New collection
Jérôme Dreyfuss
There are bags you carry. And there are those you forget, because they hug the body so well that they end up feeling like part of it. That is exactly what Jérôme Dreyfuss has been after for more than twenty years.
Born in 1974 in Nancy, he was already making clothes for his schoolmates at eleven. At seventeen he moved to Paris to study fashion and left school after three months: he could not understand, he says, why fashion was taught the way law is taught.
He then became assistant to John Galliano for two years. At twenty-three, in 1998, he launched his first ready-to-wear collection. The press immediately crowned him « enfant terrible of fashion », and he won the ANDAM prize.
Then came the founding gesture. In 2002, he created his leather goods house with a first collection whose name was a programme in itself: Roots de Luxe. The intention was clear, and it has not moved since: to make products that are not ostentatious, even though they are made from noble skins. A more authentic, more honest luxury, less authoritarian, less distant.
His method fits into one sentence he likes to tell: « I started making a bag: I took a skin and worked it like a dress, that is why this bag is completely soft. » Everything is there. Jérôme Dreyfuss bags are soft because they are conceived as garments, to follow the body and its movements without ever constraining it.
The house speaks of « anthropologist's bags », of « houses to carry », easy, utilitarian and light all at once. Companions for real women, active, urban, who move around a lot and have no desire to carry armour.
Why all these men's names
Billy, Bobi, Lulu, Joseph, Léon, Pepito, Aram. The detail always intrigues, and the house's answer is clear: « It is because the bags are partners that they all carry men's names. All of them exist to serve women. » The bag is not the subject, the woman is.
The other signature is visible at a glance: three rivets, born of an early technical constraint, that of assembling pieces of leather without a rigid lining. They have become the house's mark of recognition, which the designer far prefers to a displayed logo.
Leather, first and foremost
Skin is the house's raw material, and it is treated as a living material that evolves over time. Soft, light lambskin, grained goatskin, calf, buffalo, suede-finish calf: each skin gives a different fall.
The point on which the house does not compromise is origin and treatment. Leathers are bought exclusively in Europe, mainly in France and Italy, and the house favours vegetable tanning, the oldest known process, using mimosa bark, oak or quebracho wood. Less harmful than chrome tanning, and its sludge is biodegradable. The skins come from the food industry: the house openly chooses to recycle the skins of animals slaughtered for their meat rather than produce fake leather derived from petrochemicals.
The Shop 17 selection
Shop 17 has selected the most emblematic families of the house, in several leathers and several sizes. Each has its own silhouette, each its own use.
Lulu M
Grained ecru goatskin, medium size, the most recognisable silhouette of the house.
740 €
Lulu L
Black calf, brass hardware. The large size, for those who carry everything.
870 €
Lulu S
Black and brass, small size. The same character, reduced to the essentials.
540 €
Bobi M
Soft leather, three compartments, removable chain-and-leather strap.
710 €
Bobi lamé Gitane
Lamé leather, a metallic shimmer that changes everything once night falls.
710 €
Bobi S
The compact size of the Bobi line, with its removable built-in mirror.
1,030 €
Joseph M
A generous piece, structured without stiffness, made to be carried all day.
1,150 €
Joseph S caramel
Suede-finish calf, caramel tone, a very seventies feel to the touch.
620 €
Pepito S ecru
Grained goatskin, soft silhouette with a large flap, padded handle.
780 €
Pepito S buffalo
Black buffalo and brass, a dense leather that takes a beautiful patina.
850 €
Léon M tote
Khaki leopard print, the soft tote that swallows a whole day of errands.
690 €
Aram M tote
Soft leather, pared-back line, the everyday tote with no effort required.
470 €
See the full Jérôme Dreyfuss collection
Choosing the right size
This is the real question with this house, because the same model often exists in S, M and L, and the choice is not only about volume. The S is worn like an accessory, almost a piece of jewellery. The M is the most versatile size, the one that goes from the office to dinner. The L swallows a laptop, a notebook and a spare pair of shoes.
The leather matters as much as the size: grained goatskin holds its shape better, lambskin falls more loosely, suede-finish calf gives a matte, warm appearance. That is exactly the kind of difference you cannot perceive on a screen, and understand within three seconds once the bag is on your shoulder.
Come and try them in Cannes
The Jérôme Dreyfuss selection can be seen in store at 15 rue Notre-Dame, 06400 Cannes, Monday to Saturday from 10am to 7pm. The Shop 17 team can be reached on +33 (0)4 93 39 46 46, by email at info@leshop17.com, or on WhatsApp for a question about size, colour or availability. You can also follow the boutique on Instagram, @leshop17.
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