Now it is Paris Fashion Week again. But I will not write directly about fashion but more about some significant person, who helps lots of designers and PR people during this time to send personal letters to each other.
The flowers, the petit-fours, the letters sent around town at these times of the year show the receiver times-to-times exceptional beautiful handwriting and penmanship and the thank-you or congratulation papers are handpicked original paper. But the credit for these romantic arrangements are going to Nicolas Ouchenir, Paris’ premier calligrapher and the pen behind many of the leading French fashion houses.
I love the fact, that quite a lot of companies and single people are still amazed about handwriting in an even faster and mobile wireless world, where texting short messages and tweets are the “normal” way to communicate.
In an industry where luxurious personalization has become a paramount tool for brands, Ouchenir’s rare craft is highly prized—and after nearly a decade in business, the 34-year-old counts everyone from Chloé to Lancôme, Givenchy, and Miu Miu as regular clients. Working alone from his atelier on the famous Rue St. Honoré, Ouchenir is known to churn out nearly 1,000 invitations daily in the heady lead-up to Paris Fashion Week, or on a quieter day to brainstorm grandiose typefaces and logos for the Louvre’s special projects or the latest Dom Pérignon vintage label.
I came across his work in an Interview magazine article last year, where he also explains how he got to this unusual job and which handwriting he likes or makes the most. Read here more.
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