2023-11-27 20:08:25
The luxury market is also in search of values that are fair, eco-responsible or socially virtuous. This is how the Maison Bonnamour, based in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine), has just launched an innovative, designer luxury handbag, but above all designed from corn waste and assembled in the APF Entreprises workshops in Évreux (Eure), a adapted company whose mission is to support people with disabilities in employment. The “Trompe-l’oeil”, that’s its name, aims to be beautiful, practical, made in France and… inclusive.
It’s been 7 years since Pascale Bonnamour, ex-journalist, ex-correspondent in Russia and professor of digital communications at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, launched herself, as she says, into “concrete”, because she was partly jaded by the digital world. “I then became interested in design and innovation. Self-taught, I wanted to create my first object. As I was tired of damaging my books during my travels or on vacation, I designed and had a book protector made from magnetic apple neo-leather made by a leatherworker in Val-de-Marne. »
“It was there,” she explains, “that I discovered strong and light vegetable neo-leathers. This one, invented in Italy, was made from apple waste. Next, a computer case. Then I founded Maison Bonnamour and moved into a marketing phase. However, I had to find a financial balance, while making products made in France. »
In 2021, at La Caserne, the largest ecological and societal transition accelerator dedicated to the luxury fashion sector in Europe and based in Paris, the designer heard from other leather goods makers of APF Entreprises in Évreux: “We have, after several prototypes, launched the tote bag, “L’Insoutenable Légèreté”, based on corn neo-leather, still from Italy. I wanted to reuse this environmentally friendly and animal welfare material for my Trompe-l’oeil handbag. It is elegant, Art Deco style with its touch of velvet, light, solid and ultra secure. In this sense, it is unique in the world, because I imagined it to deceive the Arsène Lupins [rires] “. Hear to deter pickpockets.
Sold at 715 euros for its launch, the “Trompe-l’oeil” required, according to Pascale Bonnamour, “education with disabled operators” from APF Entreprises. “It takes time,” assures the entrepreneur. It’s a gamble to make this type of product in this situation. But this corresponds to my desire to follow a virtuous approach, to allow people to bounce back and grow. For this product, it takes six hours to assemble and one hour to finish the edges. »
Near Pascale Bonnamour, at the APF workshop in Évreux, Viviane finishes sewing the shoulder strap with precision: “I was a caregiver,” she says, “but I was hit in the vertebrae. To take care of handbags, I followed a four-week training course at the Augustin Boismard vocational school in Brionne (Eure). I have already worked on luxury lampshades and I am happy to work with leather.”
For the founder of Maison Bonnamour, this chain is the guarantee of quality “that customers demand today”. “They want,” she assures, “to know where it comes from and how it is made. For me, it’s a commitment and I’m not interested in volume. That’s why I offer a lifetime warranty and free repairs, if necessary. This is French excellence, which will inevitably also interest foreigners.”
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