Filt 1860
Filt 1860 is a net maker in Normandy that still produces the classic French cotton string shopping bag, the filet à provisions, along with storage nets, hammocks and cords. The company, based in Mondeville on the edge of Caen, holds the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label that the French state reserves for companies with rare craft skills. Its bags are among the few non-food items on Clipperton's shelves.
The house
The business began in 1860 as a cooperative of Norman farmers at Saint-Sylvain, in Normandy, 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.
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: showing at trade fairs, and above all 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, held by some 1,400 French companies. In 2019 the manufacture moved to its current premises in Mondeville, and in 2020 the brand's website and visual identity were redesigned.
Everything is still made in France. The company works with sheltered and reintegration workshops for part of its production, and describes its values as commitment, openness and authenticity.
What they make
Clipperton carries the shopping net in two formats and a wide palette of colors. Each bag is 100% cotton, folds into a pocket, and stretches to hold far more than it looks like it should: the small bag is rated for 3 kg, the long-handled bag for 8 kg.
- Rainbow Net Bag, Long Handles – the multicolored signature, for over the shoulder.
- Natural Net Bag, Long Handles – undyed cotton, the original look.
- Black Net Bag, Long Handles – the discreet everyday version.
- Rainbow Net Bag, Small – short handles, for hand-carrying.
- Gold Glitter Net Bag, Long Handles – a glitter finish for evenings out.
The full Filt 1860 collection runs through yellow, orange, red, pink, violet, Matisse blue, blue joyau, khaki and lettuce green, plus glitter raspberry, pale pink and black and gold.
Why Clipperton chose them
Clipperton is a family importer of French food, and a string bag is what you carry French food home in. We liked the object first: it is the bag every French grandmother owned, remade in colors that make people ask where you got it. Then we read the history, a workshop that was flattened on D-Day and rebuilt, kept alive by one family and then another, and recognized by the state as living heritage, and we wanted to be part of it. We buy direct from the manufacture in Normandy, and we think the bags belong on the same shelf as the honey and the tea.
