Longchamp Eyewear: From a Leather Pipe Maker to Parisian Luxury Sunglasses

Longchamp is best known today for one thing above all: the Le Pliage bag, a foldable nylon tote that's become a kind of shorthand for understated French luxury. But long before handbags, the house started somewhere much more unexpected — leather smoking pipes — and its eyewear collection carries forward the same design instincts that took the brand from a small Parisian workshop to a global name.

A leather craftsman in postwar Paris: 1948

Longchamp was founded on February 1, 1948, by Jean Cassegrain, setting up shop at boulevard Poissonnière in Paris's second arrondissement — a busy shopping district at the time. Cassegrain's original specialty wasn't luggage or handbags at all; it was luxury leather-sheathed smoking pipes, crafted using fine materials like crocodile and lizard leather and sold to both international visitors and Parisians frequenting the city's theaters. He debuted this first collection at the Paris Fair on May 1, 1948, a major postwar gathering point for luxury houses eager to showcase new work.

Cassegrain built the young company's reputation on four principles he considered non-negotiable: creation, quality, work, and service — values that guided Longchamp's growth from a single leather product into a full accessories house over the following decades.

The horse that became a legacy

Longchamp's name and now-iconic galloping horse logo both trace back to the same source of inspiration. During his daily commute into central Paris, Cassegrain passed by one of the last remaining windmills in the city, situated near the famous Longchamp horse racecourse. He noticed the wordplay in his own surname — "Cassegrain" translates loosely to "seed-breaker," evoking milling — and connected it to the world of horsemanship and saddlery that inspired his early collections. He commissioned artist Turenne Chevallereau to design a symbol built around a galloping horse, representing elegance, grace, and freedom — an emblem the house has never strayed from since.

From leather goods to a global fashion house

Longchamp expanded steadily under the Cassegrain family, adding small leather travel accessories like wallets and passport covers before eventually moving into handbags. The company's defining product arrived in 1993 with the launch of Le Pliage, a lightweight, foldable nylon tote that became an instant symbol of accessible, understated luxury — still one of the brand's best-known products today. Longchamp has remained a family-run company across generations, with Jean Cassegrain's son Philippe (who was just eleven years old when the company was founded) and later his own descendants continuing to lead the house.

Eyewear joins the collection

As Longchamp grew into a full lifestyle brand spanning ready-to-wear, shoes, and accessories, eyewear became a natural extension of that expansion — translating the house's leather-goods design sensibility into sunglasses and optical frames. Like most fashion houses, Longchamp doesn't manufacture its own eyewear directly; the collection has been produced through licensing partnerships with established eyewear manufacturers who bring the brand's design codes to life at a global scale.

A design language borrowed from the brand's icons

Longchamp's eyewear collections draw direct inspiration from the house's most recognizable leather goods. Design details from the brand's signature bags — including the foldable Le Pliage tote, the structured Paris Premier bag, and the woven Roseau design — have influenced textures, hardware, and silhouettes across the eyewear line. The collections lean into what the brand describes as "singularly feminine shapes," blending timeless silhouettes with bolder, more geometric proportions, alongside premium materials like acetate, metal, and titanium finished with the brand's signature bamboo-inspired temple details and the recognizable galloping horse emblem.

Where the brand stands today

Longchamp eyewear now spans a wide range of styles, from classic optical frames to modern sunglasses with polarized and anti-glare lens options, sold globally through licensed eyewear partners. The collection continues to reflect the same values Jean Cassegrain built the company on nearly 80 years ago — quality materials, meticulous craftsmanship, and a distinctly Parisian sense of ease.