The Luxurious Purse Model Quietly Taking Over French Vogue Circles
In style, to be as effortlessly stylish because the French is a typical pursuit. Onlookers should buy all the proper issues, reduce their hair in all the proper locations, misery their denims and smudge their lipstick and tousle their shirt in all the proper methods, and nonetheless not have “it” — “it,” on this case, being a sure je ne sais quoi that lies in subtleties. It is why covert clothes and equipment that will cruise beneath the radar elsewhere are so instrumental to the Parisian fantasy: Those that know know, and people who do not, properly… We weren’t so involved about them anyway, now have been we?
That is the thought course of behind Polène, a quintessentially Parisian leather-goods model based by three siblings in 2016. Launching with a spread of purses, Polène has steadily gained world recognition for its robust, easy designs insiders might acknowledge on the shoulder of some Jeanne Damas-type. As is customary throughout the French-girl fantasy, you will not discover splashy logos or flashy {hardware} right here. The label goals to be “discreet,” as a substitute letting its work converse for itself with pristine supplies and a chic savoir-faire. Costs are nonetheless comparatively accessible, with most baggage within the $300-$450 vary.
“Our perspective, and likewise the entire concept of the corporate, is to construct one thing from the product, from the design, from the standard, from the story,” says co-founder Antoine Mothay, who himself ventures to maintain his personal background personal in order to not distract from that of the model’s.
What Mothay does share about himself, nevertheless, is that he is the center youngster, sandwiched between huge brother Mathieu and little sister Elsa, all of whom created Polène collectively. Vogue is their household enterprise, in spite of everything: Their great-grandfather launched the long-lasting French clothes line Saint James, purveyor of cult-favorite Breton-stripe shirts, means again in 1889. “Its merchandise are very top quality, items you possibly can preserve for a lot of, a few years,” says Mothay. “I feel that gave us a style of what good merchandise ought to be.”
Nonetheless, Polène got here to be by completely satisfied accident. Whereas Mothay recollects that he and his siblings have been at all times particularly inquisitive about leather-based items (what French particular person is not?), it wasn’t till he discovered himself in an Hermès workshop in Madrid in 2014 that the proverbial lightbulb flicked on.
“I stood for 2 or three hours in entrance of an artisan making a bag and explaining all the main points about what it takes to have the proper bag,” he remembers.
This being peak Mansur Gavriel period, Mothay was concurrently excited by the brand new crop of digitally native, direct-to-consumer manufacturers rising out of the USA. So he and his siblings set to work to make one thing of their very own.
Their analysis and growth was intensive, with the leather-goods trade in Europe — a lot of which remains to be family-run — being famously tough to interrupt into. Leatherworking has managed the economies of whole cities and cities all through Italy, Spain and Portugal because the Center Ages, and producers aren’t so eager to open their doorways for any fledgling label that comes a-knocking. Mothay spent two months in japanese Europe, three months in Portugal and an entire 12 months in Spain constructing out a collection of methods and procedures step-by-step, from scratch.
On the opposite facet of these 18 months got here the Polène product line, a tidy vary of minimalist, monochromatic purses that toe the road between traditional French luxurious and youthful depth. Mothay cites nature as a major inspiration via each rung of the method, from preliminary ideation to the distribution of the completed assortment. One purse, the “Tonca,” was actually influenced by the natural curvature of the common-or-garden tonka bean.
“What’s attention-grabbing about how we have tailored is that we by no means work with drawings,” says Mothay. “Drawings are so flat, however you possibly can see our baggage from all sides, and all sides have one thing to specific.” As a substitute, the design studio makes use of 3D microfiber prototypes that, in contrast to a 2D drawing, will be simply manipulated to take the form of leather-based. “Whenever you see a Polène bag, it ought to have extra of a novel form than different baggage you have seen.”
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This, Mothay hopes, is as a lot because of the baggage’ microfiber drafting course of as it’s the supplies that full them. Polène makes use of full-grain calf leather-based that comes sourced from Italian and Spanish tanneries and authorized by the Leather-based Working Group (LWG), a world group that claims to supply extra sustainable and clear leather-based items.
Manufacturers awarded with LWG certification, like Polène, have undergone thorough auditing throughout areas like chemical air pollution and employee well being and security. Extra tanneries seem on the Environmental Safety Company’s Superfund record (that identifies the precedence environmental cleanups) than some other enterprise kind within the U.S. However this isn’t strictly an American downside: Nearly all leather-based is tanned with identified carcinogens like chromium, formaldehyde and arsenic, which, in flip, exposes staff to greater charges of most cancers and different sicknesses.
Polène is aware of it isn’t sufficient to easily declare best-in-class supplies anymore. For the primary 4 years of the enterprise, Mothay’s brother Mathieu inspected every piece of leather-based, one after the other, earlier than it was moved into manufacturing.
“He did that as a result of high quality was so vital for him, to have a relationship with our companions and to allow them to perceive how we work and what we anticipate from them,” says Mothay. “This isn’t a leather-based yow will discover with different manufacturers.”
Inside Polène’s New York Metropolis flagship retailer, situated at 487 Broadway in SoHo.
Photograph: Courtesy of Polène
Because it seems, Mothay and his siblings are equally as obsessive about metallic {hardware}. Polène’s come gilded with a vacuum coating known as Bodily Vapor Deposition (or PVD) plating, a method used within the watchmaking trade for its long-lasting high quality. It is also extra sustainable than the normal galvanization course of, in that it makes use of no water and no chemical compounds — simply electrical energy — to bond gold with metallic.
{Hardware} is high of thoughts for an upcoming class growth into jewellery, the specifics of which stay beneath wraps. “Jewellery is a brand new space for us to specific our aesthetic,” says Mothay. “Jewellery provides you extra prospects when it comes to design than purses or sneakers, the place you at all times have the issue of weight when it comes to measurement and supplies.” Talking of sneakers: That is coming, too, a growth that can delight the model’s coterie of loyal buyers who Mothay says have all however demanded Polène sneakers for years now.
“The technique is at all times to go step-by-step,” he says. “The corporate is rising actually quick, and we might develop even quicker, however we actually wish to construct up a recent home of style.”
Mothay means “home” actually: In September, Polène opened its New York Metropolis flagship retailer (its first brick-and-mortar location within the U.S.) on a sunny, sprawling nook in SoHo. The sparse house, full of customized wooden seating and uncluttered shelving, brings buyers deep into the recesses of the Polène mind waves. Quickly, the model continues its worldwide tour to develop its retail footprint to Tokyo, with a brand new location set to open within the spring.
Proper now, Japan is amongst Polène’s 4 largest markets, alongside the U.S., China and, after all, France. As a result of as a lot as Polène is Parisian class in a figurative bottle, it additionally understands the aesthetic’s world attraction, working with an ample group of influencers who showcase Polène’s merchandise throughout social media the world over.
That is how I discovered of the model, in spite of everything: on the web page of a distinct segment TikTok creator who paired her half-moon-shaped Numéro Dix with slouchy denims and Birkenstock’s Tremendous-Birkis. The bag, although, is what pulled all of it collectively. Or perhaps that is simply the Parisian fantasy speaking.
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