The (Re)Generation! of Maison & Objet January 2020: Part I
Bonjour tout le monde, ça va? I hope your holiday was magnifique. I guess we’re all winding down after the chaos that inevitably comes that time of year. Personally I’m ready to move into 2020 with a clear vision and focus on the future while enjoying every present moment!
With The Paris Apartment, I’m slipping into a new phase too. Of course we’ll still be about all things luxe, French, boudoir et belle, but promoting what’s sustainable; natural products that are reusable, recycled, up-cycled, made by hand and creative. Equally exciting is we’ll be meeting the créateurs et créatrices behind the ideas; the innovators who dream up and bring to life new products as well as those who’ve been walking a holistic path for years, paving the way.
The best way to find them all in one place is at the Maison & Objet. It’s the world’s chicest home and accessories trade show. The events are held twice a year at Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre. It’s an enormous venue with multiple halls, thousands of exhibitors from all over the world, art, installations, conferences, workspaces and interactive events. This year’s dates are January 17-21, 2020 and September 4-8, 2020.
There’s a lot. The map below will definitely help.
As it turns out, Maison et Objet event planners and exhibitors are on the same trajectory as so many of us. Take a look at their theme this month:
2020 Theme: “(RE) GENERATION!” Playing the nostalgia card is out of the question! So, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, MAISON&OBJET is looking to the future and, in its upcoming January and September editions, will set out to analyse the attitudes, desires and expectations of Generation Y and Z’s digital natives. A whole year’s celebrations will be devoted to these committed millennials who, confronted with the many current crises, are looking for a better world, changing the rules and revolutionising consumer behaviour in both the home and lifestyle sectors.
I started digging around the Exhibitor List and got lost in the story of Plantes & Parfums. It’s hard not to charmed by this pure and natural business…
where they work
their instagram!
their philosophy
https://www.plantesetparfums.com/le-blog/lart-du-parfumage/
their blog…see what I mean? And that is just the beginning.
Anyway there’s a huge push in the sustainability movement and everyone’s into it, including the designers who received talent awards this year. They’re inventors, designers and progressive thinkers who are rethinking outmoded objects and ideas.
RISING TALENT AWARDS
maison-objet.com/rising-talent-awards-january-2020
The Paris-based duo Natacha Poutoux and Sacha Hourcade is intent of revolutionizing the world of household electrical appliances and to bring design to fields where it is often ignored. The pair both graduated from ENSCI Les Ateliers and then trained with some of contemporary design’s most iillustrious names—the Bouroullec brothers and Stefan Diez for Natacha, India Mahdavi for Sacha. They founded their own firm in 2017.
“Nowadays, technical or electrical objects are generally conceived by engineers, whereas we’d like to approach designing them in the same way as you would a chair. We also want to introduce different savoir-faire and materials. At present, companies tend to make everything out of plastic.
Sacha: For example, we’ve created an air humidifier, in which the water container is made of glass. That brings up new questions about its life cycle. What do you do with it afterwards? And do you place it somewhere visible or do you continue to hide it like most other humidifiers today?”
After studying at ENSCI Les Ateliers in Paris and the University of Arts in Berlin, Adrien Garcia worked for five years for an interior design practice specialized in wellness and spa projects. He set up his own firm in 2019 and is currently in the process of developing his debut furniture collection.
“All the materials I use are more or less natural. If not, they’re either recycled or repurposed by an artisan. I have a really, really big aversion to plastic. I can’t stand it. Instead, I prefer to use oak and have my own trees in the forest on my property.”
Nominated by the director of the Ecole Camondo, René-Jacques Mayer.
Laureline Galliot trained as a dancer and as a textile colorist before taking a degree in design at ENSCI-Les Ateliers in Paris. Using an iPad and virtual reality software initially developed for the animated film industry, she creates objects by sculpting with color. Four of them have already found their way into the French National Design Collection at the Centre National des Arts Plastiques in Paris.
“I’m really passionate about the way industry has distorted things, even in the food sector. There’s a standardization of forms, with only shapes that can be easily molded. We’ve ended up producing vegetables in that way. They all have to be perfect geometrical forms. There’s no longer a place for anything misshapen. I want to reeducate people’s eye to things that are less industrial and more organic, where the ultimate goal is no longer a sort of perfect rigor.”
Whew!
Last but not least for today’s deep dive is a list of cool places once you’re outside the fairgrounds and back in the heart of Paris. It’s some of the great restaurants, work and hybrid spaces that are embracing the philosophy of zero waste and conscious living. From the M&O website: THIS IS PARIS!
Connected, veggie, vintage, ethical, collaborative, and activist: the next-gen Parisian lifestyle in fifteen inspired spots.
Though the “(RE) GENERATION!” theme of the fair gives you the keys to understand this new context, Paris is already living in tune with the latest consumer trends. Here’s our ideal tour of the city. (this is an abbreviated list…get the full monte here:
L’Abattoir Végétal
Does a funky take on healthy tempt you? Ava Farhang advocates for the concept of a healthy mind in a fun environment. Yes, you can like healthy seeds and grains and good home cooking, too, and this is just what this new spot on the Left Bank wants to show us. Chef Jenny Boniton cooks up delicious, cross-cultural vegetarian or vegan cuisine by taking inspiration from the many flavors of the world. And here’s some good news: you can dine all day, from noon to midnight, and small bites to share (kaho pad sapparot, baba ganoush, and more) can be savored alongside stunning cocktails such as the Goji-berry and litchi Spritz.
