Longchamp’s New Bags Are Made From an Artist Who Refuses to Use a Ruler

Caroline Hélain doesn’t draw her landscapes before she makes them. She cuts fabric freehand straight from memory and observation. There is no pattern or straight edges of any kind planned in advance, and she then layers the pieces until a cliff face or a stretch of sky emerges from the process. It’s a technique the Brussels-based artist has spent years refining, and it’s now the basis of Longchamp’s newest collaboration, the house’s first with her, translating nine of her landscape compositions into leather goods and ready-to-wear.

The results keep that same slightly imprecise, hand-built quality even once they’re stitched into something wearable. A sleeveless calf leather top (£1,205) renders a dune landscape in bouclé virgin wool, rougher and more textured than a printed version could manage. On the Daylong bags, a mini (£730) and a weekender (£1,760) shaped loosely like classic bowling bags, Hélain’s motifs are rebuilt entirely from layered leather, cut and stitched by hand in Longchamp’s own workshops rather than printed onto the surface.

Her landscapes also turn up on a silk scarf, cashmere squares, a run of T-shirts (£175) printed at the pocket, and Le Pliage canvas totes (£230), in a muted, mineral colour palette, olive, thistle, caramel, ballet pink. It sounds much more like I’m describing terrain than a fashion colourway.