Much like the global fashion calendar, the design industry’s annual circuit is increasingly packed. From Mexico City to Melbourne, there are numerous design festivals around the world each year, including more than a dozen notable design “weeks” in Europe alone. These are often held in national capitals and significant creative centres. Yet Paris Design Week, which is run by the Maison & Objet trade show, is fast becoming the principal challenger to the reign of Milan Design Week. So what is it that has helped the event stand out in just 15 years of existence?

“Our main focus is to make Paris synonymous with new trends and aesthetics,” the director of Paris Design Week, Franck Millot, tells The Monocle Minute on Design. “To stand out, we emphasise the exhibition of emerging designers in the best light and as affordably as possible for them.” That strategy sees its organisers leverage both outstanding private projects in the French capital as well as the city’s breathtaking landmarks to serve as venues for designers hailing from more than 30 countries. This year’s highlights include: a presentation in Beautreillis; a Parisian apartment interior design by Studiovlach (pictured below); Le Corbusier’s Maison Atelier d’Ozenfant will be a platform for Hyacinthe and Leitmotiv to present their work (pictured); the Hôtel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde will host an exhibition by designer Jérémy Pradier-Jeauneau; and the towering column on the Place de la Bastille will host a show by Aude Franjou dedicated to fabrics called Textile resilience: Corals of Freedom. The flamboyance of these grand venues sets Paris apart from any other design week.

Another factor in Paris’s growing clout is the increase in reverence for the métiers d’art, a catch-all term for France’s historic decorative arts, from leatherwork to goldsmithing. Not so long ago, these skills and the efforts to preserve them were treated with mild neglect. But today, métiers d’art has become synonymous with quality, character and refinement – as demonstrated by partnerships with some of the country’s biggest brands. Case in point is the work of French designer and cabinetmaker Pierre Renart, who will be presenting two exclusive pieces finished with leather seats in collaboration with French fashion house Longchamp.

“France is not a great nation in the industry of design but we are a great nation of creation,” says Millot. French design might not be as evocative as its Scandinavian or Italian counterparts but it does have an unrivalled know-how when it comes to making. This, combined with the dialogue that Paris Design Week nurtures between history and the cutting edge, is giving rise to designs unbeholden to a particular aesthetic or code. In a jam-packed design calendar, that makes Paris one of the year’s most special events.

Simon Bouvier is Monocle’s Paris bureau chief. For more news and analysis, visit monocle.com.

Designing furniture in a vacuum can be difficult so it’s useful to have an end location for the product in mind. For French firms Garnier & Linker and Studio KO, responding to the challenges of different spaces was the inspiration behind their first lighting collaboration, which is on show during this year’s Paris Design Week. The collaboration comprises four lights, including the Jellyfish wall sconce and the Booklight lamp.

The collection is united by a shared materiality, with many lights featuring patinated-brass elements. “What we really liked about [Studio KO co-founders] Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty is that through their projects they identified simple but essential ways to bring vibrancy to spaces,” says Guillaume Garnier, co-founder of Garnier & Linker. “Each piece in the collection cleverly and accurately responds to a specific question, such as showcasing books in a library or lighting architectural or decorative features.” Meticulously made in Garnier & Linker’s workshop near Fontainebleau, the collection shows how thoughtful design can transform spaces through precise illumination that considers context.
garnieretlinker.com; studioko.fr

View the collaboration at the Garnier & Linker showroom, 22 Rue de l’Échiquier, Paris, from 3 to 30 September.

Guillaume Gibert and Baptiste Rischmann (pictured, on right, with Gibert) are behind Paris-based interior-architecture firm RMGB. They will present the first collection for their new furniture brand, Adret, during Paris Design Week. Made from materials such as steel, oak and lava stone, the pieces appear both delicate and robust, with crisp lines and strong architectural forms. We caught up with the duo to find out about their inspiration for Adret, a collection that includes everything from sofas and armchairs to mirrors and coffee tables.

