Smythson Collaborates With French Artist Thomas Lélu

THE BLUE PAGES: The French artist Thomas Lélu is applying his quirky one-liners and sentences to Smythson’s leather accessories.

The collaboration is centered around writing, travel and gifting with notebooks, a passport cover and luggage tag that are printed with “Do small things with great love” or “1 year 365 opportunities.”

“Working with Smythson is an incredible opportunity. To me, the brand is the absolute authority in its field. Writing, and language in general, has been the main subject of my work for a very long time. I’m the son of a literature professor and a psychoanalyst, so perhaps that has something to do with it,” said Lélu.

Partnering with creatives in the field of fashion and arts has become a usual occurrence at Smythson.

Last summer, Hunza G, the London-based swimwear brand, teamed with Smythson to reimagine its Chelsea notebooks in charming shades of bubblegum pink, lime and orange.

In 2023, Smythson partnered with 15 students and tutors from London College of Fashion to document their creative journey from start to finish in a project titled “Out of the Blue,” a nod to the brand’s signature shade.

Smythson has been under the leadership of Paolo Porta since 2023, where he’s chief executive officer.

He reports to Stefano Giacomelli, chairman of Smythson and CEO of Tivoli Group.

Porta was CEO of the British boot maker Hunter, a job he took up in 2021 after successfully steering the company through the COVID-19 pandemic and the early stages of its repositioning strategy. He initially joined in June 2020 as interim CEO.