Delos-France

Delos-France was started in August 2000 by Gérard Delos, a former production and creation manager at Dalbin, one of the three umbrella houses that had carried Aurillac's umbrella trade through the 20th century. When Piganiol acquired Dalbin that same year, Delos struck out on his own with a design he had developed and patented: the Carré Delos, a square umbrella built from five independent parts that screw together and come apart again without tools, on machines he built himself.

The modularity is the point. Every part — canopy, ribs, shaft, handle — is individually replaceable, which Delos-France markets as the only umbrella a customer can repair themselves rather than sending back to a workshop. The square canopies are cut as a single seamless piece of Teflon-treated, UV-rated fabric and printed with reproductions of contemporary artists' work, so each design functions as both umbrella and small commissioned artwork. The Carré Delos won a gold medal at the Concours Lépine, France's long-running inventors' competition.

Working out of a small atelier at 14 rue du Rocher, in the town Piganiol also calls home, Delos-France is Aurillac's other surviving umbrella maker — a one-man patent-holder's answer to the same regional trade, built around repairability rather than the traditional folding frame.