More than 20 years after his label was founded, Jérôme Dreyfuss opens his first own boutique outside of France. The Paris Lederware House, which recently announced a capital participation by the Family Office Cap Invest, chose the Netherlands for this strategic step.
Fashionunited met the founder, Jérôme Dreyfuss, in the heart of the historic shopping center Negen Straatjes in his new boutique in Amsterdam.
This boutique is your first outside of France. Why did you choose Amsterdam?
The Netherlands are our second largest market to France and in front of the United States, both in stationary trade and online. And like many French and French women, I always had this kind of imagination about the Dutchman of the 1970s. I find it very inspiring to see the girls and women here on the street, on their bicycles, with their children, their computers … when I [die Marke] Started and came to Amsterdam, I saw all these women with their bikes and their pockets in the front basket, and I thought: “You need something”. So I started producing bags with very long straps and shoulder bags. Back then I was told that it was terrible, but in life the women have to have their hands free. We have to stop saying: “Be beautiful and just mouth”.
Amsterdam was a good learning room for me. While the French woman was very chic, the Dutch woman was rather practical. This only came in France later, with a delay of ten or 15 years. Now we ride all bicycles and wear cross-body bags, but that was not the case a little more than 20 years ago when I started. So it is a fair return to one of my sources of inspiration.
And why only open now?
Because the brand is developing and I concentrate very much on Europe. Mainly for ecological reasons. I don’t feel like working in China or the United States, that doesn’t inspire me very much at the moment. For me, Europe is a sufficiently large playing field to work that enables me to transport things as far as possible by train, not to fly, to have short transport times and thus to reduce our CO2 emissions ecologically. It is part of the company’s process to deal with its guilt as best as possible.
How do you see the future of the brand in Europe?
Spain, near Madrid, and Italy, will soon be available. Because I love Spain and Italy is an important market for us. We are lucky that it works, so we have to accompany the development of the company, but I don’t have it in a hurry, I have no megalomania.
‘I think it’s tempting to do girls: women.’
I am addressing women who need a somewhat discreet luxury. But even the word luxury bothers me. I think it’s worn out. If luxury means selling plastic bags with large logos, I don’t make a luxury. We prefer to promote the craft because we only work with small workshops. It is luxury because it is taken with care and attention because every step of the product development, from the creation, corresponds to an expectation. I work more like an architect than a fashion designer. I think it’s tempting to do women.
What about the second-hand market?
This is a market that we developed shortly before Covid. He doesn’t bring us any money at all, but he is very interested in it. First of all because of the message he conveys: the fact that a bag lasts for a lifetime. And I like the idea of giving even younger people access without having to spend a monthly wage. If we can facilitate access for people who can spend “only 300 euros” – that’s a lot of money – it is also a way to say that we respect that. I don’t come from a very rich milieu and I am aware that a bag is a lot of money for 500 or 600 euros. If you are 20 years old and want to treat yourself to something, it can also be cool to buy a vintage piece that costs “only 300” instead of 600 euros. It is a bit like helping a new generation to help. It is a way of democratizing the craft.
What is the current bestseller?
This is the pepito. He has all Jérôme Dreyfuss codes. It is very flexible what I love. A bag touches the woman’s body all day and I never understood the hyperstructured bags that hinder the body. For me, a bag is like a pillow that you get under your arm, it has to be comfortable. So the idea is flexibility, lightness and craftsmanship. And Pepito has all of this: he is produced in small workshops in Italy and is classic. I love to make classics, I hate doing fashionable things.
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