BILUM : UPCYCLING MANUFACTURING*
FRENCH CREATIVE HOUSE FOUNDED IN 2005, BILUM BRINGS LIFE TO MATERIALS RECOVERED, FORGOTTEN, WEATHERED AND DESTINED FOR DISPOSAL.
We make bags, accessories and some pieces of furniture with the help of French craftsmen. The materials are selected for their design, graphics, technicality, rarity, their history or what they evoke; airbags, seat belts, giant advertising canvases, curtains for Parisian palaces, luxury awnings and upholstery fabrics, boat sails, life jackets and train and plane seat covers, uniforms, etc. gain a second wind.
ECO-RESPONSIBLE” BY COMMON SENSE, WE ESTABLISHED FROM THE START A LOCAL PRODUCTION, IN SHORT CIRCUIT AND INCLUDED IN THE SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMY
After rigorous sorting, we choose each piece and carefully cut it in our workshop in Choisy-le-Roi, seven kilometers from Paris.
We have our small integrated workshop for material tests and trials, prototypes, mini series, and after-sales service, and collaborate for the manufacture with 7 workshops that we have selected for their quality. They are all located in France, mainly in the Paris region. 4 of them are ESAT and EA (Establishment and service of help through work and Adapted company). Some are leatherworkers-saddlers with historical know-how. They represent more than forty people. With us, that makes about fifty people who work every day to offer you high quality products from upcycling.
From our beginnings, we attracted the attention of some emblematic avant-garde artists for whom we created special collections: agnès b. with the decorative canvases of its boutiques, Le Bon Marché for its 160th anniversary, launch of the airbag collection at Printemps Design at the Center Pompidou, our bags offered at Corso Como in Seoul or Isetan in Tokyo…
BILUM IS ADDED TO THOSE WHO ARE LOOKING FOR UNIQUE, ORIGINAL, ICONIC OR HERITAGE PIECES; WHILE TAKING CARE OF THEIR PRINT ON THE WORLD.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME “BILUM”
Pidgin singular masculine noun (Papua New Guinea); traditional plant bag or net used in Papua New Guinea and whose ancestral manufacture is enriched today by the use of new available materials such as synthetic fibers and cords or even fishing nets. Traditionally, each bilum was made and then decorated by its owner according to his tastes and personality and could arouse the admiration of the inhabitants of the village. *upcycling: also referred to as "upcycling", this action consists of transforming, without chemical modification, recovered materials or products that have become useless, into new objects of greater value in terms of use or aesthetics. bilum©: trademark and registered models.
