Filt 1860: A Normandy Net Maker and the Classic French String Bag

Every French grandmother owned one: a cotton string bag that folds into a pocket and stretches to carry the whole market home. Filt 1860 still makes it, in Mondeville on the edge of Caen, along with storage nets, hammocks and cords, and the French state recognizes its know-how with the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label.

From a farmers’ cooperative to D-Day

The business began in 1860 as a cooperative of Norman farmers at Saint-Sylvain, making nets and cords. It later passed to the l’Honneur family and traded as Établissements l’Honneur; production was mechanized from 1910, and the first attempts at export date from 1925.

On 6 June 1944, at half past three in the afternoon, the factory was destroyed in the bombing of Caen. Rebuilding began in 1945 and production resumed in 1948. In the decades that followed, the company made nets for mussel farming, leisure, storage, food and hunting, employing around fifty people in the workshop and more than a hundred working from home.

A new life for the string bag

After the l’Honneur business was sold, the company took the name Filt in 1990. In the 2000s Jean-Philippe and Catherine Cousin took the helm and set about renewing it, above all by modernizing the shopping net, which they turned into a colorful, contemporary object without changing what it is. In 2017 the Ministry of Industry awarded Filt the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label, and in 2019 the workshop moved to its current premises in Mondeville. Everything is still made in France, and the company works with sheltered and reintegration workshops for part of its production.

What we carry

We carry the shopping net in two formats and a wide palette of colors. Each bag is 100% cotton, folds into a pocket, and holds far more than it looks like it should: the small bag is rated for 3 kg, the long-handled bag for 8 kg. The Rainbow Net Bag is the multicolored signature, the Natural Net Bag keeps the undyed look of the original, and the Gold Glitter Net Bag dresses it up for the evening. The rest of the range runs from yellow, orange and red to Matisse blue, khaki and lettuce green.

How we use them

• At the farmers’ market, for bread, leeks and a bunch of flowers.
• Folded in a coat pocket, for the unplanned stop at the bakery.
• Hung on a hook in the kitchen, as a home for onions and citrus.
• As the wrapping for a gift of French groceries.

Read the full story on our Filt 1860 page and see every color in the Filt 1860 collection.