Three Design Exhibitions We Can’t Stop Thinking About from Paris Art Week

The so-called “City of Light” first earned its sobriquet in the 19th century, not only for the city’s early adoption of street lamps, but for its contributions to science and art. Remaining true to its reputation, our three favorite shows from Paris Art Week boasted innovative design pieces against the backdrop of unique or unlikely venues, from the famous and historical Rue de Seine, to Karl Lagerfeld’s former mansion, to a 17th century Gothic-style secular temple to humanism.
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Week of October 28, 2024

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: mirrored prism-like furniture, a spectacular renovated Porto townhouse, and an NYC home goods store and cafe with major redwood tables that we hope will bring back banquet-style dining.
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After 100 Years in Business, You Might Think You Know the Iconic Swedish Design Store Svenskt Tenn. You’d Be Wrong.

Something funny happens when you're a company that's been around for a full century. People start to assume that they already know everything there is to know about you — that they've somehow osmotically absorbed your brand tenets or your ethos by virtue of you simply sticking around. For me, the storied Swedish design brand Svenskt Tenn, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, was one of those companies. But then I went to Stockholm in September on the occasion of Svenskt Tenn's centenary retrospective opening at Liljevalchs Kunsthalle, running through January 12. Called Svenskt Tenn: A Philosophy of Home, it spans thirteen thematic rooms, curated by Jane Withers together with Svenskt Tenn's head curator Karin Södergren. It was there I realized that what I knew about this company hardly scratched the surface.
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Exploring Pewter — a Once Fusty, Now Weirdly Cool Material — Via 22 Vintage and New Pieces You Can Bring Into Your Home

When I was in Stockholm earlier this fall for Svenskt Tenn's 100th anniversary exhibition, I thought about pewter — which is a primary part of the Swedish design store's lore and product catalog — a lot. We talk about metal often on this site, but unlike brass, which can be a turn-off in the wrong context, there's almost no silvery toned metal that I'd ever tire of. Aluminum, stainless steel, chrome — all eternally perfect. (Okay, let us not speak of brushed nickel.) But there's something uniquely appealing about pewter, despite its somewhat fusty early connotations as part of a kind of American Revolution cosplay kit. I started to wonder whether we were on the verge of a renaissance with this ancient material.
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At This Wood-Clad Seaside Retreat, Iconic Scandinavian Lights Pair Perfectly With California Modernism

The Danish company Louis Poulsen is home to some of the world's most instantly recognizable lighting, designed by the greats. While all distinctively Scandinavian — there’s a certain precision and integrity combined with a playful inventiveness that’s somehow simultaneously cool and warm — these lights also work particularly well in the context of a West Coast golden-hour glow, the interplay of sun and soft shadows. Louis Poulsen's sculptural yet clean aesthetic naturally dovetails with the indoor-outdoor architecture of California modernism — both of which have been captured in a new interiors shoot styled and photographed by Lumens.
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Week of October 21, 2024

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: part two of In Common With’s inaugural furniture collection, an Art Deco and Vienna Secession–inspired Brooklyn showhouse (above), and the unveiling of Aesop’s new Parisian store.
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This Fall, Stay At These Autumnal-Toned Hotels, Each Renovated in Reverence to Its Heyday

Who’s ready to get cozy? Fall travel is about walking through the park with crisp leaves underfoot, wandering the streets dressed chicly in layers, and staying in hotels that encourage snuggling up with a book by the fire. There’s something nostalgic about this season, too, as we look back on the summer that was while digging out our favorite unmothballed sweaters. And what do you know — nostalgia is a common theme across a trio of newly reopened hotels we’re recommending for your next autumnal adventure, each redesigned to evoke its prime.
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Mid-Century Seaside Glamour Meets Contemporary Design at the New Ace Hotel Athens

Built in 1975 as part of a stylish mid-century Greek tourism program called xenia, The Fenix hotel on the southwest coast of Athens eventually became a very un-stylish Best Western. But, as part of a revival of both these architectural gems and the so-called "Athenian Riviera" in which it's located, it's been reborn as the newest Ace Hotel, complete with period-specific furniture and a restoration of its whitewashed Brutalist facade.
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In a New Archival Exhibition, Maria Pergay — the Original Multi-Hyphenate — Takes Her Place Among Giants

When considering Maria Pergay, it is necessary to invoke the hyphen. But even a descriptor like designer-artist-decorator doesn’t begin to contain the whole of the late designer's experience or her legacy. Opening this week at New York’s Demisch Danant gallery, the exhibition Precious Strength: Maria Pergay Across the Decades aims to secure Pergay’s place as a design pioneer, alongside fellow female powerhouses like Charlotte Perriand and Eileen Gray.
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This California Designer’s Steely Minimalism Was Inspired by Japanese Architecture and the Light & Space Movement

It's a common conundrum for creatives: knowing exactly what you want for your own space, but, more often than not, finding it does not exist. California-based designer Orlando Pippig began producing furniture for this very reason, without any formal training, to create a home filled with pieces he actually loved. Eight years later, something of an accidental furniture designer, he’s amassed a collection of striking minimalist designs — several of which we sell through our own Sight Unseen Collection — and he continues to expand his range of “usable sculptures” through experiments with materials, scale, and proportion.
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Lukas Cober’s Crinkled-Resin Collection Was Inspired By A Beloved Children’s Book

Confession: I have never read Where the Wild Things Are. But after learning that the children’s book left such a lasting impression on Maastricht designer Lukas Cober — and influenced his most recent collection of resin-fiberglass works — I've added it to the top of my library list. Cober was so enchanted by American author and illustrator Maurice Sendak’s 1963 picture book, which follows a boy’s journey to a jungle inhabited by mischievous monsters, he decided to reconnect with his inner child and tap into a state of curiosity, naïveté, and sheer joy while crafting the body of work that’s currently on view at the Objects With Narratives gallery in Brussels.
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