It was 1979, the year that saw Pierre Cardin pick up another Dé d’or award from Haute Couture Française, Yves Saint Laurent’s collections pay tribute to romantic artist Eugène Delacroix, and Christian Dior launch his new fragrance “Dioressence”; the press were going crazy over Jean-Paul Gaultier’s reversal of dress codes, and over the talents of costumier Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, made evident by his designs for the American series Charlie’s Angels.
It was in this particularly busy and creative climate that Longchamp made its début.
Designed as a result of an unthinkable union of a small vase with the stem of a flute, the all- crystal stemmed glass was very quickly thought of as a luxury item: chiselled like a precious stone using a facetting technique, designed to be used with diamond, the piece held its own alongside the fine jewels paraded on the catwalk and in Paris showrooms, sparkling in every light.