Chambre 12

Every family has a room it does not mention at dinner. For the Sabelles it is Chambre 12, on the first floor of a hotel that has not been redecorated since 1974. The walls are mirrored. The carpet is claret and the bedspread is quilted gold satin. We booked it for two nights to photograph La Promenade.

Why a hotel

La Promenade is a bag for going out. It is made for long walks under old arches and for the evenings at the end of them. A hotel room is where the walk and the evening meet. Coats are thrown on the bed, shoes come off and the bag goes wherever it lands.

That is how we like our pieces photographed. Carried, dropped and left on the bed. You will never see a Sabelle bag on a plinth.

Red on red

La Rouge wore a red patent trench, buttoned to the throat. The bag is glazed calf lacquered in Laque, the house red. Red on red is a risk, and in a mirrored room it doubles every time you turn round. We lit it with a single hard flash, so the reds came back deep and slightly warm, the way hotel rooms look at one in the morning.

Le Neveu sat on the edge of the bed in a mesh shirt and refused to take off his sunglasses. He had brought Le Cavalier, the black top-handle bag, and spent most of the second night pretending it was his.

What we kept

We made four hundred frames over two nights and kept eleven. The picture at the top of this page came from the very end. The flash had failed twice and La Rouge had stopped posing. She is simply holding the bag and waiting for us to finish. It is the most honest picture of La Promenade we have.

The bag

La Promenade is a structured top-handle bag in glazed calf, closed with the house's gold arch and lined in bottle-green suede. A slim detachable strap takes it from hand to shoulder, which is useful when you need both hands for a room key.

Every bag is made in Italy and leaves the house in a lacquer-red box, sealed by hand in wax. See La Promenade, or walk through the whole chapter in La Promenade.

The hotel has asked us not to give out the address. Chambre 12 is booked, in any case, for the foreseeable future.

Maison Sabelle is a concept store by Neat Digital, and Chambre 12 exists only in its photographs.