Established by former interior designer Angelique Duhaut Duhaut Paris is a young handbag label launched in 2015. Its founder and creative director collaborates with French workshops to bring her customers premium quality leather products in small scales, in an effort “to give new meaning to creation, to humanize the process” of manufacturing. Read on as Duhaut discusses her young brand, her views on collaborating with artists and local artisans around the world, and future plans for expansion.
What were you doing before launching your brand, and how did Duhaut Paris come about?
For a long time, I wanted to launch my own brand. I come from the North of France, which is known as the bed fabrics industry. Today, skilled craftsmen continue to make some of the most beautiful lace fabrics in the world. I grew up in this wonderful atmosphere, and I think it is what’s inspired me.
So, I started studying design in Paris, and worked as an interior designer, where the fashion element was quietly present. Then I started drawing bags trying to incorporate leather, because it’s the perfect combination of my passion for fashion and my knowledge in design.
What influences your aesthetic, and how did you come to define your design theme?
As an interior designer, I was fully influenced by architecture. I like clean lines, smart and elaborate design, and it’s my leitmotiv “Less is more” that guides my aesthetic. For the first collection, my intention was to work around the human body and, more specifically, the body skin.
What is the most important thing for you when it comes to craftsmanship? Where did you find the quality workmanship you wanted to create your products?
The most significant quality I look for is passion and desire in both craftsmen’s eyes and hands. I also need a workshop that meets to the highest quality standards and the best references in leather bag brands. I’ve found the perfect combination in a Parisian workshop.
Is location ultimately important for a brand’s success?
I think that the success of a brand lies in what you want to communicate and what you have to offer your customers. What I am looking to achieve is offering a part of this smart and chic Parisian look. I think that you are losing something when your designs are made outside of your own country.
As a young brand, to what extent are you concerned with pricing and whether people will buy your brand?
My first preoccupation is to ensure that my bags are a fulfillment of the highest quality standards of traditional French handmade products. And it has a cost.
People who will buy my brand are sensitive to this business model.
What is the key for a designer to satisfy the audience’s appetite for creativity and innovation?
For me, the key is desire; the love to create something great and beautiful, something that people will love to wear. As a designer, you have to listen, meet your customers, be close to them, and bring them your sense of design and fashion.
Besides social media, which are the main online resources you use to promote and grow your business? What are their advantages?
Online press! Webzines and fashion blogs are some of the most significant communication resources thanks to the new talents they can unearth. They are always aware of what is happening in the wide and elitist world of fashion. And, as far as I know, online press is most of the time more reactive than traditional press. Of course, the inertia of a monthly journal cannot keep up with the rhythm of emergence of new talented designers around the world.
In what ways do you see yourself expanding in the future? Like owning your own store, including other types of accessories or clothing, etc.
As a new brand, my mind is full of new ideas, and it is just waiting to concretize them. First of all, I wish to develop my first handbag design, “Le Je”, with a lot of new works. As you can see, my inspiration for my first handbag design revolves around skin. If you can customize your designs with many different types of leather today, you will want to go further down that direction tomorrow, through, for instance, collaborating with other artists.
My inspiration is also growing with my trips around the world. My wish is to bring to my customers, through a capsule collection, the work of local craftsmen as a part of their own story in order to combine their products with the French perspective.
As a designer, I wish to explore all possible directions around this first design: reduce its size or reshape it for men, providing another way for them to wear it.
What are your future plans?
For now, I’m trying to meet the growing requests of my customers. In the near future, I plan on traveling to meet craftsmen in the highest mountains in the world, who are still working with traditional processes to make some of the most inspiring fabric patterns.
And, starting tomorrow, I will do everything I can do to develop and grow my brand, so to always keep the curiosity in your eyes.
Images © Duhaut Paris
www.duhaut-paris.com
