2018, year of a return to the essential? That’s what we said in one of our previous articles. Or, when craftsmanship and clean lines take on a new importance. That of an almost compulsory experience both of the creative process and of the development and construction of a product. Thus, the choice of materials becomes an essential and far from matter-of-course step, and materials like leather are established as indispensable. And not only as part of our armchairs and sofas! Above all, leather is a living surface, with textures and characteristics that vary according to the type of skin, which then only requires to worked. On our mirrors, on shelves or as an inlay: make way for the show-stopper and the carefully thought-out detail. This is a field where the petit h d’Hermès design studio excels. Undulations give rise to impressive pencil pots and other strange objects whose only purpose is to be beautiful. Having a fascination for bags, Edwina de Charrette – founder of laContrie – decided to throw herself headlong into the manufacture of leather goods. The result is years of working with it, “processing it as little as possible to retain its simplicity with all that is most noble in the meaning of this word“. An introspection into which many designers immerse themselves, determined to bring about a renaissance of this solid-gold material in the most inspired way possible. Here at The Socialite Family, one of our favourite and eminently accessible stagings is still the pile of old trunks, which were transformed into a piece of furniture for the occasion, in the home of the fashion designer Maria de la Orden. Are you something of a minimalist? Position your favourite bag on its own, like a sculpture. Wow factor guaranteed.