12 Highlights from Maison&Objet September 2019
The September edition of Maison&Object, the design industry trade fair that attracts 3,000 exhibitors and more than 85,000 visitors, just wrapped up in Paris. From September 6-10, attendees enjoyed access to the newest design products from leading brands and manufacturers around the globe. Trends spotted included over-the-top details and moody exuberance—lots of rich colors, dark woods, and lush velvets—as well as alabaster components for lighting and accessories and cane and fringe details. Here are 12 product highlights.
1. Tartan vases by Paola Navone for Corsi Design
Corsi Design artisans collaborated with Italian architect, interior designer, and art director Paola Navone to create One-More by Paola Navone, a range of vibrant vases in soft resin. Experimenting with the colors and reflections of Primavera ceramics from the South of France resulted in Tartan, a series of faceted vessels and bowls with unexpected patterns and textures.
2. Herringbone pillows by Vitra, with Raw-Edges
Based on a 2018 installation at the VitraHaus by design studio Raw-Edges, founded by Shay Alkalay and Yael Mer, the Herringbone Collection by Vitra embraces the technique of immersion dying to create a trio of products: pillows, vessels, and trees. Herringbone Pillows, shown here, feature luminous colors and geometric patterns created via overlapping strips of immersion-dyed color in varying intensities.
3. Large Standing Mirror by Pauline Deltour for Ames
Known for designs featuring neat lines and carefully selected materials, French designer Pauline Deltour created the Large Standing Mirror (5′ 4″ tall) as part of her mirror series Killa for Ames. She used fibers of the Iraca palm that are boiled, bleached, colored with seeds and nuts, dried, and then stitched into place. Available in Natural, Black, Pink/Dark Red, Green Khaki, and Terracotta, the mirror has a poetic quality inspired by Deltour’s travels around Colombia with the company’s founder and creative director Ana Maria Calderón Kayser.
4. Lighting 1701 by FromHence
Inspired by nature—the shape of water droplets on fruit just before gravity forces them fall to the ground—Lighting 1701 by South Korea-based design studio FromHence is a dining table light that also acts as a convex lens. This means that depending on the curvature of the face receiving the light, it is displayed in a variety of widths.
5. Yuan Eden dinnerware by iBride
French design brand iBride fulfilled a request by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid to create dinnerware inspired by its 16th-century art collection. The result: Yuan Eden, a bold and poetic interpretation of the Garden of Eden by Rachel and Benoit Convers that creates artful complicities between classical painting and contemporary design in a stackable table setting.
6. Subas carpets by Sebastian Herkner for Ames
German designer Sebastian Herkner, known for merging cultural contexts while combining new technologies with traditional craftsmanship, traveled with Ames founder and creative director Ana Maria Calderón Kayser to visit Colombian craftsman in the Suba district of Bogota as inspiration. He honored their skills of knotting and weaving in series of exclusive Subas carpets that combine geometric shapes, stripes, and relief effects.
7. Carry Away pen holder and tray by Alain Gilles for XLBoom
Portable offices—with people working at home in all rooms courtesy of tablets and laptops—require portable accessories. Alain Gilles’s answer is the Carry Away pen holder and tray for XLBoom, made from aluminum and available in various colors and finishes. The large ergonomic handle and high sides keep most items out of view but organized as the user moves it from the center of the dining room table to balancing atop a bed.
8. Bioma bench by ImperfettoLab
Modeled by hand by Verter Turroni, the Bioma bench in Italy-based ImperfettoLab’s newest collection has the appearance of a floating layer of incinerated bark. It’s made of fiberglass with a metal structure that’s painted black and is available in a single seat or two-seater—the latter to enjoy a shared vision of an existential universe, of course.
9. Block Shelving System by Big Game for Cruso
Cruso, a new furniture brand from Belgium, collaborated with Lausanne, Switzerland-based design studio Big-Game to create the Block Shelving System. Big-Game’s design trio, Augustin Scott de Martinville, Grégoire Jeanmonod, and Elric Petit, describe their work as “simple, functional, and optimistic.” And the Black Shelving System is just that, featuring vertical steel modules, oak-finished wood panels, and aluminum sliding doors that can be configured in a variety of ways.
10. Chouchou stools and tables by Lorenzo Zanovello for Pulpo
Playful aptly describes the Chouchou series of stools and tables by Lorenzo Zanovello for Pulpo. Inspired by the French caramelized peanut candy they are named for, they come in oval, round, and high shapes—ambiguous ceramic forms that are as much sculptural works of art as places to sit or place a cup of coffee. As shown here, they feature elongated arches on their sides and a unique mottled marble-white glaze treatment. Also available in cobalt, black, rose, blue black, and lapislazuli.
11. 50:50 pendant light by Hanne Willman for ENOstudio
ENOstudio, a French design company founded in 2017, introduced the 50:50 pendant light by Hanne Willman. Designed to allow equal importance to both the light and the lampshade, 50:50 features a half-ring LED and glass tube framed by a metal socket in brass steel. It is shown here with the new Brandy dining table designed by Numéro 111 in glass, MDF, and stainless steel.
12. Berlin Sideboard by Dooq
The Berlin Sideboard by Portuguese design company Dooq was inspired by the Bauhaus movement. Constructed of solid wood (here in natural walnut, but also natural oak, beech camel, or beech chocolate), lacquered MDF (here in Olive) and stainless-steel-plated appliques in polished brass (pictured, but also in satin brass or polished or satin copper and nickel), it features clean lines and an absence of excessive ornamentation, creating a harmonious blend of design and function.
Read more: Maison & Objet’s January 2019 Edition Highlights Warmer Palettes and Raw Textures
