HISTORY & FOUNDERS

Maison Maes creative direction and design is held by Géraldine Saquy.

Géraldine’s journey could be an inspiration for a lot of designers which were deprived from the joy of expressing themselves through their designs. It is a story about refusing to comply and to become the person she was expected to be, to become a designer against all odds.

FREEING CREATIVITY

In a lot of families, success is defined by a good job, salary or social status. An environment that often influences the choices of young people when deciding their future.

It is in such an environment that Géraldine’s journey began with her first career choices: meeting the expectations of those surrounding here despite this creative urge she could feel deep inside and the passion for graphic arts she cherished as her own secret garden.

Supreme irony or just a sign of her destiny, every day while attending the business school she signed up to (“the right choice to have a good job” as one would say at home) she had to walk pass the Penninghen school in Paris, one of the places where she would have preferred a thousand times to go to, had she really been free to decide.

After her studies, Géraldine seemed right on track to follow the path written for her by her family as she joined an advertising agency as a commercial agent. Working in advertising was already a first step towards creativity, even if it was the only step she would allow herself to take back then. After a few years struggling to persuade herself that she was at the right place, Géraldine realized she could not be fully happy and that she could only thrive by refusing to continue like this. She had the change the course of her life and to let her creativity out.
She took her destiny in her own hands and joined the artistic direction of her agency, starting back from zero and making up for lost time.

Géraldine Saquy, fondatrice de Maison Maes, Haute Maroquinerie vegan à faible impact fabriquée en France
Inspirations de Géraldine Saquy pour la création chez Maison Maes, Haute Maroquinerie vegan à faible impact fabriquée en France

A MATTER OF BALANCE

Self-taught, Géraldine is passionate about design and graphic arts. During her time as an artistic director in advertising she fostered her creativity, inspired by graphic artists, the Art Déco movement and the works of the first great industrial designers.

In the Constructivism approach as well as in the “Streamline” movement with Raymond Loewy, she saw a reflection of her own quest for the perfect balance between form and functionality, between the desire to project herself in the future and the need to stay connected to the present. She developed her taste for lines than can be straight, curved or broken, seeing them as ways to materialise the emotions she wanted to convey in her designs.

In the works of French designers like Pierre Paulin, she sees the reflection of her own taste for symmetry, moderation and something close to an obsession with finding the perfect proportions.

Throughout her years in artistic direction, she developed an extreme sensitivity to shape and balance, even in the tiniest details. Géraldine sees designs as ways to send messages, a vision that will later play a crucial role in her choice to start Maison Maes.

A QUEST FOR PURPOSE

Géraldine inherited her taste for fashion and accessories from her grandmother, a singular Parisian woman, very dynamic and quite ahead of her time. A spirited character as well, whose style and elegance in any circumstances have left a mark in her grand-daughter’s mind to an extent she could never have imagined.

Alongside her quest for the perfect balance in her creations, Géraldine had been looking for a way to reconcile her need to create and the growing feeling she had to act to preserve the environment. She was convinced there was a link to be made between a future where her kids would see the planet thriving and a present where creativity could still express itself fully. She felt she had arrived at a crossroads in her career and it is an encounter that would allow her to commit herself and start a new chapter of her creative and personal life.

In 2019, it so happened that she met Romain Boubert. Trained as an engineer, Romain was then a senior executive in distribution. For quite some time, he wanted to devote himself to his passion for leather goods. With the discovery of new materials in 2018, namely plant-based leather alternatives of very high quality, he had started to sketch the outlines of the House concept: a new version of French Haute Maroquinerie, combining exceptional savoir-faire and these innovative biomaterials to deliver avant-garde elegance.

Together in 2020, after a first confinement period which facilitated introspection and reconsideration of the established order of things, they decided to start Maison Maes.

Romain Boubert, fondateur de Maison Maes, Haute Maroquinerie vegan à faible impact fabriquée en France
Géraldine Saquy dessinant la pochette avec chaine Maison Maes M1_02, Haute Maroquinerie vegan à faible impact fabriquée en France

CREATION VS. TIME

If Géraldine’s design are the product of her quest for the perfect balance in shapes and lines, painstakingly worked upon behind their pure, spare appearance, they also carry another part of Géraldine’s vision: timelessness.

Despite being over-used and distorted, the concept of timelessness is nevertheless an important part of Géraldine’s creative vision. Designs that survive the volatility and shallowness of seasonal fashion. The expression of this balance she is looking for between a mindful future and guilt-free living present.

For her, every Maison Maes handbag and small leather good is a piece made to last, an elegant accessory that stays relevant and appealing season after season and that will still fuel emotions and accompany us throughout the years. More than just a creative process this is a vision of sustainable fashion, diametrically opposed to those who praise the never-ending emergence of new trends at the service of harmful over-consumption.

Maison Maes handbags and small leather goods are the best expression of Géraldine’s creativity and of her vision of sustainable timeless elegance.

Made in France

All our handbags and small leather goods are handcrafted in France by renowned artisans.

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LOW IMPACT

The carbon footprint of our handbags and small leather goods is 3-times lower than traditional leather goods.

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LIFETIME WARRANTY

Our handbags are designed to withstand the test of time. However, we provide any necessary repair, without any limit in time.

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