French label Majestic Filatures launches first handbag in capsule collection with Lara Stone

By

Tanissia Issad

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jul 20, 2018

A collaboration with top model Lara Stone is worth celebrating. She isn’t only the face of Majestic Filatures’s Spring/Summer 2018 and Autumn/Winter 2018-19 ad campaigns, but was also given free rein by the Parisian label to create an 18-item capsule collection. Among them, the label’s first handbag, made in a combination of leather and cashmere.

 
Taking over from Constance Jablonski and Arizona Muse, Lara Stone has designed a black, cross-body mini handbag harbouring a gold-coloured clutch. “We wanted our first handbag to be consistent with the history of our brand, a stunning model that would strongly appeal to customers. This is why we developed this double handbag, partly made in cashmere. Depending on the sales results, we shall decide whether to develop other models. For the time being, it’s a test,” said Roland Chelly, co-founder of Majestic Filatures.
 
This first model is an it-bag contender, alongside the handbags that some of Majestic Filatures’s competitors (Maje, The Kooples and Claudie Pierlot) have launched in the last few years. “Indeed, with our range of high-end t-shirts, we are among the pioneers of accessible luxury,” said Chelly, who currently heads a company which reported a revenue of €35 million in 2017, equivalent to an increase of nearly 9% over 2016.

It is also another step down the brand diversification road for a label which nevertheless doesn’t want to lose sight of its core expertise, knitwear. The Autumn/Winter 2018-19 will indeed offer the opportunity for another knitwear romp. The first instalment of the collection’s ad campaign, in full colour, just this once, will in fact feature a sweater. Rather than the usual ‘Deluxe teeshirt’ slogan on Majestic Filatures’s logo, this time it will be a case of ‘Deluxe tricot’ (luxury knitwear).
 
With 75% of sales generated by multibrand distributors, Majestic Filatures is firmly established in the USA, its leading market, and in Italy, its second market. The label founded by Roland Chelly and Franck Ellia in 1989 is also keen to boost its direct-to-consumer sales. To do so, it will rely on a more aggressive digital strategy, on a new store concept developed with the KO Studio creative agency, which will be introduced in the label’s existing stores (starting with the one on rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, from the end of 2018), and on a gradual increase in the number of its monobrand stores.
 
The label currently operates 20 stores across Belgium, Luxembourg and France (where the latest opening was in Deauville last May), and intends to double the number in the next four years, setting up shop in all the main European capitals. The target is for direct sales to eventually account for 40% of total revenue.
 
In the less distant future, Majestic Filatures is about to relocate, opening new offices alongside its store in rue du Louvre, Paris, where it will also have a showroom. In 2019, the label by Rolland Chelly and Franck Ellia will fête its 30th anniversary, and its aficionados can look forward to a few surprises to celebrate the occasion.