2 August 2022
Thalie Paris is an eco-luxury brand of handbags and accessories founded in 2020 by Nathalie Dionne. A Parisian, Dionne has always been fascinated by leather goods. Her passion, matched with a desire to explore innovative and recycled materials led her to create luxurious leather products made out of salmon skin and cactus.
The brand was created in the middle of the world pandemic during the first Paris lockdown in March 2020. While taking a walk in Paris 16th district where she lives, Dionne saw “Thalie” written in a relief by a French sculptor. In ancient Greek, Thalie (Thaleia) means “The flourishing”. Thalie is represented as one of the Three Graces and is said to bring beauty to the world. It is also an endearing nickname, short for Nathalie, Dionne’s father used to call her…
Sustainability is an opportunity not a constraint to creativity
The food system is notoriously wasteful at all levels. Not only a large amount of the food produced is being wasted but also, the waste resulting from the consumption of food that needs to be disposed of is a source of pollution.
While looking for a sustainable, eco-friendly material for her products, Dionne found in recycled salmon skin, the sustainability as well as the feel and the luxury touch that she was after. Fish skin is an age-old material that has been used throughout history because of its strength and durability as well as for its natural textures and beautiful patterns.
The material that Thalie uses for its minimalist “sushi” handbags line, comes from the French marine tannery Ictyos, one of the startups incubated at LVMH’s Maison des Start-ups.
Founded by three chemical engineers, Ictyos’ mission to bring innovation, ethical and environmental values to the luxury sector led them to invent a recipe to recycle fish skin collected from sushi bars and restaurants, and transform it into handsome marine leather.
“Sustainability is an opportunity not a constraint to creativity”, has become Dionne’s motto. “At Thalie, we take recycling to art,” she says.
In addition to its iconic Sushi, triangular signature handbags, Thalie Paris also offers the “Cactus” handbags collection, made out of cactus-based vegan material supplied by a Mexican company.
As a guarantee of authenticity, block chain technology has been integrated to Thalie’s bags. A discreet, diamond shape QR code enables to track the entire production process, allowing the traceability of materials and fabrication, suppliers and workshops.
“We are no longer in “secret mode”. Transparency enables us to keep authenticity and to fight the “fake product“ industry”, explains Dionne.
This collaboration with the French company SORGA (which means “from the source”) makes Thalie Paris a pioneer in terms of transparency in the luxury industry.
Thalie Paris’ products are found exclusively at upscale, vegan & sustainable driven retailers and marketplaces in France, UK, Dubai, Germany and USA.
“APLF coincided with the launch of Thalie at Bloomingdales Dubai”, says Dionne. “It was a great opportunity to visit the fair and source leather suitable for future upcycling projects. I also found encouraging discovering other initiatives aiming at turning leather into a more sustainable industry”.
We bring leather, material and fashion businesses together: an opportunity to meet and greet face to face. We bring them from all parts of the world so that they can find fresh partners, discover new customers or suppliers and keep ahead of industry developments.
We organise a number of trade exhibitions which focus on fashion and lifestyle: sectors that are constantly in flux, so visitors and exhibitors alike need to be constantly aware both of the changes around them and those forecast for coming seasons.
