Designer Blends Curved Walnut and Supple Leather to Craft Ribbon-Like Furniture

FDT Bureau

At the recently concluded Milan Design Week, French designer Pierre Renart introduced a bespoke collection of furniture pieces crafted exclusively for luxury fashion house Longchamp. Marking the brand’s inaugural foray into furniture design, the collection seamlessly merged Renart’s sculptural woodworking style with Longchamp’s renowned heritage in leather craftsmanship. This unique collaboration resulted in a striking bench named Wave and a series of eight chairs collectively titled Ruban, all meticulously handcrafted from American walnut and fine leather. Know more about it on FURNITURE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY (FDT).

Debuted at Longchamp’s Milan store, the collection represented a significant milestone for both the designer and the brand. Renart saw this as an opportunity to explore a new material (leather) while maintaining his dedication to fluid forms and organic silhouettes. This resulted is a harmonious synthesis of tactile richness and structural elegance, where supple cowhide leather was interwoven with delicately curved walnut, elevating the pieces into functional art.

Renart is widely known for his mastery of laminated wood bending techniques, and the Ruban Chair exemplifies this skill. The chair’s design, refined over more than a decade, is based on the concept of a continuous, flowing ribbon. Using carefully layered walnut veneers, Renart sculpted the wood into graceful, unbroken loops that mirror the fluidity often found in calligraphy or dance. For this collaboration, the challenge lay in incorporating leather into these dynamic forms without sacrificing the lightness and sophistication that characterize his work. After extensive experimentation, a soft and flexible cowhide leather was selected for its compatibility with the natural curves of the walnut structure, allowing for an integrated, seamless finish. The Wave bench similarly captured a sense of motion. Its undulating form appeared to defy the static nature of solid wood, resembling a frozen wave mid-crest. The combination of smooth walnut and textured leather underscored the dual sensibility of the project.

Image credit: Federico Avanzini