Inspiration is in the bag

French company Lancel doesn’t need to hire a hot young designer to produce a hit bag. Nor does it need a trendy image to attract new customers. Amid all the luxury brands vying for attention with fashion fireworks, Lancel chooses to stay out of the fray and remain true to its tradition of crafting stylish leather goods, handbags, luggage – and now watches.

"We’re not so aggressive, not so vulgar," says Olivier Arzel, managing director of Lancel Asia Pacific Ltd., which is launching the new watch line. "We’re a bit more traditional, so we bet more on our strengths, which is the quality, a classic but fashionable look and good materials."

Now leather specialist Lancel is looking to its past once again, resurrecting its old tradition of making innovative timekeepers. In 1997, having integrated with Richemont, the world’s leading watch group which also includes Cartier, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin, and Baume & Mercier, Lancel stepped up its activity in leather goods and prepared to make a comeback with clocks and watches.

"We’re relaunching the watches, which stopped for few years, but Lancel took advantage of becoming part of this group to make some Swiss-made watches – very top quality but with the designer look," says Arzel. "That’s what makes us very different from other designers who make their watches in China. Our watches are priced very, very competitively with all Swiss-made watches."

Lancel fans who want the total look have already been inquiring at the local boutiques.

A key piece is the Lancel Lab, a cunning watch that you can clip and unclip at will from a rubber or leather strap, and attach to almost any object you can think of (P39,020). "You can snap it onto folders, a suit, or use it as bracelet instead," says Cel Formoso, co-owner of Lancel Philippines.

"It’s very useful at a meeting so don’t look at your wrist, which is not very elegant," chuckles Arzel.

Inspired by one of the company’s best-selling bags, the Lancel Classic watch features the half-moon buckle and top-stitched leather strap of the Elsa de Lancel, the company’s best-selling bucket bag, which has sold three million in the last 20 years. (Price ranges from P36,840 to P78,970.)

There’s the architectural-looking Mousqueton watch, which takes its look from both saddlery and travel. Its square face is unconventionally connected to leather strap by a snap hook. Fashionistas can wear it like jewelry around the wrist, or hung from a chain (P41,070 to P44,310).

For men, there’s the Lancel Classic Chronograph, designed for travel and sports like car-racing. Like the ladies’ Classic, it also sports a half-round case with all the technical features of a chronograph (P72,690 to P87,430).

A more urban masculine choice is the Lancel City, an Art Deco-style watch that echoes the company’s famous Thirties clocks, modernized with a geometric dial and staggered case (P41,070 to P51,590).

All watches feature quartz movement, leather straps in different colors or stainless-steel silver and goldplated bracelets.

Lancel is doing well in the Philippines, with its two boutiques in Glorietta 3 and Shangri-La Plaza mall and three point of sales in Duty Free Shops, which post a 13 percent growth in sales every year despite the weakening economy.

Locally, Lancel has increased its visibility with more ads, glossy fashion spreads and a very attractive new brand endorser in Elizabeth Hurley, who signed on two years ago to be the house’s image model.

"She’s really a lady," says Arzel admiringly. "We don’t take a 15-year-old very aggressive top model, we take a woman who’s got a life, is well-established, sure of her beauty, doesn’t need to pretend, to fight for being in magazines." Hurley also personifies the market that Lancel is targeting.

Other celebrities who have been seen toting Lancel bags are Will and Grace’s Debra Messing and Gong Li, the Chinese film star-turned-style icon with her turns in the Wong Kar Wai movies 2046 and Eros.

"Our store window displays, which have more visuals and transparencies showing Liz Hurley, have also been attracting a lot of walk-in customers," says Formoso.

People have never needed luxury more than they do today, and Lancel is a bit of an oxymoron in that it’s an affordable luxury brand. "It’s an alternative choice for customers who can’t afford Prada or Gucci," Formoso says.

"Luxury is something that makes you feel good," adds Arzel.

Lancel continues to reinvent itself not through fashion and trends, but through a steady stream of innovations. Successes included the desk clock in watertight case (1929), photo-frame clock (’31), purse with retractable watch, and clock with built-in ashtray and cigarette case (’35). Albert Lancel, son of founding couple Angele and Alphonse, loved to combine timepieces with practical objects like pens, flashlights and wireless radios.

Lancel also revolutionized the luggage industry with its use of synthetic materials and useful additions like the outside pocket on its Kangaroo suitcases, or the "Trotteur" handbag, a travel clock shaped like a vanity case. In the ’80s they introduced their famous red luggage and now-classic bucket bag.

"It’s just small, smart things that make life easier – that’s what defines Lancel, " Arzel says. "Other companies make a lot of noise with fashion, but lose money on the fashion."

With their devotion to quality and timeless style, Lancel will never have that problem.

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Lancel’s boutiques are located in Glorietta 3, Makati, and Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong.