Not far from the popular mix of boutiques, bakeries and restaurants that adorn St. Laurent street, twin brothers Dexter (left) and Byron Peart (right) – founders of WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie – are balancing their agency life and their own accessories label from Montreal’s Garment District. Over the past decade Montreal has been the launchpad and home to several fashion and accessories labels ranging from Rudsak to MO851 to Philipe Dubuc. WANT however, has achieved notoriety in a relatively shorter period of time with quality leather offerings and models carried by major player stockists such as Harvey Nichols, Opening Ceremony, Le Bon Marche and Holt Renfrew. Backed by years of senior-level experience at Sixty and Diesel, their own agency, and each other, Dexter and Byron Peart are delivering WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie from Montreal with love.
(Continued…)
“We felt like the market was missing some essential items for travel. We travel extensively in our business and we were looking for these perfect carry all pieces that could be useful…and look good,” explains Dexter.
Travel being the keyword, each bag is named after worldly airports. From Trudeau, de Gaulle, Malpensa, Charleroi, and Deurne, each model whether it be a weekend bag or passport cover is positioned to be your next favorite travel companion.
Explains Byron, “We wanted to bring the connection back to the person who may at Pearson today but maybe LaGuardia tomorrow and really highlight this inter-connectivity. So you know, it’s like us or even LimitedHype, we’re in Montreal but we do business in Tokyo…we were there last week…or us spending a lot of time in New York…there’s a connection to business all around the world. We wanted the brand to be the embodiment of the international aesthetic.” And since its birth in 2005, WANT has been cleared for take off with collaborations with The Sartorialist, J. Crew and an upcoming line in the works with Opening Ceremony.
Back in Montreal at WANT offices on Chabanel street, a street adorned with factories, manufacturers and warehouses, the emphasis is on and always has been quality sources and quality manufacturing. Naturally, the Pearts took their time to research the best. “We source our leather from Norway, which most people are surprised about being a Canadian brand, with manufacturing done in Italy and our cotton is from Turkey…so like what we were saying before in trying to be a very global brand, not just with the names of our products but we’re also producing globally and always trying ultimately sourcing the best products,” explained Byron, while holding an organic cotton bag from the new collection.
Aside from WANT’s range of city bags, weekend bags and a host of smaller leather goods, it has since moved to include a newer range of organic cotton bags which you may have spotted adorned with a WANT Organic for J. Crew label.
Byron and Dexter recount the birth of the collaboration, “We met Mickey Drexler, the CEO, of J.Crew on a totally random occurrence, so it’s not exactly something we actively sought out for like we set up a meeting and said “Hey, let’s do something together”. It was a meeting I guess that was ‘supposed to happen’…right place, right time. So we met, we obviously had a huge affinity for what one another were doing. It was very natural…organic, to do a collaboration. They were big fans of our leather collection but after some back and forth we were really thinking about what we could do in terms of an exclusive product offering and from that WANT Organic for J. Crew was sort of born as a sister to what WANT Les Essentiels was already doing.”
The family is definitely growing. The product of the inaugural collaboration was a collection of 8 organic canvas pieces ranging in colors from deep navy to black and red, all with a familiar, yet subtle burnt henna leather trim.
The Pearts are traveling. Literally and figuratively. More collaborations are underway, another season awaits, departures and arrivals are daily and of course, their bags are packed. With over 49, 000 airports in the world, here’s hoping there’s much more to come from Dexter and Byron by way of YUL.
Site: WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie
Photography: On&Beyond
vince says: 
Osa500 
