In the world of luxury trunk making, Fred Pinel is about as out of the box as it gets. So, for that matter, is most of what his company makes.
Pinel & Pinel specializes in handmade trunks, accessories and objects, all created in a workshop it calls the Factory, a three-level, 1,400-square-meter (15,070-square-foot) former print shop that was once home to the John Galliano fashion label. (There is no second Pinel — the double-barreled name was a rhetorical flourish, Mr. Pinel said.)
Its products include colorful cardholders, wallets and totes in printed waxed canvas or leather; conversation-starting oddities; and, increasingly, home décor. Recent creations have included the Kill Croco Bill coffret, or box set, containing five stacks of five reptile-shape gummies that can only be removed by using a miniature black saber. Priced at 20,000 euros ($21,013), the set includes a 25-gummy refill for each of the subsequent 52 weeks.
And among the brand’s most recognizable designs are a taurillon leather-clad Pac-Man arcade game, a trunk that holds D.J. equipment and an iPod-inspired trunk that opens vertically into a desk, complete with a printer and a pair of speakers.
Many such objects are showcased in the brand’s flagship shop near the Madeleine, the neo-Classical church in the 8th Arrondissement; a second boutique dedicated to handbags, high-end cigar boxes and one-of-a-kind items opened this year near the Place Vendôme.
Having grown up in a family of modest means in the Paris region, Mr. Pinel, 55, worked as a trader in both Corona beer and emeralds, then moved into advertising. But he was bored and at loose ends in 2000 when he came across a vintage suitcase in his maternal grandparents’ attic. After taking the case apart and remaking it, he decided to become a maker of luxury trunks. The first trunk he designed was completed in 2004.
Beyond the fanciful trunks and curios, perhaps the most striking thing about Pinel & Pinel is that it has been able to thrive in a landscape dominated by successful heritage trunk makers such as Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Goyard.
“When we arrived, there hadn’t been a new trunk maker in 150 years. And I was the only living one,” said Mr. Pinel, who cites comics, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol among his primary inspirations. “I wanted to do things that were fun, colorful, and could integrate different kinds of technology, things that no one was doing at the time.”
Pinel & Pinel started by turning out cigar cases — the designer loves a Cohiba, the prestigious Cuban cigar — and leather sheaths for disposable lighters by Bic. It also collaborated with Bic on an anniversary edition of the Cristal pen, clad in colorful leather and a metal cap.
Like many designers of the early aughts, Mr. Pinel credits the co-founders of the fashionable Parisian concept boutique Colette — Sarah Andelman and her mother, Colette Roussaux — with putting his name on the map. “It was the lucky break of my life,” he said. (The shop closed in 2017.)
In a recent phone interview, Ms. Andelman said she was charmed by Mr. Pinel’s personality and sense of humor. “There was no other young brand creating a name from scratch like that,” she said. “It was avant-garde and innovative, and we liked the contrast between the quality of the finishings and its playfulness.”
Mr. Pinel said the brand’s first “truly extravagant” commission came from Michael Jordan, in 2006. That creation, a trunk to hold all 22 models of the Air Jordan sneaker that the basketball legend had done to date (with a nook reserved for the upcoming 23rd), was auctioned that same year, in part to benefit the Make-A-Wish organization.
Afterward, celebrities, royalty, titans of industry, Michelin-starred chefs and luxury brands and hotels followed. For example, Mr. Pinel said, Elton John’s friends celebrated the singer’s Emmy win this year by ordering a custom trunk to hold his favorite objects, including a Cartier alarm clock, his sunglasses, an iPod and a camera.
Also this year, the first Versailles Dinner trunk, one of a 40-piece series to celebrate the palace’s 400th anniversary in 2023, was auctioned for more than $100,000 to the private equity billionaire Stephen A. Schwarzman at a benefit for the Alliance Française, an organization that promotes the French language. The trunks, which hold Saint-Louis stemware, Bernardaud porcelain, Porthault napkins and vintage silverware, are still being produced for delivery in 2026.
“What’s amazing for me is to create a dream for someone who can have anything,” Mr. Pinel said. “To me, the whole point is not to be like anyone else.”
What he calls his “haute couture” trunks and other custom creations require as many as 1,000 hours to make. And in the workshop, a trove of 5,000 rolls of lambskin, calf, crocodile or python leather are arranged by color and texture, waiting for a next life in one of the company’s approximately 250 custom orders per year.
Mr. Pinel’s own desk is a 14-seat dining table strewed with improbable things such as prototypes for automatic watch winders, sundry gadgets and a couple of Be@rbricks collectible toys from a 2022 collaboration.
On a recent visit, a six-foot wireless speaker, produced in collaboration with Goldmund, a Swiss manufacturer of high-fidelity sound systems, stood in the middle of the room. The speaker, a Goldmund Apologue, covered in calf leather and hand-painted by the French contemporary artist Cyril Kongo, is being produced in 20 limited-edition pairs, priced at €1.5 million per pair, to mark the 20th anniversary of the completion of Pinel & Pinel’s first trunk. Mr. Pinel also celebrated the anniversary on Dec. 5 with what he called a “village carnival” at the Factory, featuring a cotton candy machine, along with a tin-can alley and other fair games.
Next he is bringing his world to New York, for the scheduled spring opening of a special kind of boutique at 1 Wall Street.
That project, an exclusive collaboration with the New York flagship of the Paris department store Printemps, will be “like a slice of Paris life in New York,” Mr. Pinel said — really more private dinner club than boutique, with him as the designer, gatekeeper and frequent host (Cohiba lovers are welcome). Membership will be selective, he said, but free of charge.
“It will be nothing more and nothing less than sharing great moments, that’s what interests me in life,” Mr. Pinel said. “Maybe that’s why I’ve been able to make my own way easily: For me, the sky’s the limit.”
The post A Couture Trunk Maker Marks Its 20th Anniversary appeared first on New York Times.
