L’Atelier du Sartel : creators of the shade

L’Atelier du Sartel is the possibility for luxury brands as well as mass retailers to entrust their leather goods line to specialists.

At the origin of the workshop: Vincent du Sartel. After graduating in cabinet making and industrial design, he was responsible for the leather goods studio at Louis Vuitton for more than ten years, and then became artistic director of Loewe in Madrid. In 2003, the designer launched his own brand of bags and began to work freelance for other brands. This activity eventually takes over. Vincent then gradually surrounded himself with four other people, including three designers from different backgrounds, some coming from fashion (Saint Martins School, IFM), others from product or graphic design. Their different approaches allow for a complete, very accomplished creation, where every detail is perfectly mastered.

From brief to production…
Vincent du Sartel’s team offers a range of “à la carte” services. It can even provide advice to distributors and suppliers. Its role may stop at trend analysis and an initial idea booklet, but it is generally responsible for the overall design. The team immerses itself in the brand, its silhouettes and then designs products in line with its spirit while bringing novelty. “Our customers need to be surprised. The creative added value is very important, it is not a question of providing them with a product they expected. We come to support, to associate our own vision of the leather goods with theirs. It’s a kind of mental gymnastics. The more we do, the easier it gets.”
The client’s brief is rarely precise, so designers have a lot of freedom of action, which is pleasant but can also be dangerous. To be sure not to start with misunderstandings, the team establishes a specification of the brand as it perceives it: its positioning, its products, etc. Once it has been validated, the designers dive into the research of trends related to the brand’s environment to determine a work axis, the universe of the collection. If the customer wishes, they then move on to the design stage: they draw – by hand – to scale 1, the envisaged models. Usually, they then make prototypes, in leather or salpa, a synthetic material that is the equivalent for leather goods of canvas for ready-to-wear, or from vintage models. The materialization of the models allows the client to understand the idea quickly. Sometimes, when the team and the client are used to working together, the drawing can be enough. This is particularly true of Zegna, with whom they have worked for three years. Finally, there is a great deal of development work in the client’s factories – if it is a leather goods manufacturer or a company that is already structured for production – or in the factories recommended by Atelier du Sartel.

Jana. Atelier de maquettes.

Prototypes en salpa

From luxury brands to mass distribution…
In France, the Atelier du Sartel is still struggling to establish itself. Today, his only French client is the prestigious Zilli house. The team has already largely conquered Italy. As part of her collaboration with Zegna, she is in charge of the leather goods (except for shoes) of the Ermenegildo Zegna, Z Zegna, still very high-end but aimed at a younger and more fashion-oriented clientele, and Zegna Sport lines; three very different brands, each with its own codes. L’Atelier also works with Serapian, a somewhat confidential family brand that was the privilege of the Milanese upper class.

In addition, a beautiful collaboration has been established with Davidoff, which has launched a collection of accessories and objects ranging from watches to pens and travel bags. Davidoff is disconnected from fashion: the brand offers permanent products that reflect its primary identity. Vincent appreciates collaborations with family-oriented brands. “Unlike big brands whose corporate structure puts barriers between the product and the people, in a small company, the owner is directly involved. There is more emotion. Yet it is the most emotional projects that are the most interesting.”

Ermenegildo Zegna, Martin Margiela, Zilli, Davidoff, so many prestigious houses that the Atelier du Sartel has been able to accompany with brio, adapting to their universe and their desires while surprising them. But l’Atelier du Sartel likes to enrich itself by working with a variety of clients and is completely open to mass distribution. This is how Mango called on Vincent’s team to propose bags that are both high-end and affordable. She was in charge of designing bags that could be sold at a maximum price of one hundred euros. A challenge for Vincent and his team, used to the world of luxury. “Through this experience, I was able to measure the extent to which, at the consumer level, the border between luxury and mass retail is tenuous. For the professionals who design the products, things are still very different, insofar as we don’t design a model for Mango as we do for a luxury brand and we don’t produce in the same way either.

So the approach was completely different. The great difficulty for the creators was the budget constraint. The first ideas had to be revised downwards, and all the details had to be measured, because in the retail sector, every penny counts. You have to take a step back from the product, analyze the value of use and the value of appearance, that is to say question each detail to be sure that it is essential to the style or the functionality of the model. This is why this experience was very demanding, but at the same time very enriching for the Atelier du Sartel. “What was interesting for me was to free myself from my expertise in luxury, which can be a hindrance. In fact, it helped to break a kind of psychological barrier. Working for the mass retailer, one shows a freshness that is less obvious than when one works in one’s usual universe. These kinds of experiences encourage us to look outside the box.”

Currently, the Atelier is working on the next Zilli collection. Davidoff , Zegna and Mango models are available in store. However, there is no need to look for the name of the Workshop on the models, it never appears. The team creates on behalf of a brand. Some houses, Serapian for example, like to quote the Atelier du Sartel in their catalogs. But Vincent doesn’t want that. “This avoids the risk of people coming to me for my style. I am called upon for my expertise, my ability to adapt to different worlds.”

Vincent du Sartel’s only regret: not being entrusted more often with the design of products other than bags, notably shoes, as was the case at Loewe. Let’s hope that it will soon be able to free itself from its straitjacket and help us find the right shoe…

www.atelierdusartel.com

Isabelle Huber

Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)