A look inside birthplace of Chanel handbags
Unassuming site near Paris home to Chanel’s handcrafted handbags
The first thing you notice when entering Les Ateliers de Verneuilen-Halatte are the people. The second, of course, are the handbags.
The workshop, about an hour’s drive north of Paris, is the epicentre of handbag creation for French fashion house Chanel.
Since 1990, it’s here where the sketches conceived in the Paris offices come to life, each timeless piece lovingly handcrafted by the trained artisans employed within its walls.
It’s a sunny, mild day in France. And truth be told, upon arriving at the address spied on the car’s GPS navigation system, the sprawling, low-lying building that makes up the complex doesn’t look like much. Passing motorists would be forgiven for looking right past the unassuming compound, completely unaware of the captivating level of creation that’s occurring each day within its walls.
That’s exactly the way it’s supposed to be: inside the commercial facade, some of the most coveted handbags in the world are coming to life. Some have never yet been seen by eyes beyond the Chanel company — including runway creations, limited collection pieces, exotic skins and iterations of the highly coveted iconic handbags such as the Classic Flap and the 2.55. More than 400 employees work at Les Ateliers de Verneuilen-Halatte — including cutters, pattern makers, sewers and experienced leather craftspeople — each one contributing to the creation of one of the French fashion house’s luxury accessories.
The leather workers each train for between four and five years to master the more than 180 operations required to bring each individual Chanel handbag to fruition.
A rare tour of the facility yields face-to-face introductions with countless atelier employees, each one welcoming visitors with a chorus of “bonjour” and pleasant, friendly smiles.
Whether in the leather-cutting space, the storage warehouse, the repair division or the area reserved for research and development of materials (where unique machines poke, rub and prod the leathers and textiles in order to see how they’ll perform over time), it quickly becomes apparent that the people creating these pricey pieces do so with a passion for each element of fashion history they ’re helping to construct.
Chanel has a long history of creating handbags, dating back to when Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, the founder of the eponymous house, is said to have first conceived the idea for a hands-free women’s handbag in the late 1920s after being inspired by the straps on soldiers’ bags.
While it wasn’t until February 1955 that she debuted the chainstrapped silhouette featuring the recognizable Mademoiselle Lock, the style now affectionately referred to as the 2.55 remains one of the most identifiable luxury handbags in the world.
And it comes at a price. The initial retail price for the 2.55 in 1955 was approximately $220. Today, it retails for more than $6,000.
Touring Les Ateliers de Verneuilen-Halatte and observing the level of detail devoted to each and every handbag, it becomes easier to see why these luxury accessories come at such a price.
From the rolls upon rolls of buttery leather and intricate textiles — Chanel works with the Tanneries Haas, located in Mittelbergheim, France, to procure its calfskin material and tanners from the nearly 160-year-old company Bodin-Joyeux for its lambskin, the two mostused materials for its handbags — to the area where a woman confidently guides a machine punch to perfectly place the hole where the hardware will go, every production step is seamlessly carried out with the greatest attention to detail.
In this workshop, it’s not about how many units are created, but how perfect one is once it is done.
At every stage of the production process, there is rigorous quality control. Each skin is inspected inch by inch under “daylight”-reproducing lights for irregularities, marks and scars.
Once a skin is approved for use, it’s off to cutting where a template for each bag is marked on the skin by a machine under the watchful eye of an artisan before the pattern is cut. Details such as splitting of the leather, quilting and the addition of the double C that will be inside the bag on Classic Flap styles are then added.
Meanwhile, workers comb through the expansive collection of hardware items like clasps, chains and closures, each bundled by style and handbag type and coded with a scannable bar code.
Once the handbags are ready to be assembled, it’s off to more expert pairs of hands for grommets, hardware and chains to be handscrewed and applied. Each bag is given a final, thorough inspection and a unique serial number and identifying authenticity card is tucked inside before it’s prepared for packaging and shipment.
As we passed among the wheeled racks of completed bags, I found myself daydreaming about where these handbags — the Boy bags, Classic Flaps, tweed mini bags and more — might one day end up.
And, of course, who would eventually own them.
INSIDE THE CHANEL HANDBAG 'HOSPITAL'
Purchasing a Chanel handbag is an investment, one that’s meant to last. The handcrafted nature of the French brand’s production process leads to well-made handbags that stand the wear and tear of regular use, but mistreatment and factors such as age, light and exposure to heat can lead to damage such as cracked leather, popped stitches and edge wear.
While quick repairs on the brand’s handbags can often be commissioned and completed by the individual boutiques, the more in-depth repairs require the handbags to return “home.”
It’s here that the Chanel creations can be booked for a stay at a handbag hospital of sorts. Some repairs are carried out under warranty, while others are completed with varying costs attached.
Located within the sprawling production complex in the village of the same name, the repair room at Les Ateliers de Verneuil-enHalatte is where skilled artisans bring Chanel handbags in varying stages of disrepair back to life.
Perched on a stool while leaning over a workbench, a worker was dismantling a handbag crafted from caviar leather. After the repair, the handbag will then be completely reconstructed, good as new.
At another repair bench, the worker allowed a closer inspection of a green lambskin mini handbag, which likely dated back to the ’80s, though the artisans couldn’t be exactly sure of its origin year because the identifying serial number sticker on the inside of the bag had long since peeled away. The dainty green bag ’s interior was positively ravaged. Whether by time, misuse or a combination of the two, it was left a cracked mess. What was the future for this beloved bag ?
A whole new interior, the artisan informed me. Once repaired, the handbags are individually wrapped, boxed up and sent on their return journey back to their owners around the world. Aharris@postmedia.com
The Vancouver Sun was a guest of Chanel at Les Ateliers de Verneuil-en-Halatte. The brand neither reviewed nor approved this article.