The Candide: Zadig & Voltaire gets an A+ in bag namingBack in 2011 Frédéric Le

The Candide: Zadig & Voltaire gets an A+ in bag naming

Back in 2011 Frédéric Lefebvre, the then French Secretary of State for Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises, Tourism, Services, Liberal Professions and Consumption, made a idiot of himself on national media by naming Zadig & Voltaire as his favourite author.

Of course, Lefebvre meant the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, not the high-end high-street brand. Growing up in France, I have come to love both the writer, who I read extensively at school, and the brand, which I wear extensively on weekends.

I have a particular fondness for their handbags. Whereas star items such as the Tunisien T-shirts, which can loose their shape after a few washes, or the cashmere jumpers, which tend to pile, have disappointed me, my three handbags have never failed me. The leather is supple; beautiful to the eye and touch. They have the right number of pockets to enable me to organise my stuff, but not so many that I forget where I put everything. They always get me compliments.

So when I received a Zadig & Voltaire email announcing a new structured tote for Spring/Summer 2015, The Candide, I was pretty excited. Not least by the name, the best synergy between a bag name and a brand name I have seen in a while.

Bag naming is tricky. It needs to work across platforms. It needs to be true to the brand’s history and to its public perception. It needs to be short enough not to take up half a tweet. More importantly, considering the competition on the bag market and the income brands derive from leather goods, it needs to be memorable and to stand the test of time. Bonus points if it has worldwide meaning.

With The Candide, Zadig & Voltaire ticks most boxes. Candide ou l'Optimisme is one of Voltaire’s best-known novellas. When it comes to alignment with a brand DNA, you can hardly be more spot-on than a satire written by a man whose name is in your logo. It’s so obvious it’s hard to believe they didn’t think of it before: previous star bags were named The Sunny bag or The Rock clutch. The idea is scalable, thanks to Voltaire’s prolific writing. How about a Micromégas hobo bag and a Zaïresatchel?

Contrary to most brands, Zadig & Voltaire didn’t premiere The Candide at its Spring/Summer 2015 show. But then artistic director Cecilia Bönström doesn’t envisage the runway the way competitors do. According to Amy Verner at Style.com, Bönström sees it as a conceptual event, an introduction to what she thinks for the upcoming season rather than an exact display of what will be on the shelves next. True to this idea, The Candide is available in two key runway colours: black and yellow.

The tote has so far enjoyed limited marketing and publicity. Aside from the global email introducing it and print campaign, Zadig & Voltaire have promoted it on social media to limited engagement. A tweet posted on 28 January has so far gathered five retweets and four favourites; a similar post on Facebook has five likes and one share; one on Tumblr has three notes. In terms of earned coverage, it has been photographed at Heidi Klum’s arm and it is currently in the display windows of key Parisian shopping destination Printemps. But these are early days; we are merely getting to know The Candide.