In 1937, in Saint-Junien, the “City of the Leather Glove,” in Limousin, Joseph Pourrichou, director of a paper mill, founds a glove-making workshop for his son Lucien.

Currently under the direction of his great granddaughter Sophie Gregoire, Agnelle, has remained family-owned across three generations.

Very quickly, the destiny of the glove-making became a women's story. Lucien went off to war and Marie-Louise, his wife, took over the reins of the company. She was the builder. From 1939 onwards, Marie-Louise set about establishing the glove-making industry as a noble business. She forged trusting relationships with her suppliers to obtain the finest leathers, and recruited the best artisans in the region to guarantee the excellence of her products.

And, in 1953, she had the factory built on the corner of Boulevard de la République and Faubourg Auguste Blanqui. Coming down from the town hall, all you can see is the three-storey building with its beautiful facade and large windows. This building is much more than a factory; it is the heart of the company, its brain, its hands. This is where the artisans work, on the ground and ground floors. But it's also where Marie-Louise and her family live, on the upper floor. At the time, Agnelle was working for American department stores and for the Dame de France chain. In less than twenty years, the workshop that was at the bottom of the garden on the other side of the boulevard was transformed into a flourishing glove factory with savoir-faire that crossed the Atlantic.

In 1964, Josie took over from her mother Marie-Louise. She knew the glove-making trade inside out. She grew up with the artisans, watching their hands cut, stretch and sew stitch by stitch... But Josie knows that the world is changing. Fashion is changing, and so are attitudes, and as skirts shorten, so do customs: wearing a glove is no longer essential to everyday life, and people now go out bare-headed and bare-handed.

But the glove has not disappeared, it became an exceptional accessory, the refinement that, with its fingertips, underlines the gesture with elegance. It poses for film stars and those who make history, and complements the Haute-Couture outfits that parade through Parisian salons. For Josie, the future of glove-making lay with the great names of fashion and their creations. So much so that in the 70s, she signed her first collaboration with a Haute-Couture house: Dior. Then came Yves Saint Laurent, Lanvin and even Alaïa, Jean Paul Gaultier, Mugler... At the same time, and with good sense, she continued to produce more accessible collections.

Marie-Louise's granddaughter joined the company in 1986. Her vision and boldness, combined with Josie's experience, gave the glove factory new ambitions. Sophie continued the development initiated by her mother and took over the reins in 1988. She became the fourth generation to run Agnelle. That same year, she set up a workshop in the Philippines, realising that to open up new markets and perpetuate the glove-making savoir-faire, it was necessary to have new workshops. All were trained in Saint-Junien by the factory's artisans, adding the excellence of French glove-making to their local savoir-faire, such as the art of plaited leather.

In 2001, Sophie bought back the company, which had just been sold to Well Lamont, the leading American glove maker. Preserving the savoir-faire and the authenticity of a family company is an absolute priority for Sophie. She also works with AMI and Gabriella Hearst, while developing her own brand of gloves and accessories Agnelle.

Her determination and boldness are quickly rewarded: in 2010, she receives the Veuve Cliquot Business Woman Award and the following year, the French National Order of the Legion of Honour. And in 2012, she was awarded the Grand Prix KBL Richelieu de l’Entrepreneur de Valeurs.

Agnelle works closely with the world's leading fashion and ready-to-wear houses: Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Alaïa, Roger Vivier, Ralph Lauren, Lanvin, Loewe, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Christopher Kane, Oscar de la Renta, Proenza Schouler…

These collections pass through the highly demanding materials laboratory, and bear witness to a work of excellence and the life of a savoir-faire that is still in full swing. Committed to innovation. The bearer of a history.

Bold partnerships fuel Agnelle's creative dynamic: perfumed gloves with Guerlain, driving gloves with Veuve Cliquot Champagnes, leather headbands with Princesse Tam Tam, exceptional gloves with l'Eclaireur. 

The house also creates innovative capsule collections that combine the same equation of creativity and savoir-faire, the fusion of handwork with the contemporary. Anthony Vaccarello, Cédric Charlier, Véronique Leroy, Wanda Nylon, Jean Charles de Castelbajac, Louis-Gabriel Nouchi and MM6 Maison Margiela are all part of this adventure.

True to its spirit of innovation and its desire to promote French savoir-faire, Agnelle supports a new generation of designers. The company works with emerging talents such as Egonlab, Abdel El Tayeb and Romain Bichot, bringing to their unique worlds the precision of its gestures, the nobility of its craftsmanship and the quality of its products.

These creative encounters embody the alliance between heritage and boldness, tradition and the avant-garde, and reaffirm Agnelle's role as a committed player in the future of fashion.