making skills. Composed of tan leather sourced from Belgium that works strictly with a vegetable tanning method, avoiding the toxic processing methods commonly used in the production of leather goods.
Carré Alchemique No 1 scarf
The hand-stitched and traditionally screen-printed Carré Alchemique No 1 scarf of crêpe de chine, Peau de Chagrin’s follow up the consciously designed bag that started it all, is made entirely in Lyon by an artisanal silk manufacturer, Maison Marc Rozier, founded in 1890 and since going on to champion Lyonnaise techniques of silk making.
Inspired by drawings dating back to the 17th century by Jacques Gaffarel, a noted scholar and astrologer of Cardinal Richelieu, imagery incorporated into the design of the scarf includes Kabbalistic text mapping the constellations visible from the Southern Hemisphere during Richelieu’s lifetime.
by Liam Feltham
Images courtesy of Peau de Chagrin