Our Top 10 Picks from the Paris Design Fairs Inline
Photo: (from left) Courtesy of Jim Thompson; Courtesy of Verel de Belval1/10Courtly Silks
Jim Thompson’s creative director, Ou Baholyodhin, turned to ancient Siamese royal colors for his first silk collectsion. Saffron, emerald, and amethyst chinoiserie toile motifs shone in beautifully violent color combinations. Créations Métaphores looked to Verel de Belval’s seventeenth-century archives and remade two different lampas, one directly lifted from an old document and the other featuring a leopard print within its stripes—a nod to designer Madeleine Castaing. Luscious and saccharine, the silks look like they could’ve been taken from Marie Antoinette’s boudoir.
Photo: Courtesy of Thomas Eyck2/10Thomas Eyck’s Withering Tableware
Dutch designer Thomas Eyck collaborated with Studio Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters on a series of porcelain titled “Withering Tableware,” which features an eight-piece dining set of plates, pitchers, and cups. The patterns on the china come from a hand-painted mold they created in order to cast each piece. After each casting, the glaze fades and the colors slowly disappear, emulating the transient beauty of the buds they depict.
Photo: Courtesy of Golran3/10Golran and Raw Edges
Milan-based carpet house Golran worked with Israeli design duo Raw Edges to develop what they call “a second reading of the Persian rug” with their Lake collectsion. Channeling artists who manipulate optical perception, such as Victor Vasarely, Raw Edge’s series features oversize motifs from traditional kilims and are woven in iridescent colors that change depending on the viewer’s perspective.
Photo: Courtesy of Pierre Frey4/10Indigenous Inspirations
Pierre Frey looked to Australian aboriginal art and motifs for its Origines collectsion of jacquards, embroideries, and printed patterns in bright and sedate colors alike. With modern-looking geometry and graphic forms, it’s little surprise that traditional African patterns like Kuba cloth still inform contemporary fabric. In this spirit, Larsen offers a stunning linen and large-scale woven stripe particularly striking in marigold and black, and Dedar’s new collectsion includes an urbane and masculine printed matka silk called Tangram.
Photo: Courtesy of Coralie Beauchamp5/10Coralie Beauchamp’s Résilles
**Coralie Beauchamp’**s structural orb lighting collectsion, Résilles, is sheathed in metallic grids and evokes the elegance and form of both Wiener Werkstätte and iconic Gino Sarfatti designs. While her chandelier “bouquets” leave a strong impression, it’s her desk and table lamps that seem to master harmonious scale.
Photo: Courtesy of Antoinette Poisson6/10Antoinette Poisson’s Domino Papers
Antoinette Poisson dazzled paper lovers when it launched its collectsion at last year’s Maison & Objet. Specializing in domino papers—which are block-printed and hand-painted wallpapers—its latest design imitates a wall with baroque moldings and glassware—not precise enough for trompe l’oeil—but with a touch of Fornasetti-style surrealism.
Photo: Courtesy of Richard Ginori7/10Richard Ginori’s Uova
Richard Ginori installed a vintage hen house in order to display its new collectsion of pastel egg boxes; each hand-painted in some of the Doccia manufacturer’s most beloved patterns, including Oriente Italiano and Impero. For that small but passionate group of egg collectsors, these porcelain orbs should prove irresistible.
Photo: Courtesy of Nobilis8/10Josef Frank tropicals
Nobilis’s Eric Valero designed a tropical series of embroideries through the prism of Josef Frank. Birds, palm fronds, and pomegranates in acid yellows and shades of gray proved electric, while bright colors mixed with natural linen for a more classic look.
Photo: Courtesy of Bernardaud9/10Vik Muniz for Bernardaud
Over the past few years, storied French porcelain producer Bernardaud has cultivated a relationship with several contemporary artists—this year expect a collectsion by Marina Abramovic and a limited-edition Jeff Koons plate. But it was Brazilian artist **Vik Muniz’**s beautifully original “Petri” series that caught our eye. Using strains of bacteria such as salmonella, Muniz extrapolated their patterns of growth from petri dishes and created, in his words, a “microscopic traffic jam of bacteria” in atomic neon shades.
Photo: Courtesy of Papier Tigre10/10Papier Tigre’s Pli Postal
Engraving and letterpress devotees will be charmed by Papier Tigre’s Pli Postal book, filled with self-contained pages that serve as both letter and envelope, graphically printed with space for address and stamp on one side, blank for correspondence on the other. The origami-like stationery is the best excuse to go out and find a pen pal.
