Berluti has drawn on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince for a new collection of leather accessories and collectible books, using the French writer's drawings and manuscripts as material for engraving, marquetry and hand-coloured patinas. The project marks eight decades since the novel's first French edition.
Literature becomes an exercise in material craft
Rather than applying a single picture from the story to a handbag, Berluti says its artisans have experimented with how Saint-Exupéry's handwritten words, original sketches and watercolours can inhabit leather. Venezia leather provides the base, with laser engraving and marquetry adding different textures and degrees of permanence.
That approach is significant because a literary collaboration can easily become an exercise in recognisable logos. Here the challenge is to translate line, colour and narrative into a material that bends and ages with use, while retaining the emotional reference that interested its creators.
The Un Jour and Trois Nuits tell different stories
The Un Jour briefcase carries layered fragments of manuscript rendered over a Cacao Intenso patina. Its surface is intended to reward close viewing, allowing the text and colour to appear as part of the leather rather than as decoration attached to it.
The Trois Nuits travel bag offers a separate direction through a mountain panorama rendered across multiple panels in a Gris Brume palette. A Deux Jours bag also uses techniques developed to evoke Saint-Exupéry's original watercolour images, giving the larger items distinctive personalities.
The fox and rose become subtle details
Among the smaller pieces, Berluti identifies a warm Fauve Ambré treatment on the Un Jour de Poche that refers to the fox in the story. On an Alessandro shoe, the rose motif is worked below the visible surface in a method described as sotto pelle, where the image becomes more sculptural than pictorial.
These decisions may interest collectors who prefer references they can discover gradually rather than prominently printed illustrations. They also present questions about care: the finish of a hand-worked patina is an important part of the object and may need specialist attention over years of travel.
A numbered literary set adds another dimension
The collaboration includes a two-volume collection of Saint-Exupéry's complete works in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, bound in patinated Venezia leather and limited to ninety-nine numbered sets. This is closer to a fine-book collector's object than a typical fashion accessory.
Potential buyers should confirm availability, the precise edition and aftercare for leather-bound volumes or bags. The October retailer release identifies the techniques and named products, but it does not establish current stock or a universal price for each creation.
Official sources: www.timeinternational.co.id.
