Causse Gantier

Causse Gantier was founded in 1892 in Millau, a town in southern France long associated with leather tanning and glovemaking. The house has been formally recognized as an Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (Living Heritage Company) and is listed in UNESCO's Rare Arts & Crafts registry, markers reserved for businesses that maintain historic hand-craft methods rather than industrialized production.

In 2012, Causse became part of Chanel's Métiers d'Art ecosystem, the group of specialist ateliers — including embroiderers, featherworkers and shoemakers — that the fashion house has acquired to keep rare crafts in-house and supplying its own collections. The gloves themselves are made from lambskin and peccary leather with cashmere and silk linings and tulle or satin accents; the company describes some models as requiring more than 100 separate operations, from leather selection through hand-embroidery and precision cutting, before a pair is finished.

That combination — a 19th-century Millau workshop now operating inside a modern luxury conglomerate's craft division — places Causse alongside a small group of French glovemaking houses, including Maison Fabre in the same town, that have survived by attaching themselves to couture demand rather than mass retail.