Lemaire Croissant Filt Bag

The French string bag is one of the few genuinely ordinary objects that has never needed redesigning. It weighs nothing, it folds into a pocket, it expands to whatever is put in it, and it has been made the same way in Normandy since the middle of the nineteenth century. Filt have been making them since 1860 and hold the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant mark, the French state’s designation for living heritage craft. What this collaboration does is take that mesh and force it into a shape it has no business holding. A net has no form of its own; it takes the form of its contents. The Croissant is Lemaire’s most formally specific object, a curved crescent that reads as a drawn line. Making one out of the other is a real problem rather than a decorative one, and it is solved with a two-part construction: the outer mesh gives the silhouette and the removable inner bag gives it something to hold, so the crescent stays a crescent whether it is full or empty. Take the inner bag out and you have a net again. That is the part worth understanding. It is two objects that happen to nest, not one object with a lining.

Why we selected it

A collaboration is usually a logo exchange. This one is two makers solving an actual construction problem, and the result does something neither of them makes alone. We also like that the inner bag lifts out, because it means the object has a second life as a plain net.

The Croissant is the shape Lemaire is best known for, and putting it into open mesh is the house doing what it does most often: taking a familiar utilitarian object and changing one variable.

Materials and construction

Nylon net, in light beige, made in France. Two-part construction with an open net outer and a removable inner bag. We do not hold percentage compositions for either part, and we do not hold a separate material for the straps.

Sizing and dimensions

We do not hold measurements. A net bag’s capacity is elastic by nature, so what it holds depends on what is in it, but the removable inner bag sets the practical volume for anything you would not want visible through the mesh.

Styling

Light beige mesh over a solid inner reads as two tones at once and shows whatever colour the inner bag is against it, so the bag changes according to what is inside. It is the least formal of the Croissant family and is at its best in daylight, against linen, denim, or anything with an open weave of its own.

Care

Nylon net is more robust than it looks and its weakness is snagging rather than soiling. Keep it away from anything sharp or abrasive, wipe rather than soak, and let it dry in moving air out of direct heat. Our fabric care guide covers nylon and technical cloth.

Related pieces

The Large Croissant Bag in mink and the Medium Croissant Bag are the coated-canvas versions of the same silhouette. In nylon, the Medium Soft Game Bag. Everything we carry from Lemaire is listed together.