Once upon a time

Ali Baba's cave

Paris, Friday 16th July 2021

Once upon a time... there was a princess. And the birth of a little princess. To celebrate the arrival of this little girl in style, her mother wanted a big, beautiful and unique party. She knows that there will be gifts, many, many gifts.

She herself wants to serve drinks and sweets to all the people who come to congratulate her on this happy event.

She first entrusts a couturier with the task of designing dresses, a cradle, and a few accessories. All unique models, of course.

To complete this set, she asked Atelier Renard to create leather trays.

Brigitte starts to work, drawing, imagining and suggesting different projects.

Everything has to be done quickly, as the little princess is about to show up.

The challenge is set. Forty trays have to be made, all of different sizes and shapes. Square, rectangular, triangular...

Each tray has to be handmade in white lamb leather. The sides are hemstitched, a bit like a moucharabieh. I can still hear the sound of the hammers on the stone to create these patterns made of thousands of holes following Brigitte's original design. The result looks like lace.

Everyone works, non stop. Even friends help out when it comes to pasting some 60,000 thousand little Swarovski crystals!

Imagine... 60,000 little crystals pasted one by one by hand... the workshop was transformed into an Ali Baba's cave!

The final touch: silk ribbons from Japan (the most beautiful ones) to ornate the corners with, of course, a few pearls matching the whole, powder pink, mauve and white. All in softness.

All these years I've been watching them work, it's the first time I've seen such effervescence. All with good fun and high spirits, as always!