Once a maker of leather-covered pipes, now a coveted global fashion house, Longchamp has never once lost its mastery of craft. In its latest chapter, the French brand has teamed up with celebrated designer Pierre Renart to make its first foray into furniture, where supple leather and sculpted wood come together as one. The collection of nine pieces – the Wave leather bench and a set of eight Ruban chairs – will make their grand debut at Milan Design Week at Longchamp’s flagship boutique.
While this marks Longchamp’s first official furniture collection, it’s not the first time the fashion house has collaborated with Renart. In 2021, the brand commissioned the designer to create exclusive Wave coffee tables for boutique displays all over the world. The Milan presentation feels like a natural next step in their evolving partnership.
True to Renart’s signature sculptural aesthetic, the Wave leather bench and Ruban chairs are crafted from American walnut in a way that suggests the pieces have been effortlessly formed from a continuous ribbon. In reality, Renart meticulously assembles ultra-thin pieces of wood, bending them into sinuous, fluid shapes. That sense of movement was the only creative direction Longchamp provided. “These designs are all Pierre’s work,” shares Sophie Delafontaine, Creative Director at Longchamp, “but we challenged him on a single point: to ensure that – even with the combination of wood and leather – the pieces looked as light and fluid as if they had been executed in wood alone. We wanted him to keep the idea of movement, of the single, unbroken line – and clearly, he has done exactly that.”
To give the collection its distinct Longchamp identity, Renart upholstered each piece with supple cowhide leather, a long-time goal of his that was finally realized through this collaboration. The Wave bench is clad in rich mahogany leather while each Ruban chair features their own hue, including Longchamp’s signature heritage greens. “Leather is a magnificent material to work with,” says Renart. “When I met Sophie Delafontaine, she took me through all the different types of leather and how Longchamp uses them. It’s exciting to be able to apply that expertise to my designs.”
The result is a collection that is both quintessentially Renart and unmistakably Longchamp, a perfect fusion of flowing forms and leather craftsmanship. It honors tradition while carving out something entirely new, and stands as a testament to the power of creative collaboration across disciplines.
To learn more about the Longchamp x Pierre Renart collaboration, visit longchamp.com and pierrerenart.com.
Photography by Gary Schermann.