Ethnic influences strong at Maison
Contrasting themes: Period pieces, contemporary
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, September 23, 2001
PARIS — Ethnic influences extending from the Far East, Middle East and Africa to areas such as Provence in France formed a key direction at the Maison & Objet show here this month.
Other strong themes were a new color energy and a revival of period pieces.
While bold, electric citrus colors were ubiquitous at the last several shows here, they have been stepped down to magenta and warm reds, along with oranges and purples that are robust and bright without being overwhelming. A hot pink, known as Schiaparelli pink, is emerging as a new bright to be used with red, orange and a new apple green.
Among more mainstream colors are browns used with blues and oranges, together or separately. Another significant color is an aubergine that is so dark it almost is black.
In a singular contrast to all the strong color, a number of high- end furniture producers featured their upholstery covers in white or cream-colored canvas.
Overall, the fabric story for furniture was clearly leather and velvet with chenille yarns the major story once again in wovens. Taking shape as a fashion statement were a number of bold stripes in varied sizes, and not mirrored, in what could be called an espadrille look.
Ethnic influences brought together basic woods, especially mahogany, mixed with more exotic species such as meleze and nito and more familiar woods including teak and ebony. These woods often were used in tandem with woven rattan, wicker, leather, and rattan reed to create innovative effects with piecing, mitering and layering.
The design newsmakers were polar opposites. On one hand, there appears to be a revival of period pieces with the most unusual a Louis XV Confidant's sofa. Others included elaborately carved gilt bergeres and sofas and ornate armoires.
In contrast were the sleek and slick angular contemporary upholstered pieces — sofas, ottomans, chairs, and especially chair-and-a-half styles. The news here was the trend to extended bases, either metal, wood or covered with the fabric or leather of the piece itself.
| Deco du Monde creates a low-to-the-ground rattan chaise with a decorative inset and accents it with a cube table of nito wood. |
| Teak and ebony are combined in a new collection at Nobilis that includes this curvaceous table. |
| Looking back to the days of steamer trunks, Gab's Deco International adapts this trunk to a portable folding bed of leather and wicker, enhanced with fittings for storage of personal items and pillows. |
| Casa Lopez, above, creates an overscaled argyle as the design theme for a wool area rug, part of a series of enlarged motifs including tartan plaids, checks and herringbones. |
| Dormi continues with its whimsical approach to furniture design, offering curvaceous legs on a chest and covering the entire piece with a baroque fabric in hot pink and gold. |
| Cat-Berro features a unique open sideboard with shelves that are not aligned, with a grayed blue painted finish. |
| Designers Guild makes an emphatic color statement and cloaks it in a contemporary mood with a chair-and-a- half covered in hot pink velvet. The Edge Stool is covered in orange, with strong accents of apple green. |
| Massant goes back in history with a revival of a classic — the Louis XV Confidant's sofa. |
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Curves, bold colors add zest to Paris show
Sep 21, 2003
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