L’Arche
Twenty-two pieces cut from one hide and closed by hand around a brass arch. The A on the flap is that arch, struck once, while the leather is still damp — which is why no two of them sit at exactly the same depth.
Vegetable-tanned calf · 26 cm · Paris
Nobody’s
first bag.
One handle, one hand. The width of the arch, where the seam falls, what it weighs empty — all of it decided by somebody who carries one, and none of it by somebody drawing one.
L’Arche · Cognac · $1,980
L’atelierOne docketRue de Poitou
Fourteen hours,
in the order
they happen.
This is one maker’s docket for one bag. Nothing on it is a machine operation, and nothing on it can be done out of order — the edges cannot be burnished before the stitch, and the arch cannot be struck after the leather dries.
- 01 CoupeTwenty-two pieces out of one hide, cut around every scar the animal left in it. 1h10
- 02 ParageEach edge skived down to 0.6 mm, so four layers can close flat instead of stacking. 2h05
- 03 Piqûre sellierSaddle stitch. Two needles, one thread, seven stitches to the centimetre. A cut stitch does not run. 5h40
- 04 AstiquageEdges burnished in seven passes with wax between each. This is what goes first on a cheap bag. 2h30
- 05 L’archeThe arch struck once, damp, by hand. There is no second attempt — a second strike shows. 0h08
- 06 MontageThe handle hung on its brass anchors and set, then left overnight under its own weight. 1h15
- 07 ContrôleThe maker carries it for a day. Then signs the inside of the flap, or starts again. 1h12
- One bag, one benchNobody else touches it between the cut and the signature. 14h00
A hide is not a material. It is the record of an animal’s life — every fence it leaned on is written in it — and the only honest thing to do with that is to cut around it.
Six months in the pits · No correction, no pigment, no embossed grain
Le nuancierTen leathers
Cognac
The first hide. Vegetable-tanned, six months.
$1,980 To order, five weeks
Vegetable-tanned calf · 26 cm · 18 cm · 680 g · Solid brass
Le registreBy appointmentParis · New York
Every arch is
numbered, and
every number
has a name.
Tell us which leather and we come back with a date — a reply within two working days, from the person who would make it, with the two hides closest to what you described.
Paris and New York, or a video call. Nothing is charged until you have had it in your hand.