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Interview: Meet the Founders of IMPRESSION ORIGINALE
www.theidealist.com
Introducing
IDEALIST: We love the original, colourful, and creative world of Impression Originale, can you tell us how it began?
I was inspired to approach the art of wrapping gifts in a novel and creative way, founded in ethical sustainability.
Claire and I give priority to creativity and we have no limits so, like most businesses, we had an idea and we’re growing with it.
Creative Beginnings
Welcome to our world!
With the aim to make a lasting impression, Mathilde Habert and Claire Commeau founded Impression Originale, offering exclusive luxury wrapping paper and couture bows and ribbons. A year on, with stockists such as the Conran Shop, Harvey Nichols, Château de Versailles and Paris department store Le Bon Marché, Mathilde tells us more.
MODERN HEROES
IDEALIST: For someone new to your brand how would you best describe it?
What do you remember when you receive a gift?
For us it’s the emotion that you feel, the hidden message within in the gift, the time and care it beholds. We believe that true luxury is the attention to detail and the unique emotion you experience, which will stay with you long after the gift is gone. Our aim is to rethink the art of giving with our beautiful products.
Being Friendly with the Environment
IDEALIST: Can you explain your commitment to the environment and the art community.
Our business is built on good ethics with all products responsibly made in France using 100% recycled paper. Caring for the environment is about the different decisions we make everyday, such as where we source our paper and what kind of supplies we work with. We left nothing to chance. In parallel, we decided to give a crafty touch to our business, going back to a local approach in production whilst always keeping our eyes open for new inspirations and artists.
“we offer original designs, printed on 100% recycled paper made in France in a sustainable and ethical manner.”
COLLABORATING WITH ARTISTS
IDEALIST:
We’d love to know your process of finding and collaborating with artists.
You would be surprised, the process is actually quite ad hoc. We select the artist by “coup de coeur” (roughly love at first sight for the designs), whether we like the style, the spirit or a particular design. We usually approach the artist (or get approached by artists) and if a specific design matches our collective artistic orientation, we agree to work on an original design. We work with the artist to best format it for our wrapping format and technical specifications and they sign each design. It’s a fun and very creative process.
100% Recycled I Ethical I Original Designs
IDEALIST: What sets your products apart form other gift wrap?
“Daring to be different”
In a nutshell we would say that we offer original designs, printed on 100% recycled paper made in France in a sustainable and ethical manner.
Our wraps are on XL sheets, which are substantially larger than the current standard in the industry. We also use a mechanical printing process, which gives very deep and colourful prints and makes this glossy aspect. Each wrap is doubled-side printed with a grid to make sure you get this perfect cut and we suggest matching ready-to-use ribbons and bows to compliment each design wrap.
We also ask our designers to sign their artworks which we think is quite unique in the wrapping paper world. Our inspiration came from artists signing their artwork when they create luxury pieces such as a scarf for Hermès (Claire is coming from textile design so that explains a lot!). It’s a nice way to recognise the unique artistry that goes into each work.
SECRET BESPOKE PROJECTS
IDEALIST: Are you able to tell us about any bespoke projects you have worked on?
With the Musée Rodin in Paris we have been asked to work on a surprise project. We have chosen one of our collaborative artists to develop a bespoke design based on the beautiful statues of Auguste Rodin and gave it a modern twist.
We feel very lucky to be able to work with these beautiful names and very inspiring places. We have also an on-going bespoke project with the Château de Versailles, where we have developed some commissioned designs based on the castle’s iconography. The designs are gorgeous and we cannot wait to see the final results in their boutiques next year!
From Seedling to Flowering
IDEALIST: How your business has grown?
We are just about a year old and are happy to see that our products have been well received as we are not only selling design wraps, we have a philosophy behind it, and I believe this makes the difference in our clients’ eyes. Our current stockists are: the Conran Shop, the Centre Pompidou, the Bon Marché, Harvey Nichols and we’d love to add other boutiques and museums to our list.
