Parisian Rendezvous
Autumn is an opportune time to discover the design world’s latest creations. Maison&Objet announces the new brands, styles and key products for the season and the trends of tomorrow. The fair reinforced its success by welcoming thousands of visitors, thereby proving to be the perfect event to gauge the evolutions of a booming market and the novelties furnishing interiors this autumn/winter.
Play Time
Recreating the magical atmosphere of the circus, Officina Alessi’s limited-edition Circus collection by Marcel Wanders features five fanciful characters with distinct personalities: The Strongman nutcracker highlighting a mime artist, The Jester corkscrew jumping up and down, The Ballerina music box showcasing an acrobat turning on a ball, The Ringleader call bell in the image of a ringmaster and his monkey, and The Candyman sweet dispenser resembling a blackface clown. You’ll return to your childhood with the oversized Kenneth Cobonpue Babar desk in rattan and wood, whose delicate weave wraps around the elephant’s majestic frame filled with multiple compartments that open up to reveal a worktop, drawer and storage space. In different shapes and sizes, Petite Friture’s humorous So-Sage borosilicate glass pendant lamps by Sam Baron resemble strings of sausages hanging in a butcher shop or party balloons that illuminate mischievously.
Officina Alessi | Petite Friture
Simple Pleasures
Wanting to make the world less complicated, Menu proposes a Scandinavian aesthetic through its modernist-style Wire Series with a white or black powder-coated steel base and marble top designed by Norm Architects. In lime, pink, blue and white, Gan’s Raw collection of jute and wool rugs, poufs and cushions in smooth, clean lines by Borja Garcia is a statement of simplicity and authenticity in design. Handvark’s creative director, Emil Thorup, has infused his Nordic minimalist approach into the Denmark-made slender Console table with thin black frame, brass details and top in blue-green and grey Dolceacqua marble bringing to mind the reflections of the ocean.The Bends
Designed by Simon Legald, Normann Copenhagen’s Era lounge chair with legs in oak, walnut, black lacquered steel or chrome and wool textile or leather upholstery is appealing, nostalgic and well-proportioned, mixing today’s production techniques with traditional furniture craftsmanship. Devoid of straight lines, the Ines Oval table by Hamilton Conte, a brand with a 20th-century aesthetic, features a hammered resin central base available in various finishes and a sunburst marquetry top in oak or walnut veneer. Coming in different colours and emitting a soft glow, Eloa’s Dwarf Planet ceiling or floor lamp conceived by Swiss designer Simone Luling and handcrafted by Bohemian master glassblowers is produced in an unusual rounded form reflecting the irregularities of its namesake celestial body. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, Dutch brand Pols Potten presents its hourglass-shaped Wire Dumbbell stool in copperhued iron wire.Hamilton Conte | Eloa | Norman Copenhagen | Pols Potten
Nature Lover
Designed in the fluid style characteristic of the late British architect Zaha Hadid, Lalique’s Fontana bowl in translucent midnight blue expresses the constant motion of water. A recurring theme over the years, Nuage by the French Bouroullec brothers for Swiss furniture company Vitra now comes as a vase with eight tubular cavities in anodised extruded aluminium in various colours and lengths, which may be grouped into clusters to create ‘cloud formations’. Using the finest reclaimed woods, Wonderwall Studios designs panelling for surfaces crafted in South East Asia, central Europe and South Africa, such as the textured Wolf panel in recycled natural rosewood.Lalique | Vitra | Wonderwall Studios
Colour Carousel
The Cassina Gender armchair by Patricia Urquiola is all about chromatic and material blends, with a soft cushioned interior, cocooning and flexible high backrest, and coloured leather profile, available in five colour combinations. Bernardaud’s Surface Coloree B29 tea/coffee service by Argentinean artist Julio Le Parc features platinum mirror tumblers reflecting the vibrant pattern of the platter or saucer or vice versa, producing a welcome kinetic effect and optical illusion reminiscent of his artworks. Toulouse-based ceramic artist Ismael Carre blends clean shapes and poetic shades with rhythmic patterns in a pure graphic style in his Hauts Grades collection comprising cups, bowls, bottles and vases.Made In Paris
Passionate about materials, crafts and industrial manufacturing processes, AC/AL Studio favours functional, timeless and refined shapes such as the Harto Eugenie & Anatole tables, which unite a light and thin metal structure with the warmness of two wooden trays. The Lavastone daybed, side table and mirror, featuring geometrical shapes and elegant lines by Charlotte Juillard, highlight the qualities of volcanic rocks used for centuries in Italian architecture. Feather artisan Julien Vermeulen explores the limits of his favourite medium while never forgetting the ageold traditions of the rare art, an impressive example of which is the Bado Senshi samurai suit of armour.AC/AL Studio | Charlotte Juillard | Julien Vermeulen | Pierre Charrie
Small is beautiful
Daiken’s Moving Tatamis by French designer Jose Levy introduces the first furniture collection of low seating, tables and storage cabinets to be produced in tatami woven from Japanese traditional paper washi and not straw for better resistance. On a mission to revive the British furniture industry, Tom Dixon is back with the Micro Wingback armchair, his contemporary take on archetypal 17th- and 18th-century wingbacks and balloon backs, but shrunk to Alice in Wonderland dimensions. Made in the French Loire Valley, Drugeot Labo’s Pliages asymmetrical mini bookshelves in solid oak by Herve Langlais touch down on the wall with lightness in a wide choice of colours appearing on the underside.