Goyard

Goyard is the quietest of the great French houses and the one that has changed least. Founded in 1853 as a trunk maker on the rue Saint-Honoré, it has never advertised, never run a seasonal campaign, and for most of its modern life has not sold online. Stock appears in a small number of boutiques, unpredictably, and then does not reappear.

The house is identified by one thing above all: the Goyardine chevron. It is a coated canvas rather than a leather, and the pattern is still applied by hand, dot by dot, over a printed base. The practical consequences are the argument for buying it. Goyardine is light, water-resistant, and far more tolerant of daily carrying than a calfskin at the same price. It is the material to choose when the bag is going to be used rather than protected.

The catalogue divides between handbags and small goods. On the bag side the Saint Louis is the unstructured tote sold with its matching pouch, the Artois the structured version of the same shape, the Anjou reversible between canvas and leather, and the Bohème the hobo. On the small goods side the Saint Sulpice card case, Senat pouch and Matignon wallet cover most of the range. Sizing runs Nano, Mini, PM, MM and GM.

Colour drives collectability more than shape does. The canvas is made in a fixed palette, and the rarer Special Colours and iridescent runs surface irregularly and are not repeated.

When assessing a pre-owned Goyard, the canvas is rarely the problem — the leather trim, handles and corner points are, since those patinate and abrade while the canvas stays much as it was. Every listing describes them separately.