Longchamp Throws Open Its First Art Festival in Paris
Longchamp, the French leather-goods house founded in 1948, held its first-ever Art Festival in Paris from 4 to 6 September 2026 — a free, three-day event that gathered nearly 30 artists and creators from across the world. The festival took over the Galerie Joseph on rue Saint-Merri, filling the space with painting, sculpture, photography, design, music, dance and digital art.
The programme was conceived by Sophie Delafontaine, Longchamp's artistic director and a granddaughter of the house's founders. Her brother, Jean Cassegrain, serves as chief executive. Together they represent the third generation of the family still running the business — a structure that has shaped how Longchamp approaches creative projects, with a long view rather than quarterly pressure.
Delafontaine developed the festival's lineup with performing-arts curator and producer Olivier Bassuet. Among the artists featured were Elias Crespin, known for kinetic sculpture; Maya Hayuk, whose large-scale geometric murals have appeared in galleries and on building walls; and Sarah Morris, a painter and filmmaker whose work draws on urban architecture and corporate branding. At the opening, Delafontaine sat down with Géraldine Sarratia, host of Le Monde's podcast Le goût de M, to talk about her passion for art and its place in her design process. WWD
She said she begins each collection with the colour palette, and that art frequently helps her build it. Her most recent artist collaboration at the time of the festival was with Caroline Hélain, a Brussels-based textile artist. When asked how she chooses collaborators, Delafontaine was blunt: fame and social-media following play no part in the decision.
That approach has deep roots. Longchamp's tradition of artist collaborations stretches back to 1971, when the house commissioned French painter Serge Mendjiski to design a bag. In 2004, the company worked with Tracey Emin, the British artist known for her confessional, raw-text works. The festival, in a sense, pulls that decades-long thread of one-off partnerships into a single public event.
Delafontaine described the festival as a gift to the city of Paris — free to attend, and deliberately broad in its range of disciplines. The opening party drew actors Juliette Binoche, Zoey Deutch, Jung So-min and Kim Se-jeong, among other guests from film and fashion.
For a house that built its name on folded leather handbags and a horse-racing logo, the festival is a noticeable broadening of the frame. But it stays within the family logic: Delafontaine picks artists the way she picks colours — for what the work does, not for who is watching.