Tell us about your new collection. What makes it significant?
This furniture collection is designed with multiple sources of inspiration – a reflex from our first profession, interior architecture.

The designer or design movement that has influenced you the most?
Whether it’s Dutch monk and architect Hans van der Laan or artist Donald Judd, we admire an ability to create works that are both powerful and perfectly balanced while maintaining a remarkable economy of gesture and form. It’s this sense of balance that we strive for in our own creations. We’re also influenced by American modernism, which we admire for its formal rigour and its practitioners’ ability to create pieces that engage in dialogue with architecture. These works have become timeless – another quality we seek at Adret.

A recurring source of inspiration?
Gio Ponti’s elegant modernism, which is always in dialogue with artisanal craftsmanship.

The sky’s the limit, which piece of furniture would you love to own?
American artist and designer Isamu Noguchi’s “Pierced Table”, an organically shaped sculpture formed from a single sheet of galvanised steel. Only vintage versions of this piece exist – it has never been reissued. That makes it a true rarity.

A dream commission?
Designing a room at the Palais de l’Élysée, like the one designed by Pierre Paulin and commissioned by president Georges Pompidou in 1972.

A priority for you and the industry going forward?
Maintaining a strong foundation with artisans and their craftsmanship while cultivating our creative identity.

Why is Paris Design Week important? What will you see during the week?
Paris Design Week is a major event to promote design in its broadest sense. New brands such as ours can co-exist within a very stimulating creative landscape. We’ll probably run short on time during the week with Adret’s presentation. But we’ll definitely make sure to see the collaboration between Garnier & Linker and the renowned Studio KO [see above].

View Adret’s first collection at Septieme Gallery, 31 Rue de l'Université, Paris, from 3 to 12 September.

The birth of collectable design – furniture with the rarity and price tag of an artwork – can be traced back to Parisian gallery Néotù. Started in 1984 by a duo of flamboyant French architects, the gallery commissioned young designers to create half-postmodern, half-rococo pieces in strictly limited editions. Collectable design is now an established industry, and Néotù has been given an appropriately rarefied revival. In a joint venture between Parisian galleries Mouvements Modernes and Galerie Gabriel, more than 40 original Néotù designs are being presented in the Néotù: The Visionary Years exhibition in New York. One of the more restrained pieces is this lounge chair by Patrick Naggar and Dominique Lachevsky.

Created in 1989, the chair comes with a plywood seat shaped like a ski-jump slope and legs made out of plain sheet metal. But don’t be fooled by the humble materials: this collector’s item was made in an edition of three and today comes with a price tag of $60,000 (€51,000). Prospective or aspirational buyers can book to view the piece at Galerie Gabriel’s 72nd-floor gallery space in Manhattan’s Sutton Place until 17 October.
galeriegabriel.com

Completed in 2020, the Le Monde Group headquarters in Paris is a striking addition to the French capital’s 13th arrondissement, blending newsrooms and offices with generous communal outdoor areas and public plazas. To mark the fifth anniversary of its completion, the project’s lead architects, Snøhetta, have released an exclusive publication produced in collaboration with French artist Frédéric Chaume. Le Monde HQ Sketchbooks features 232 artworks of the building’s construction, drawn by Chaume from more than 250 site visits over three years.

Chaume’s freedom to move around the building site allowed him to pursue a range of techniques and mediums to capture its development. Initial experiments en plein air were made in black chalk, charcoal and watercolour, while further works developed through copper engraving and drawings on paper that were made in the studio. The book is enriched with a foreword from Snøhetta’s co-founder Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, as well as essays and poems on architecture and design. It captures the story behind the expressive building and offers an artistic view on architectural construction that goes beyond mere documentation.
snohetta.com

‘Le Monde HQ Sketchbooks’ is now on sale in Scandinavia and will be presented during Paris Design Week.