Au Départ
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| Founded | 1834 |
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| Founder | Ernest & Paul Bertin |
| Headquarters | 29 avenue de l'Opéra, Paris, France |
| Products | Trunks, Leather Goods, Handbags |
| Website | www |
Au Départ (which translate as "At the departure") is a Parisian trunkmaker founded in Paris in 1834.
Au Départ, despite being now dormant, is still considered as one of four greatest French trunk-makers alongside Louis Vuitton, Goyard and Moynat.
Au Départ was founded in 1834 upon the advent of railway travel. In 1847, a shop trading under Au Départ selling luggage and travel goods shop opened at 7 boulevard Denain in Paris, opposite the Gare du Nord, a railway station inaugurated the year before on 14 June 1846.
The shop Au Départ located Boulevard de Denain was acquired in 1871 by two brothers, Ernest (born in 1846) and Paul Bertin (born in 1854). Originally from the village of Daulaincourt in Haute-Marne, they had started by selling haberdashery on the Saint-Quentin market. They established the Maison Bertin Frères in 1871.
The boutique on Boulevard de Denain specialised in guns, ammunitions, travel, as well as hunting and fishing goods. Their travel section displayed many different types of trunks (namely postal trunks, rounded trunks, canteen trunks, wicker trunks, flat trunks, wooden trunks covered in a brown canvas, “anglaises” trunks made out of wicker and covered in leather, automobile trunks, etc.), leather suitcases, handbags and stocked vanity cases.
The Bertin Frères business flourished and a second shop, trading under Au Départ, was opened in Paris at 29, Avenue de l’Opéra in 1874. The boutique specialised in travel accessories and leather goods produced in the Belleville, Belleville workshops managed by the Bertin brothers. The brothers invented several related techniques which they were to patent, namely a new production technique for trunks and a new process to render hides and leather products completely waterproof.
Ernest Bertin, who lived above the Boulevard de Denain boutique, dedicated himself to hunting accessories and established Bertin Fils. Paul Bertin, who for his part lived above the Avenue de l’Opéra boutique, established Bertin Jeune with his sons and continued to specialise in travel goods. The two Maisons Bertin Jeune and Bertin Fils coexisted. Upon Ernest Bertin’s death in 1905 the store on boulevard de Denain was sold and the Au Départ shop inside closed circa 1910. On its side, the boutique located on the avenue de l’Opéra continued to prosper.
Interior of Au Départ store, 7 boulevard Denain, Paris, 1890's
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Wikipedia