Longchamp lost his president, Philippe Cassegrain | Les Echos
Industrial, creative, also endowed with a strong commercial soul, Philippe Cassegrain, president of the French leather goods brand Longchamp, died on Saturday, at the age of eighty-three, from complications linked to Covid- 19.
A world tour at 16
The man was a figure in the industry in the Pays de la Loire, where the company had established all of its French factories, creating several hundred jobs.
Attracted very early by the international market, Philippe Cassegrain had, from 1953, at the age of sixteen, completed a world tour before settling for a year in the United States, where he represented the brand founded in 1948 by his father. , Jean Cassegrain, in Paris. Longchamp originally made leather-wrapped pipes and small leather goods. "My mission was to go and greet my father's acquaintances and present our products," he said.
Back in France, he supports his father, evolving, within the company, from creation to production through commercial development: the luxury company owes him its international network of boutiques.
Inventor of the Le Pliage bag
Succeeding his father in 1972, he created the first nylon and leather travel bags and established the group in Asia.
In the 1980s, he began with his wife, Michèle, the feminization of the brand, enriching the ranges of handbags. It was he who imagined, in 1993, the Le Pliage bag, a best-seller inspired by Japanese origami.
Philippe Cassegrain had entrusted the reins of the company to his son Jean, general manager, and his daughter Sophie Delafontaine, artistic director, while the fourth generation has recently joined the family business.
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