Pierre Corthay

In 2006, the leather industry had just ten major clients in France (source: Sessi), a handful of tanners, a single manufacturer of high-quality shoe trees, the last surviving maker of small metal tools, and one polish manufacturer. In Northampton, four factories remained.

Christofle

Inventions used by Christofle:

The voltaic pile by the Italian physicist Volta (1800); the simultaneous filing of patents for electrolysis by English cousins George and Henry Elkington, and by Henri de Ruolz of France (1840); and the dynamo (1869, the Gramme machine by the Belgian Zénobe Gramme), converged in the invention of electroplating, which was further perfected by the introduction of a shiny nickel finish, patented in 1937 by Max Schlotter of Germany.

Leica

The first compact camera at a time of unwieldy chambers, it coincided with the arrival of the 35mm format in photography. Invented in 1913 by Oskar Barnack, an employee of the Leitz optical company. Today, 130 engineers work on Leica's research and development. The difficult transition to digital almost brought the company down. The M8, the first to make the leap, came as a reminder that the Leica M, like mankind, had to evolve to survive. Leica is Europe's last remaining camera brand.

Hermès

Hermès employed 70 saddlers in 1914. Come the fifth generation, two thousand of the eight thousand people employed by Hermès worldwide work directly with leather. Far from relocating its activities, Hermès has gone against the grain of MBA logic and discreetly taken over traditional firms, thus keeping alive the savoir-faire that drives innovation. First Hermès patent in 2010: the carbon fibre saddle.

Les Paul de Gibson

The very first electric guitar - a mic inside a Log, - saw daylight in New York in 1941. Its inventor Lester Polfuss, alias Les Paul, learned everything from electricity to mechanics in his father's car repair shop.

Other Les inventions: At Bing Crosby's request, Les Paul invented the multi-track recorder, the precursor to today's recording studio. His prototype used the flywheel from a Cadillac as a recording lathe. In 1954, with Jack Mullin from Ampex, he invented the 8-track recorder with magnetic tapes and the Sel-Sync process with modified record heads.

Cognac Louis XIII

In Charente Valley, four generations and more than eight thousand people are directly involved in bringing Louis XIII cognac to us each year in all its splendour. Including growers, barrels makers, glassblowers, packaging workers, cellars, bottling and lab employees.

S.T.Dupont

The factory is one of the last bastions in France of dying arts, such as the women who break in the nib of fountain pens,; the lacquerers who refine the heavy black Chinese lacquers which arrive in woven bamboo jars; the engineers who ensure not a drop ever leaks from the tank inside the lighter's metal casing.

Cadolle

Over 45 years, imported clothing has by and large replaced French production. In 1960, French-made clothes accounted for 70% of sales. Losing an average of one percentage point a year, by 2006 this had fallen to 25%. LuxInside estimates this figure at 1% in 2010. Over the period, companies have increased their profit margin. Sales of lingerie grew 2% to 3% a year between 1980 and 2006 (source: Union des Industries Textiles).

Cristal Saint Louis - Hilton Mc Connico

In 1676, England's George Ravenscroft inadvertently invented lead crystal when he accidentally mixed lead oxide and glass, and was struck by its refractive properties. Spies were dispatched to uncover Ravenscroft's secret. Today, the quality of Saint Louis crystal is beyond doubt, yet the 200 workers know that their future hinges on the preservation of savoir-faire, and the innovation that produces exclusive models that cannot be imitated.

Dyson

Four hundred and twenty engineers and designers in its R&D division. One new patent a day with 1,500 patents filed to date. The only two "noble" materials James Dyson uses are air and brainpower. As history shows, James Dyson treads the same path as Les Paul, Charles Christofle, Herminie Cadolle or Paul-Emile Rémy-Martin a century before. By mastering their craft, these inspired inventors have given us the emblems of luxury today and the icons of the future.

Mary Beyer-atelier Lavabre Cadet

Mary Beyer Ateliers Lavabre Cadet is one of the last ateliers to produce Millau gloves and the only one in France that still makes to measure, despite a corporation founded in 1208. The sector thrived following the invention of the sewing machine by Elias Howe, and industrial cutting techniques.

The glove sector in France
1946: 441 manufacturers, 12 million pairs
1989 : 40
2010 : 5
Figures for:
1933 : 76 manufacturers, 12,000 workers
1963 : 6500 personnes
2010: 35 artisans, 3 tawing factories.

Le Labo-Lehanneur-Edwards

So many questions are looking for answers. Two men were convinced that one day invisible pollutants will be one of our greatest concerns. They found the time and resources to develop a way to optimise the solutions made available by man's greatest ally: nature.

Christian Louboutin

Stiletto heels find echoes in the universal psyche. Every woman feels like a Queen when perched on heels whose dagger-like thinness was made possible only thanks to the aeronautic industry's innovations in metal after the Second World War.

Quantum Glass-Saint Gobain

Its history began in 1666. Saint-Gobain - the world's leading glass manufacturer - was indeed one of the Manufactures Royales which Colbert initiated under Louis XIV. Six inventions among thousands : drawn glass (1688), Securit (modèle depose du nom) safety glass (1913) to produce windscreens for the emerging automobile industry, tempered glass and convex glass, showcased at the Saint-Gobain pavilion at the 1937 World Fair, Diamant extra-clear laminated glass for I.M. Pei's Louvre Pyramid (1989) and Planilum illuminated glass (2009).