PARIS — Leather-based items model Polène is in full bloom.
If the openings of multistory flagships in London and Paris weren’t sufficient, the thought is writ giant throughout the French firm’s Parisian headquarters, on the nook of Rue du Louvre and Rue Montmartre.
There’s a tumble of XXL petals on the facade of this nine-level, 40,000-square-foot constructing, which since November has been house to 180 workers, together with an eight-strong prototyping crew.
From Wednesday, its 670-square-foot floor flooring retail house, referred to as 67 Rue Montmartre, will likely be a “Leather-based Florist” pop-up operating by way of July 26.
However the model’s in-demand purses are nowhere to be seen. The celebrities listed here are handcrafted leather-based blooms, half Polène’s Plèi line, a set devoted to objects upcycled from offcuts from its bag manufacturing.
Neatly arrayed alongside the partitions are new takes on the orchids, dahlia or chicken of paradise flowers launched in 2024, plus a handful of bag charms making their debut in particular person in Paris and on-line.
Polène’s “Tul” leather-based flower.
Benoît Florençon/Courtesy of Polène
“The concept was creating an encounter round flowers, the [craft] of the florist and the leather-based items artisan, so that individuals can respect the long-term timescale and gestures of expertise,” stated Polène cofounder and chief govt officer Antoine Mothay.
Designs are available in colours that devotees will acknowledge from the French model’s purses, with costs beginning at 60 euros for one that’s reminscent of a tulip and as much as 95 euros for a cluster of curved petals that’s a cross between a wisteria and an orchid.
On the central counter, floral designer Rym Boughatene, who lower her tooth on the likes of style favorites Debeaulieu and Castor Fleuriste, turns any buy into dried-flower bouquets that additionally name for the likes of statice flowers, eucalyptus leaves and stalks of quaking grass.
However what Mothay needs individuals to stroll away with isn’t a leather-based flower or allure — it’s an understanding of what Polène is all about.
“There isn’t an enormous industrial aim [to the pop-up],” he instructed WWD forward of the opening. “That is about consciousness, transmission and we hope that guests and purchasers can higher perceive the DNA of the model, what touches us and appeals to us daily.”
Every flower takes between two and three.5 hours to make from begin to end, some extent pushed house by a craftsperson proven making them all through the three months, demonstrating on the spot how items of leather-based are lower, curled and stitched in place.
Working example: that wisteria-orchid combine, dubbed “Orki,” is eight layers of folded leather-based, stitches finished by hand, a formed line operating down the leaf and quite a few hours of edge portray, a time-intensive step that requires a good quantity of dexterity.
Particular person leather-based flowers and completed bouquets that additionally embody dried plans.
Benoît Florençon/Courtesy of Polène
“It’s a great way to start out explaining to individuals what we’re able to as a leather-based items specialist, what units us other than different homes,” the CEO stated.
Placing a good stability between artisanal complexity and accessible pricing is Polène’s North Star from the onset. It’s a message that’s been extensively heard by customers, much more so after its baggage appeared on Netflix’s hit present “Emily in Paris.”
In 2023, the model’s gross sales reached 142.7 million euros. Whereas Mothay declined to provide figures on development or gross sales, he stated “the dynamic was excellent” and that they had been “very comfortable that [business] grows just a little stronger than what we imagined.”
Retail openings in prime places have come at a gradual clip up to now 12 months, with a 2,640-square-foot flagship in Seoul’s trendy Sinsa-dong neighborhood; a 4,845-square-foot two-story unit on London’s Regent Avenue in December, and its Rond-point des Champs-Élysées retailer, which can whole greater than 7,500 sq. ft on three ranges as soon as it’s totally opened. The bottom and first flooring have already opened.
There may be such demand that the model can’t appear to maintain its star fashions in inventory, regardless of some 700 workers in Ubrique, Spain, and an extra 1,400 craftspeople in exterior workshops across the Spanish metropolis that additionally produce for the model, many solely.
Including new workshops can’t be finished on the snap of a finger. Based on the CEO, it takes between eight and 14 months to correctly onboard a brand new workshop and attain a big quantity.
Such effervescence round Polène purses has left the corporate with one other problem: mounds of off-cuts.
They’ll attain 30 to 60 p.c relying on the kind of pores and skin, regardless of Polène patterns that maximize the floor used, reuse for linings and different intelligent optimizations. What’s left remains to be good high quality leather-based, regardless of pure irregularities, small defects or being too small for use.
A craftsperson will make flowers and there’s additionally an choice for personalizing the bag charms.
Benoît Florençon/Courtesy of Polène
To this point, the corporate has been in a position to make use of round 10 p.c of current-collection leftovers in Plèi objects, plus one other 10 p.c used for small leather-based items not a part of its upcycled vary.
One other 10 p.c can be extensively used for decor and furnishings in retail tasks — in London, a wall of bricks product of compressed leather-based consumed over a ton.
Polène didn’t stopped there within the quest to provide a brand new life to leather-based offcuts. One widespread merchandise is the Solé bag, a hand-knotted quantity that includes injected pebbles obtained by combining leather-based floor into fantastic powder with a biosourced polymer.
Going ahead, the Plèi assortment will likely be given extra visibility in upcoming retail tasks that may embody Copenhagen and Milan. A definitive format isn’t set but, with Mothay suggesting it may very well be rotating alternatives.
That stated, don’t anticipate a flood of upcycled objects.
“Plèi tasks have a excessive complexity, whether or not technological or artisanal, so we are going to keep on reasonable volumes as a result of these we work with have [limited] capability,” Mothay stated. “And we like that portions stay restricted, to protect an distinctive facet of the merchandise.”
