“I live in a small house that I completely renovated, near the Saint-Martin canal, in Paris. Its calm and neutral interior decoration, composed of white, wood and natural light, is diametrically opposed to my very expressive creations. , which essentially play on materials. We sometimes imagine that designers live among collectible furniture or pieces of great value and that they want to be at the forefront of the latest trends since they are the ones who “make” them “. I can believe that some people are looking for this, but that is not my case at all! I detach my private life from work. First of all, I do not create for myself and only own very few of my pieces. I would see myself rather like a film director who tells stories in which he does not live; or like those fashion designers with extravagant collections who put on simple jeans when getting dressed in the morning. And above all, I tense up as soon as I hear someone one say “It’s very designer…” in the sense of “very trendy”. These words seem particularly derogatory to me, because they are too injunctive. I hate “what we must” or “what we must do”…
I rarely go to design exhibitions and I read what is said in the specialist press with a certain detachment. Firstly because it is practically impossible to follow a trend: you don’t change your interior decor like you change your wardrobe! Then because I remain convinced that there is no need for great knowledge in design or to follow the recommendations of experts to build an interior to your taste. It’s something very physical and very intimate. And then I find that there is nothing worse than meeting a person who wears the perfect look of the moment or the right decoration but who, deep down, doesn’t like it! I prefer someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing but who dares according to their deepest desires. This proves that his values are found elsewhere than in appearance and the need to be “in the game” to exist.
My favorite room in the house is the kitchen, the only place where I stop thinking and disconnect from work. And again, not completely, because an idea or an inspiration can arise from my brain by handling a simple tomato (laughs). I choose my fruits and vegetables like I choose fabric. Which is not surprising when you know that my main sources of inspiration are nature, botany and minerals. In each city I visit, I try to find galleries, museums and exhibitions dedicated to geology and mineralogy. There are all possible shapes, textures and colors. This is where the timeless lies: in noble materials such as solid wood, copper, bronze, linen, etc. On the other hand, aluminum and polymer don’t inspire anything in me. And I forbid myself from fossilized wood, out of respect and humility towards this material which is millions of years old, as well as… meteorites – someone has already offered it to me but I refused, because I wonder if we have morally the right to use this material which comes from the depths of the universe and therefore does not belong to us.
I have plenty to do anyway! What the Earth provides is more than enough to design timeless furniture that is compatible with all styles; to create pieces that want to unfold a story that could have existed fifty years ago and which will still be strong in the next fifty. Thanks to them I can tell true stories – something that everyone loves, me first and foremost, relying on artisanal know-how, particularly French. So I think it’s better to invest in one such piece rather than three or four which, certainly, seem very cool at first glance, very trendy, but which only remain soulless marketed objects which fade with time. time. Isn’t this the first and best eco-responsible gesture there is?”