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Longchamp is a French luxury leather goods company founded in Paris in 1948 by Jean Cassegrain. The Longchamp House is still owned and managed by the family. The company is primarily known for its leather and canvas handbags, its travel items, and numerous fashion accessories. The brand is present all over the world through more than 290 boutiques and a total of more than 1,500 stores in some hundred countries. == History == Owner of a tobacco shop since 1940, Jean Cassegrain created his company (Jean Cassegrain et Compagnie) in 1948 to broaden the distribution of his leather-covered items for smokers. However, the products were marketed under the Longchamp brand, the name of the racetrack in the Bois de Boulogne, since another company was already using the name Cassegrain. In 1955 the small family business extended its activity to small leather goods (wallets and pouches for men), then in the 1960s, Longchamp offered leather and nylon fabric luggage. In 1971 the brand launched its first handbag for women. Little by little, the company began focusing on leather goods and luggage, and in 1978 the items for smokers disappeared from the catalogue.〔 After the death of the founder Jean Cassegrain in 1972, then of his wife Renée in 1980, management of the company was taken over by their son Philippe Cassegrain. In 1988, Longchamp opened its first dedicated boutique in Paris at 390 rue Saint-Honoré.〔 The brand developed a network of mono-brand boutiques in addition to the existing distributors (department stores and airport shops). In 1993, Philippe Cassegrain designed Le Pliage,〔 a nylon fabric tote bag whose handles and flap are made of leather and that folds so that it can be stored flat. The bag's simple shape and the wide choice of colors offered (and renewed in part each season) made it the brand's most successful product. In 1999 the Paris boutique moved to 404 rue Saint-Honoré to offer a larger sales floor. Later, the brand added Comité Colbert.〔 In 2006, Longchamp opened its American flagship store in the SoHo district in New York City. In 2011, Longchamp opened its new boutique in Asia, La Maison 8. This boutique, in the heart of the luxury shopping district of Hong Kong, is the brand’s second largest in the world (after the SoHo location) with 400 square meters of floor space. In Fall 2011, La Maison sponsored the first Chinese tour of the Comédie-Française. Longchamp is managed today by the 2nd and 3rd generations of the family: * Philippe Cassegrain, President * Michèle Cassegrain, Director of Boutiques * Jean Cassegrain, Chief Executive Officer * Sophie Delafontaine, Artistic Director * Olivier Cassegrain, Director USA Boutiques Longchamp is distributed in some one hundred countries through a network of around 1,800 retail stores, company-owned boutiques and franchises, department store concessions, multi-brand fine leather goods dealers, airport shops and on-line sales. The group directly manages 236 Longchamp Boutiques through 18 distribution subsidiaries. France represents around one-third of sales.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Longchamp (company)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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