Open Tuesday-Saturday 12:00-00:00, 9 rue Guisarde, 6th arrondissement Paris. www.abattoirvegetal.fr
Deskopolitan
Resolutely in the category of all-purpose venues, here’s a place that’s a co-working space, boutique hotel, restaurant, gym, rooftop vegetable garden, speakeasy, and barber shop, all in one! It’s an urban campus that’s one-of-a-kind in Europe, dedicated to work and to personal development. The interior design was a creation of London-based architectural firm MoreySmith, which has, in particular, crafted the design of Primark’s offices.
226 boulevard Voltaire, 11th arrondissement Paris. deskopolitan.com/
Maif social club
A hybrid space for co-working, having a cup of coffee, and getting in some culture, with an innovative, multidisciplinary program of events (exhibitions, shows, debates, workshops, etc.) that raise questions about the new ways we consume, the housing of the future, sustainable development, activism in the era of the social web, or the ecological transition. A 1000-square-meter space at the heart of the Marais that’s free and open to the public…what a dream!
Monday-Friday 10:00-20:30 and Saturdays 10:00-19:00, Le Maif Social Club, 37, rue de Turenne, 3rd arrondissement Paris. Tel. +33 (0)1 44 92 50 90. Free access.
Jours à venir
This is THE new eco-friendly boutique in the Abbesses area! Alice and Léa tested their finds online before opening a shop IRL. They’ve selected around fifty brands focused on direct distribution, recycling, and organic products. With, as a bonus, workshops on-site to help you learn to make your own cosmetics and decorative or lifestyle accessories.
Monday through Saturday 10:30-19:30, and Sundays 13:00-18:00, 2, rue Androuet, 18th arrondissement Paris. www.joursavenir.com
La Recyclerie
A social space dedicated to eco-consciousness, La Recyclerie is constantly showing a new face. You might meet up here to have a bite to eat, fix something at René’s workshop, do some gardening at the urban farm set up in the former rail yard of the Gare d’Ornano, or attend a talk. It’s the essential spot to find out more about zero-waste living, recycling, permaculture, or collaborative consumption.
Open Monday-Friday 8:00-00:00, Saturdays 12:00-02:00, and Sundays 11:00-22:00, 83 boulevard Ornano, 18th arrondissement Paris. www.larecyclerie.com
what meets the eye
hi on this wednesday eve! stopping by to download some of my favorite things at the maison objet, the home furnishings show in paris that’s randomly also held in miami now. what a dream that is with paris at my doorstep. well a lot of the world, actually and if you don’t stop to meet the vendors you’d never know the stories behind some of the most fascinating people and families in the world. prime example: i was going to whiz by this stand with the feather lamps cause, well, i wasn’t sure i needed one right now. but on second thought i decided to take a look. louise was running the booth and told me the most colorful tale of the creator behind them, james, who lives in the castle below. it functions as a place where they make plaster casts of museum held- grecian ruins and among other things, these lamps.
if you want to have your mind blown check out james here:
and here:
as for the rest of the show, there was a lot of great stuff including these customizable chandeliers
with hand painted crystals, even your colors
i’m getting my earthy lue on with rock crystal chandeliers
pierre was there!
annatural stones
gorgeous shell finishes
brass and crystal tables
can’t resist the fancy ones
i realize i’m a box nut
loved the stone tabletops
juxtapostion
more customizable chandeliers with natural stones
marie!
customizable light fixtures…i think i am seeing a trend, i was gravitating toward light
paper light flowers
nubby and delish
gold edge calling cards
fabric made in the south of france
graphite writing tools
hand painted pottery
cool booth, no idea what they were selling
tufts
fun french chair in metal
book cases that are macbook can iphone covers
thick, wonderful wooly weaves. and so so so much more but you have to know when to say when so…
voilà c’est tout, nonne nuit!
when worlds collide
good morning! it’s been a pretty busy few days around here with the maison et objet in town for the first time in miami beach. it was like having paris descend on our shores and throw a design party!
of course i was thrilled that we were hosting the world renowned home show and went as both journalist and buyer, not sure what would be so much different from the show in paris…
it was much smaller and more managable than the one in france which is about 10 times the size, but there was still a lot to process as far as the sheer amount of innovation, crossover and creativity.
there were companies from all over the world including ‘natural curisosites’ from la, and their name sort of summed up the show for me.
making my way through the aisles, booths, lectures and halls, it seemed that was the running theme.
i noticed a lot of organic and modern trends being able to mix seamlessly, giving the show a fresh modern feel while still keeping its traditional roots.
the baroque and rococo curls and swirls were co-mingling alongside natural booths, just as in the 1700s era when designers admired and brought in shells, ornament and spirals and created what’s now classic french louis xv design. it was a time when doors were thrown open and interiors and exteriors began to merge.
at the show there were green walls with fibonacci spirals
planter sacks for balconies
and the magnificent traditional importers, ‘authentic provence’, who are bringing it to us right here in west palm beach
we were invited to factories in the south of france where pots like these have been made for centuries
and discovered companies who are salvaging and restoring old french floors that are being discarded in paris and bringing them back to life right here in miami.
i loved seeing the beach and le mer come together
nature playfully mixed with convention
vibrant colors from turkey and istanbul brought up images of the south of france
cashmere, cottons, textures…
metals like these below were vibrant and organic, showing how a juxtaposition between modern and organic can happen seamlessly
when shaped into free organic fleurs
sea shapes and impressions were cast in porcelain as lights and vases
paper was manipulated as lights and objects of beauty
mixes of stone, feathers, metallics and pearls were everywhere
allowing design to flourish with nature as back splashes, additions to chandeliers, and on furniture.
i guess i’m a bit of a tech nerd at heart but the final frontier was the beautiful modern devices that truly sync our worlds…
as i was leaving i couldn’t resist shooting this twist on a classic…i think the design and ingenuity speaks for itself. hope you enjoyed le show!
the paris apartment 