January 2009
The Maison d’Objet is held every year in January in Paris, and has been an accessories, tableware and gift show since it began several years ago. In the last 2 years, more furniture manufacturers from Italy and Spain have been showing in a new “Hall” which contains abaut 40 different vendor booths.
Curious about the show, and not having been to France in many years…AND airfare and lodging being greatly reduced, off to Paris for 4 days!
We arrived Friday morning, stopped by the hotel for a “power nap” and we were at the show by 1:30. The fairgrounds are a sizable campus. Seven pavilions or halls spread over a large area a short walk from the train station. The furniture pavilion (7) is the newest and closest, a vast white space, surrounded by walls of clear sheeting, that made the brewing windstorm all the more dramatic. Crews worked around the clock reattaching missing panels…..
There were several manufacturers we knew: Poliform and Varenna had a beautiful new booth at the front of hall. This is their first time at the show. They featured a beautiful new door for their closet system, “Wave”, that has horizontal grooves organically flowing across the surface. Best part? It is priced the same as the regular laminate.
Baleri Italia is now going under the name of “Cerruti Italia” giving due to Nino Cerruti who bought the company a few years ago. Their introduction “Sumo” is a seating group that looks ironically sumo-like. Not my pick yet. They also featured the “tattooed” Tato’s with Maurizio Gallante’s prints covering the iconic egg shape, depicting a Bunny Rabbit, Skull, Snakes and a Flamingo. We will have the bunny rabbits for Easter on the floor, and should see a few of the skulls making their way into our showrooms as well.
Crassivig had the “NETT” chair displayed in an array of translucent colors. This chair has had a great response and is being used in the Getty in LA and several projects in NY and Washington, DC. We loved the feel of the power mesh, as well as the pricing.
