Design News From Paris

For the past several years, John and I [co-owners of South End’s PATCH NYC] have traveled to Paris every September to attend Maison & Objet. This twice-a-year design event draws the world’s biggest design aficionados, retailers, media, and taste-makers, who come to see gorgeous accessories in over-the-top displays.

This September was special for us because we attended as exhibitors to debut our new collaboration, the PATCH NYC for Astier de Villatte collection. To design the collection, we traveled to the Astier de Villatte studio last spring and worked with their skilled craftspeople to apply our original ink drawings onto their classic white glazed ceramics.  It was an incredible opportunity to see bags of gray clay molded, shaped, detailed, glazed, and fired to become finished serving pieces.

The collection (shown above) was presented front and center in a replica of the Rue Saint Honoré shop, which took carpenters a week to construct.  We were so thrilled to finally see the collection at the show that we were the first to place an order for our South End shop.

Astier de Villatte is just one of the numerous brands that make up the Maison & Objet, which is filled with row upon row of incredible designs from all around the world.  It is a true feast for the eyes.  Many of the pieces we found most exciting this year were in the Ethnic Import section which was filled with amazing jewelry, textiles, objects, antiques and furniture.  We were mostly drawn to all the wonderful colors which we thought would be a nice balance to the classic white of our Astier de Villatte collaboration pieces.  The following are some pieces we found the most inspiring as well as a few others we found so irresistible that we ordered them for our South End shop.

These silk pillows from Turkey are made of the most beautiful fabrics with super saturated colors.

I also loved these one of a kind sterling and glass rings from India.  They caught our eye because of the faceted colored glass and substantial size.  We pulled a fantastic palette of colors for the shop.

These one of a kind blankets combine great colors with fantastic totally unique patterns.  We selected a range of colors and patterns that coordinate with our own PATCH NYC fall collection.  Some of these pieces have already arrived in the shop.

These feather sculptures from Africa were by far the most colorful and inspiring pieces.  We are currently designing our new jewelry collection, so these colors were a great source of inspiration.

The number of international companies represented at Maison & Objet is so fantastic and at the same time overwhelming.  We were excited to find colorful candles from Italy.

Clever tin novelties from Germany.

And classic wooden pull toys from Switzerland.

Our good friend Nathalie Lete is also one of our favorite artists.  She presented her newest collection inspired by old-school butcher shops in New York City and Paris.

Soft sculpture “meat” figures by Nathalie Lete.

We are also big fans of Kuhn Keramics and we were excited to select some of their unexpected ceramic pieces for our shop.

Maison & Objet is a must see for anyone interested in design.  The show is filled with a vast array of objects presented in enticing wonderful displays, some are definitely more enticing than others but, overall, the show is a wonderful source of inspiration.

Please stop by our South End shop to see all the treasures we brought back!