For 35 years, one of France’s storied treasures languished in obscurity until LVMH’s Bernard Arnault came to its rescue. In the six short years since then, Moynat’s bags have become some of the most sought-after.
For 35 years, one of France’s storied treasures languished in obscurity until LVMH’s Bernard Arnault came to its rescue. In the six short years since then, Moynat’s bags have become some of the most sought-after.
A lot of people have compared Moynat (say mwa-nah) with Hermes. They are both French. Hermes started as a maker of harnesses and bridles in 1837 while Moynat, founded by Pauline Moynat, began as a maker of trunks in 1849. While the first grew into an empire that includes readyto- wear, bags, perfumes and home furnishings, the latter kept to just leather goods. And while one has to build a “relationship” with Hermes to get two of its most wanted commodities – the Birkin and the Kelly – one mostly needs a lot of patience with Moynat.
Since Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, acquired it in 2010 – the brand closed when there were no family members to inherit it – and installed creative director Ramesh Nair, 52 (Indiaborn, Paris-based), it has had a good problem: It can’t keep up with the demand. The reason is that some of its bags are made by as few as three artisans in its atelier, which means they take a long time to produce (like a year for one bag). If the brand is “lucky” that year, it can make three bags in each style for each store.
Some bags are also made in leather of such a high grade that Moynat remains one of the very few that still want (or dare) to use it. An example is the extremely delicate (also expensive) box leather, which gives bags a smooth and glossy lustre. It comes from the belly of a calf and has to be flawless to begin with. Being extremely delicate also means it can be a pain to work on – it can be nicked by the slightest mistake from production to store, and when that happens, it’s adieu to the bag.
All that is not lost on the customers – and they include savvy Singaporeans – who, according to the brand, hunt down its bags. Not in the black market, on eBay, at second-hand stores or pawn shops, but every Moynat store in the world. And there aren’t that many (well, compared with a lot of other brands) – Paris, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing have three each; New York and Hong Kong have two each; and London and Taipei have one each.
Nair, who was here for Singapore’s first Moynat store at Ngee Ann City (#01-10), explains how the leather goods company works:
• Its atelier is extremely small. It has only three artisans who can produce the Vanity Box (it’s literally a cubic vanity box with a top handle).
• It likes to use old-world methods. The Vanity requires angled stitching – the leather is stitched together over a box at a precise angle for perfect symmetry, the way bags were stitched 80 to 90 years ago. It makes bags hardier without revealing any stitches inside the bag. It’s labour intensive and requires a person with strong hands, skill and know-how, and such a person is very hard to find today.
• It doesn’t do seasonal bags. Every store will have a maximum of 15 styles but, er… again, no more than two to three for each. – BG
From $360 for a card holder to $50,820 for a Rejane croco bag.
