Nicolas Ouchenir loves fine paper and beautiful pen strokes. In our Twitter-dominated era, the young Parisian has carved out a niche as the go-to calligrapher for leading luxury brands. Dior, Chanel, Hermès, Lancôme, and Givenchy have all called on his services for their personalized invitations. He makes up to one thousand per day during the fashion week!
This passion for paper has also led him to calligraph vintage labels for Dom Pérignon, logos for the Louvre Museum, and even love letters. In a collaboration with Amédée Paris, a branch of the Chargeurs group (which also owns France-Amérique), he has also designed a one-time collection of seven scarves made with merino wool.
“Every piece is an invitation to adventure,” says Déborah Berger, who founded the Amédée Paris brand in 2018. Nicolas Ouchenir was given carte blanche to illustrate seven international locations: Paris, New York, Shanghai, as well as the “wool lands” of Patagonia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The final destination was Biella, the village in the Italian Piedmont region where most Amédée Paris accessories are made.
Ink Drawings and Calligraphy
Nicolas Ouchenir has calligraphed a selection of verses from poems or songs on each scarf to accompany his ink drawings. On the New York model, lines from Frank Sinatra’s iconic song feature against the backdrop of a map of the city and a view of the Brooklyn Bridge. On the Paris model, words by singer Jacques Dutronc form a rainbow over the Pont au Change bridge and the Conciergerie: “Il est cinq heures, Paris s’éveille…”
The motifs were digitally printed in Como in northern Italy, says Déborah Berger. “The traditional flat frame printing method did not enable us to reproduce the watercolor style of Nicolas Ouchenir’s drawings, nor his delicate writing.” The scarves (140 euros each) will be sold until December 31, 2019, on the Amédée Paris website, in the Ritz Hotel boutique, and in the L’Exception concept store in the first arrondissement of Paris. And anyone traveling between Paris and New York with La Compagnie will be able to purchase Nicolas Ouchenir’s creations mid-flight!
For every order on the website www.amedeeparis.com, use the code FRANCEAMERIQUE to get 15% off and free shipping!
