Longchamp

Longchamp is a French brand founded by Jean Cassegrain in Paris in 1948, known for pipes with the bowl and shank covered in leather. The brand arose from an unexpected solution in postwar Paris; within a few years it had given its name to an entire fashion in the pipe world, and in the following decades it shifted its weight toward leather goods, gaining the identity it holds today.

An Idea Born in a Tobacco Shop

The brand's starting point is a small tobacco shop called "Au Sultan" on Boulevard Poissonnière in Paris's second arrondissement. Operating since before the war, the shop sold items like fountain pens alongside tobacco products. Jean Cassegrain took over the shop's management right after the war; corporate records give the brand's official start date as 1 February 1948.

Most of the stock he inherited with the shop consisted of wartime pipes. The production restrictions imposed in France in 1940 had left their mark on this batch: workmanship was crude, and large fills were noticeable on the bodies. With the market having returned to prewar standards, such stock was not easy to move. Cassegrain's solution was to have a saddler cover the bowls and shanks in leather. The covering completely hid the flawed briar surface, leaving only the rim of the bowl and the tip of the shank exposed. The result was both an unusual look and a body that stayed cooler in the hand.