Everything still comes out of Oyonnax, the valley between Lyon and Geneva that has been carving combs from boxwood and horn since the nineteenth century. Huchard's workshop opened there in 1947 and made the first Vendôme comb in 1971, named for the jewellers' square it was designed to echo. The Maison is one of the only hair-accessory brands that keeps design, manufacture and hand-decoration in France.

Alexandre was the most famous hairdresser in Europe before he was a brand. He built Jacqueline Kennedy's diamond-studded chignon for the 1961 Versailles state dinner, did Elizabeth Taylor's hair for Cleopatra, styled Princess Grace, the Duchess of Windsor, Audrey Hepburn and Maria Callas, and worked Yves Saint Laurent's shows for thirty-four consecutive years. Jean Cocteau drew the sphinx logo that is still on the pieces.

The house has been owned since the 2000s by Fabienne and Sébastien Bailly, who were previously its exclusive manufacturer, so the craft and the ownership are the same thing now. Buy the crab clip, introduced in 1983, or the chouchou from 1986, both of which are still made the original way. Alexandre died in 2008 and the workshop is the part of him that survived.