Very Fancy Chanel Now Owns a Very Fancy Tannery

Chanel has purchased a tannery. Specifically, the luxury fashion brand has shelled out an undisclosed amount of money for Bodin-Joyeux, which has been around since 1860 and provides much of the lamb hide that goes into those oh-so-expensive quilted bags.

No, the company was not been inspired by the hipster fad for killing what you eat. It’s actually part of a broader move in the fashion business toward locking down necessary supplies. Reuters reports:

The trend toward vertical integration – control from the raw material to
the shop shelf – gives luxury brands a competitive advantage, raises
barriers to entry and helps them defend the high-quality image they want
associated with their products.

The company’s also bought Chanel No.5 suppliers and the couture embroiderer Maison Lesage. Hermes and LVMH have also been on a buying spree that includes both tanneries and, apparently, crocodile farms.

“Bodin-Joyeux are lambskin specialists and we wanted to protect and
preserve their know-how,” Bruno Pavlovsky, the chairman of the company’s fashion business, told Reuters. Not to mention that, as demand grows and meat consumption drops, lamb leather and calf hides are increasingly pricey—up something like 25 to 30 percent over the last three to five years.

It’s worth noting that Louis Vuitton is apparently struggling with production of its new, sleeker and more expensive (try $4,000 vs. $2,000 for the old monogrammed stuff), because there’s just not enough high-quality leather to go around. Supposedly Bodin-Joyeux will continue supplying other luxury brands, but you’ve got to figure the corporate parent reserves the right to a bit of line-cutting.