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06.28.23

Interiors

Heard of Quiet Luxury? This Newly Renovated French Riviera Hotel Epitomizes the Trend

The French Riviera, long a playground for the rich and famous, is undeniably chic, both in its physical structures and its natural beauty. And perched atop Cap d’Antibes, a rocky promontory between Cannes and Nice that was used as a backdrop in both Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief and Jacques Deray’s La Piscine, is a hotel that embodies that elegance in the most nonchalant way: The Cap D’Antibes Beach Hotel, recently reimagined by Belgian architect Bernard Dubois, a frequent collaborator with Brussels’ Maniera Gallery, who is known for his beautiful, brutally efficient approach to interiors.
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05.03.23

Interiors

This Prefab Bubble House in the French Countryside is Giving Elevated Airplane Interior

Inspired by natural forms — eggs, fruits, air bubbles — Jean-Benjamin Maneval’s design for Maison Belle omits any straight lines. The same went for the interiors, spearheaded by creative studio KIF and Dorothée Meilichzon of CHZON. Working within the curved shells was complicated and everything had to be made completely bespoke, made to measure inch by inch. The design is a tribute to the late ’60s when Maneval bubble houses were produced. “It’s an era of boldness and fun,” says Meilichzon. “Lush carpets, patterns, organic shapes, bold colors.” 
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08.02.22

Interiors

Armel Soyer’s New Showroom is a Rustic French Fantasy

The showroom is laid out like a home, using the terracotta floor tiles, exposed ceiling beams, and iron handrails as a backdrop for its inaugural exhibition: Design at the Summit, which follows a theme first used by Armel Soyer in Megève three years previous. This second edition brings together a wide variety of the gallery’s clients, with furniture, artwork and sculpture spread across the different rooms as if someone with immaculate taste (and a fairly sizable budget) lives there amongst the collection.
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05.13.22

Q+A

A New Lighting Brand, With Deep Roots in New Orleans and France, Putting a Modern Spin on Traditional Techniques

Swadoh — an anagram of shadow that founder Valerie Legras devised after reading the Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki’s “In Praise of Shadows” — works exclusively with small artisans who do intricate and often time-consuming hand work at their workshops in France. That, and the idea that each artist should be working in a wonderfully unique way with their chosen material, is the strict guiding principle behind Swadoh.
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02.24.22

Up and Coming

Olivia Cognet’s Very Provence–Meets–Palm Springs Ceramic Murals

With a color palette drawn largely from nature, Olivia Cognet’s aesthetic of geometric lines and sculptural excrescences is heightened by elegant crackle glazes and tactile textures. Exploring a dialogue between Brutalist influences and feminine discourse, architecture and art, Cognet's often large-scale works — from lamps to monumental bas-reliefs — embrace the irregular, inspired by her design idols, Roger Capron and Jean Derval.
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01.03.22

Interiors

An Insider’s Tour of the French Ski Resort Charlotte Perriand Designed in the 1960s and 70s

From the late 1960s through the 1980s, Charlotte Perriand designed several residential and recreational buildings in France’s Savoy Alps, inspired by the area’s traditional mountain architecture. The monumental project — Les Arcs — became one of the largest ski resorts in the world, and I had the opportunity to spend a few days there last July, documenting its interiors and exteriors.
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09.09.20

Excerpt: Exhibition

With Design Parade Postponed Until 2021, the Cities of Hyères and Toulon Took Their Exhibitions (Mostly) Outside

Like most international art and design festivals this year, the annual Design Parade — which typically takes place across two cities in the south of France and is on record as one of our favorites — was forced to postpone its summer edition until 2021. Somehow, though, these restrictions don't seem to have reduced the activity in Hyères and Toulon by much.
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08.05.20

Up and Coming

Each Piece By French Designer Baptiste Lanne is an Ode to Nature, His Biggest Inspiration

After almost 10 years working for acclaimed studios like Habitat and Philippe Starck in Paris, French designer Baptiste Lanne felt a longing to get away from the screen and 3D modelling software. It was a trip to Japan to visit some woodworkers’ workshops that influenced his decision to make a living out of his personal affinities. Today he hand-carves impossibly refined design objects out of rough hunks of wood as if they’re as malleable as clay.
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07.28.20

Up and Coming

A Former Dancer, Virginie Hucher Uses Her Whole Body to Sketch Out Paintings in the Earth

French artist Virginie Hucher’s paintings begin in the middle of nowhere. Through a meeting of performance and land art, she uses her whole body to carve large symbols into the sand, the snow, or the clay alongside a river bed with a stick as her only tool. She then documents her process in film and photographs, so she can appropriate the gestures when she begins to recreate the forms in paint back in her studio.
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07.24.20

Excerpt: Exhibition

A New Independent Design Label Launches in the South of France

The tiny town of Hyères in the South of France is only 50 square miles, but has long had an outsized presence on the contemporary design map as the home of the arts foundation Villa Noailles and its annual Design Parade festival. The festival was canceled this year due to the pandemic — more on that next week! — but two young Parisians have managed to fill in the gap with an exhibition called Été Super, which is serving as the launch of their independent design brand 13Desserts and its permanent showroom in a former Hyères skate shop.
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