Since 1876
135 years of history
It was a woman who, in 1876, founded the Maison Lancel. Her name was Angèle, and she had brains, vision and daring.
She opened a shop near the brand new Opéra Garnier, in the liveliest quarter of Paris.
She sold articles for smokers, then, very soon, decided to turn her attention to ornaments and accessories for ladies. Lifestyles and fashion were changing.
Lancel and its wild years
The Maison's activity is turned towards ladies accessories and decorative objects.
The very first handbag is created and replaces the classic purse. Lancel’s creativity was at its height in the Roaring Twenties, when the windows of its increasingly numerous stores (from 10 in 1900 to 17 in 1917) became showcases for decorative tableware, then clocks, jewellery, phonographs, cameras and later luggage as befitted this era of ocean-going liners and long-distance travel.
Lancel and the Opera
It was in 1927 that Lancel created its legendary bucket bag. As an icon of the French Légèreté, it was rightfully rebaptised Premier Flirt in 2006. In 1929, the Maison Lancel moved into four floors on Place de l’Opéra, the building which remains the brand’s flagship to this day. Taking over Lancel from his mother, Albert permanently transformed the family business into a prosperous purveyor of luxury leather goods. Among his talents was the will to nurture Lancel's fundamental values: daring, imagination, innovation... The period between the two World Wars was marked by intensive creativity for Lancel. The brand moved ahead of its clients expectations, whose thirst for modernity was quenched by new patents : the "automatic lighter" , "the Lancel Aviona Trunk" but also the "Umbrella Bag" were innovative creations of the time.
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The begining of the modern luggage
Paid vacations accompanied the democratization of holidays. Lancel launched the first "supple" luggage Kangourou : a Lancel exclusivity which included an external pocket and was built out of light Nylon canvas.
Just like the Frères Jacques witnessed, comedians fought over the Kangourou suitcases "thank god for the road shows, so that we can have the joy of putting our tired heads away in beautiful Lancel bags".
Le Dalí
In the summer of 1929, Salvador Dalì met his inspiration his muse, Gala. It was crazy, exacerbated, excessive Love. He created a secret language belonging only to them, an alphabet of love, the "daligramas".
In the 70s, Lancel interpreted the Daligrams through the creation of the Dalì, a unique collector’s bag dedicated to Gala, the handle of which was a bicycle chain, the symbol of sincere devotion, between two energies headed in the same direction.
The re-birth of the bucket bag
In 1987, the Buclet bag is re-edited under the name Elsa by Lancel, and quickly becomes one of the Maisons best sellers.
This bag has already conquered several million women.
The 130th anniversary of Lancel
Lancel celebrates its 130th anniversary and repositions itself by concentrating its activity on leather goods. Alice Taglioni, the blond muse of french cinema, and Laure Manaudou, olympic champion, become the Maisons embassadresses embodying the "French Légèreté". The Maison also relaunches its fetish bucket bag who will then become the brands icon, the Premier Flirt.
In 2008 Isabelle Adjani became the Maisons next charming embassadress and with her, the creation of a mythical handbag : The Adjani.
Brigitte Bardot
BB is a legend big enough to inspire the story of a bag. And who better than Lancel to tell that story by creating, with Brigitte Bardot, the Bag, which evokes her tastes, her life, her figure? It is the fusion of absolute femininity and awareness of nature – a pioneer, just as BB herself is and always will be.
Vintage By Harcourt
After 135 years, Lancel is retracing its history with a retrospective of its bags seen through the lens of the prestigious Studio Harcourt.
The brand will unveil its story through images captured by experts known for their ability to reveal the emotion and character of their subjects, seeing the vintages as faces, viewed in this gallery of original portraits.
