Guillaume Lancelot: It started thirty years ago, and I am thirty, so it’s always been in me. As a child, I was passionate about horse-riding, where you learn how to take care of your equipment, saddle, bridles… That was a first start. There have been many starts. The second one occurred when I met a Japanese bootmaker who worked for Pierre Corthay and I became fascinated by the way he worked. I watched him do everything by hand, with his shoe tucked between his legs, from the first sketch to the finished shoe. I witnessed the different steps of a craft; I was fascinated by the way he sought perfection down to the last detail. Just like that, an incredible yearning to learn more about craftsmanship was born.
I met skilled metalworkers, cabinetmakers, boot-makers, saddlers, harness makers, and I started making small leather items on my own with no training. At the same time, I worked for renowned fashion houses in other positions, and I had to make a choice. I chose to make craftsmanship my job. I decided to create G.Lancelot four years ago. From all this came a revelation: there was something missing between fashion houses and leathercraft artisans. The industry needed something that would encompass the bespoke work of craftsmen: starting from a blank page to obtain an exceptional product with a unique, human experience. That’s how it started around four years ago!
It is an incredible material! There are two materials that are extraordinary to me: leather and wood. They both form a patina over time. This notion of time and transmission, witnessing the effect of time on something, it’s magical. It is a more or less fixed material; some leathers are constantly changing. We restored a 130-year-old wallet on which we restructured the seams, nourished the leather… this wallet is like a book. It’s been in the same family for 130 years, it is passed down from father to son, it’s fantastic!
I love this notion of handcrafting, of arts and crafts. I love the idea of perfecting a gesture until you master it, of producing amazing things with nothing more than your hands, your brain and your passion. Creation is very exciting. I find myself in front of a blank page, much like a writer. When I know my client well, it’s always very inspiring and I manage to design a product that suit them. When it comes to choosing the leather, the main thing is to find a type of leather that fits the design, the rest is all about sensitivity. My clients give me their ingredients, and I am but a mere translator.
They are mostly men. But also some women! However, the bespoke approach is a very masculine one. It requires a lot of time and money for only one item meant to last for generations and that is a rather masculine notion. Women tend to want several bags that will match different outfits, they’re looking for more diversity and their taste change more over time. That’s also why bespoke tailoring attracts more men than women. But I love designing goods for women, there’s more freedom.
A bit more than 30 hours of leather work and at least the same time for the creation process, as I travelled back and forth between Paris and London to meet my client. It took around 70 hours in total.
To really embrace the concept of hyper luxury, one needs to put oneself in their client’s shoes! I think they want to be alone, to have unlimited time and to meet a professional who masters their craft and who will be able to explain the difference between a lock stitch and a saddle stitch or the difference between each type of leather, and above all, who won’t come up with a closed offer. I do not have fixed opening times; clients make an appointment and I meet them at the time and place of their choosing. I come with my leather samples and we start talking. That’s when the process of getting to know the client starts. Functional needs, tastes, habits…
Kurozangawa is a Kobe calf leather made through an amazing tanning process that takes around three months. It is hand-lacquered and highly time-resilient. This traditional leather was used to make the Samurai’s armors. It was lacquered to protect them from arrows – a technical purpose rather than an aesthetic one! It happens to be very beautiful and today the tannery that makes it has adapted to their time, as there are less Samurais around. It is an exquisite, exceptional, rare high-quality leather with a great history! There is also beaver tail leather, which is very hard to tan, and therefore very rare. Trimming fat off the skin is a very tedious and lengthy work. This leather has faded from memory, but it is very beautiful.
And there is Russian leather, of course, which is highly renowned as it was very popular until the 20thcentury. Its scents have been used a lot in perfumery. This leather completely skinned to oblivion after the 1917 revolution; people forgot how to make it or how to find its unique scents, its wonderful grain, its superb feel – which also happens to be highly resilient to sea water. In the 70s, some divers found intact Russian leathers in a shipwreck in the North Sea. They had spent more than 200 years under water, and it aroused a lot of interest. A historian spent two years researching before she found the recipe again. She went to a tannery and now they are starting to make it again. It is still highly exclusive.
The first word that comes to my mind is artisanal, because we exclusively use hand-stitching. We have a very beautiful, , internationally renowned workshop where we only work rare leathers. It is an exclusive, niche House. Anonymity is like a warm blanket. The House moves aside to highlight its customers. It is one of the components of luxury. Luxury is a position, it is about education, and like all beautiful things, it needs to be tamed.
Overall, arts and crafts is gradually improving. Today’s artisans? We use their image, but we do not use them. And they lack visibility… Nowadays, we hear a lot about French Tech and innovation. When you’re seeking financial help from investors, they always ask “Are you innovative?” They’re all looking for innovation as if it were the only way out. In this context, craftsmen feel a little left out because we talk about craftsmanship on the surface but in the end, they are not innovative enough to arouse real interest!
I am tempted to say a nubuck crocodile leather with gold leaves. It’s something I created with an artist. This combination may seem a little raw, but it has a great deal of femininity, it’s a beautiful artistic work. It is not purely functional, there is a quest for beauty for the sake of beauty. And it would be a poetic object related to writing because that’s what you do. A pocket conference folder, for example.
I am so passionate about what I do and about craftsmanship thanks to the human dimension of my job. Craftsmanship is a wonderful world, and it must be earned.
Interview by Barbara Sensey
Paris
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