Marie-Cl Aucouturier: Longchamp [2009] hardback

Longchamp, the French leather goods company, is perhaps best known for its Le Pliage line - a collection of foldable travel bags made of vinyl with leather trim. Since 1993 two billion Le Pliage bags have been sold around the world. This lavish book, illustrated with 180 black-and-white photographs, retraces and celebrates the history of this famous company as it marks its 60th anniversary. From its beginnings creating leather goods for smokers, to its expansion into small leather goods in the 1950s, to the opening of the first Longchamp boutiques in Hong Kong, Japan and the rest of Europe in the 1970s and 80s, the company has always been known for quality and style.Today, in addition to its heritage as a leather goods firm, Longchamp has cultivated a devoted following. Their partnerships with artists Thomas Heatherwick and Tracey Emin and advertising campaigns with supermodel Kate Moss have cemented the company's reputation as a stylish innovator. In the early 1970's Philippe Cassegrain, Longchamp's founder, designed a line of bags called 'LM', destined for the Japanese market.
Its success gave Longchamp a solid reputation as a creator of women's handbags and enabled the company to expand throughout the rest of Asia. To celebrate the company's 60th anniversary Longchamp is reprising the bag and updating its unique logo in conjunction with the pioneering Belgian artist Jean-Luc Moerman.