Espresso martinis and mezcal highballs circulated on silver trays as the Crane Club filled up Tuesday night, with Montblanc clearing the restaurant’s tables and arranging leather goods, writing instruments and an oversize Writing Traveler installation throughout the room.
In the mix was Alexandra Daddario, carrying a Montblanc bag with a pen cleverly built into it.
“The designer designed it so that you can undo it like this, and you can write, and then put it back, and then the pen closes the bag up,” she said of the leather Writing Traveler Handbag, which features a notebook inside and one of Montblanc’s Meisterstück pens at the front, allowing it to slip in and out as part of the closure.
Daddario, wearing a Khaite leather skirt as a nod to the evening’s theme, said she often jots down “things that I think are funny, things that inspire me, story ideas,” adding, “Sometimes I’ll just get in some sort of meditative state, and I’ll almost be writing a story in my head, and I’m like, ‘I need to write that down.’”
Her connection to Montblanc goes back to childhood.
“I remember my mom had a fancy Montblanc pen,” Daddario said. The brand, founded in Hamburg in 1906, built its reputation on writing instruments before expanding into leather goods, watches and accessories. “She’s a lawyer. I remember wanting to always use the fancy pens and always being told no, and now I can use the fancy pens.”
These days, she’s less interested in saving “the good stuff” for later.
“When I was younger, I never wanted to use them,” she said. “I didn’t want to use the best skin care product. I didn’t want to use my fancy bag. And now that I get older, I’m like, ‘I’m alive. Things are meant to be used. You use them until they wear out, and that’s what’s good about them.’”
Smiling, leaning in, she added, “I got a Birkin bag, and I’m like, I’m using that thing.”
Standing nearby, Paul Anthony Kelly said his connection to Montblanc began with an early ambition.
“In my youth, I really wanted to be a writer, and the Meisterstück pens were the pinnacle for me,” said Kelly, who portrays John F. Kennedy Jr. in FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.” “And now I’m so lucky to be a part of the Montblanc family that it’s kind of full circle. I’m not a writer. Maybe I will become one.”
The house’s leather history, which began in 1926 with pen pouches, resonated with Kelly.
“Leather is such an incredible medium because it grows and continues to live with you,” he said. “It gathers up patina the more you use it, so it really continues its own life. Any leather good, really, if you take care of it and love it and use it for what it is, then it’s just gonna keep going.
“Like a fine wine,” he added after a beat, dressed in a three-piece Dunhill suit and 1940s tie.
He now lives in Oregon but spent roughly 15 years in New York, making the visit feel like a homecoming. His fashion week stay, however, would be short.
“Unfortunately, I don’t get to spend any time for fashion week because I have to go to the Emmys,” he said.
“I never in my wildest dreams ever thought that I would be going to the Emmys,” he continued. “I was fortunate enough to be part of a show that kind of took the world by storm, and we’re nominated for an Emmy. And some of my cast members are nominated for Emmys, and I’m so thrilled for them, Sarah Pidgeon and Constance Zimmer. I’m just so excited to go and root them on and just be there and be among my peers now. Which is absolutely cuckoo bananas.”
Around the room, guests settled into Crane Club’s curved booths or mingled by the bar as Champagne and hors d’oeuvres circulated. The century-of-leather theme was carried out in the details, with a film tracing Montblanc’s history playing behind two attendants stationed with open Writing Traveler briefcases, while an oversize walk-in bag doubled as the night’s photo op.
Guests included Karen Elson, Princess Marie-Olympia of Greece, Roman Coppola, Waris Ahluwalia, Will Peltz and Kenya Kinski-Jones, alongside Montblanc ambassadors Rupert Friend, Seo Kangjun, Kerem Bürsin and Alfonso Herrera, as Honey Dijon provided the soundtrack.
For chief executive officer Giorgio Sarné, the evening was a chance to showcase how closely Montblanc’s leather and writing worlds remain connected.
“We are celebrating 100 years of leather, but this celebration is leather that is at the service of writing instruments and the writing world,” he said.
The Writing Traveler, he said, represents “this idea of really creating a very strong dialogue between the writing world and the leather world.”
As for what luxury consumers want now, Sarné said it comes down to “strong, authentic products,” as well as craftsmanship and time.
“It’s a beautiful moment to slow down and really think and put pen to paper and connect,” he said.