The following posts are a selection of French Designers that I have posted about over the last year. French design styles incorporate the new and the old. It is bold and sophisticated. It is attention to detail, whether a brooch, a clock, fabric, or glass.
The following designers offers an informative and interesting perspective on French design. The charm of French design is that it pervades all styles from traditional to modern and surprisingly it is diverse;
Serge Mouille (1922- 1988) French Lighting Designer
Serge Mouille was a French Lighting Designer; he was born and active in Paris. Mouille studied silversmithing, รcole des Artes Appliquรฉs, Paris to 1941.Read More →
Maurice Dufrรชne (1876 – 1955), French Decorative Artist
Maurice Dufrรชne (1876โ1955) was a French decorative artist who headed the Maรฎtrise workshop of the Galeries Lafayette department store. He designed many different types of decorative art, including metalwork, ceramics, glass, and fabric. His designs from 1910 onward are austere and neoclassical, reminiscent of the Louis XVI style.Read More →
Suzanne Guiguichon (1901 – 1985) French Furniture Designer
Suzanne Guiguichon was a French furniture designer and decorator. She was born and worked in Paris. Since 1929 she worked as a designer with Maurice Dufrene at the Galeries Lafayette design studio La Maitrise in Paris. Most of the furniture, clocks, lighting, fabrics, rugs, accessories Guiguichon designed anonymously.Read More →
Guillaume Saalburg French glassworker and engraver
Guillaume Saalburg was a French glassworker and engraver professionally active in Paris.ย ย Education He trained in a glass engraver’s workshop. Biography He worked as an architect and designer for business and domestic clients, collaborated with Philippe Starck, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, Gilles Derain, Richard Moyer, and Andree Putman: and participated in the design of the hallโฆRead More →
Suzanne Belperron (1900 – 1983) French Jewellery Designer
Suzanne Belporren was a French jewellery designer. Her career flourished in the 1920s and 1930s. Belperron produced numerous designs of sculptured jewellery for Renรฉ Boivin’s Paris shop. She subsequently opened her own Paris shop called Herz-Belperron. Her designs often featured glass encrusted with gemstones.Read More →
Michele De Lucchi (b.1951) Italian architect and designer
At the Universita di Firenze, he experimented with new forms of art and film. In 1973, he created the Cavart group alongside Piero Brombin, Pier Paola Bortolami, Boris Pastrovicchio, and Valerio Tridenti, which was active in Architettura Radicale, filmmaking, written works, and happenings.Read More →
Pierre Paulin (1927 – 2009) French furniture designer
He was active in research for the government-sponsored Mobilier International. His first plastic object was the 1953 Chair 157 in polyester, ABS, and elastomers produced by Artifort of Maastricht. Around 1955, he was one of the first to work in elasticised fabrics for Thonet and subsequently for Artifort.Read More →
Max Ingrand (1908 – 1969) French artist and decorator
Maurice Max-Ingrand (1908โ1969) was a French artist and stained glass artist. He was captured by the Nazis during World War II but returned to France in 1945. In 1968, he established Verre Lumiรจre, one of the first businesses to manufacture halogen lamps.Read More →
Clรฉment Mรจre (1861 – 1940) French, designer and furniture maker
Clรฉment Mรจre was born in Bayonne and active in Paris. He was a French painter, table-builder, artist and furniture builder. He studied painting with Jean-Lรฉon Gรฉrรดme at the รcole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.Read More →
Shagreen – Design Term
Shagreen is fish skin used as a veneer to cover furniture and accessories. Also known as galuchat and sharkskin, shagreen is the skin on the belly of the dogfish. As a generic term, it is used to mean untanned animal hides made with pebble-textured surfaces. It was first made in the 17th century by Turkish and PersianโฆRead More →
Raymond Subes (1893 – 1970) French metalsmith
Raymond Subes (1893โ1970) was a French metalsmith. He made ironwork for the oceanliners 1931 Atlantique, 1926 Ile-de-France, Pasteur, and 1935 Normandie. After World War II, he worked as a metalworker and became the head of Borderel et Robert.Read More →
Lรฉon Jallot (1874 – 1967) French designer and artisan.
Lรฉon Jallot (1874ยญ-1967), a scion of the French Art Nouveau, stood out within the movement as an รฉbรฉniste, or cabinet maker.Read More →
Georges Dunaime – French Designer
Georges Dunaime designed lighting for E. Etling, the designer and engraver. His work included table lamps, torchรฉeres, and chandeliers made of silver, gilt, and patinated bronze with shades made of cloth, cut glass, quartz, marble, and alabaster.Read More →
Pierre Guariche (1926 – 1995) french interior designer
Pierre Guariche was a French designer, interior decorator, and architect. He may be best known for the lights he made for Pierre Disderot in the 1950s. Guariche created the ground-breaking “tonneau” chair in 1953. He was searching for a contemporary, affordable alternative to the prewar modernists’ hard chic. Guariche founded the Atelier de RechercheโฆRead More →
Jean Goulden (1878 – 1946) French Artisan and Painter
Jean Goulden was a French painter, musician, and crafter who lived from 1878 to 1946. During World War I, he found Byzantine enamels near Mount Athos in Macedonia. His Cubist pendulum clocks were some of his best pieces. Only 180 of his items are known to exist.Read More →
Pierre Balmain (1914 – 1982) French fashion designer
Pierre Balmain (1914 – 1982) was a French fashion designer and the influential postwar fashion house Balmain founder. He described the art of dressmaking as “the architecture of movement,” and he was known for his sophistication and elegance.Read More →
Jacques Gruber (1870 – 1936) French Stained Glass artist and designer
Jacques Gruber (1870-1936) was a French stained-glass artist, designer, and teacher, born Sundhausen, Alsace. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, under Gustave Moreau. He was distinguished as a designer in the Art Nouveau idiom.Read More →
Louis Rault (1847 – 1903) French sculptor, engraver and jewellery designer
Louis Rault (1847 – 1903) was a French Sculptor, engraver, silversmith and jewellery designer.Between 1868 and 1875, Rault worked in the Boucheron workshop on the Place Vendรดme in Paris. At the end of the nineteenth century, he set up a workshop where he produced silver and jewellery in the Art Nouveau style.Read More →
Boris-Jean Lacroix (1902-1984) ๐ซ๐ท French Lighting Designer
Boris-Jean Lacroix (1902-1984) was a French Lighting Designer born in Paris. Biography Lacroix was a prolific designer of lighting, wallpaper, bookbinding, furniture, and interiors; in 1924, began working for couturier Madeleine Vionnet as a designer of dresses, handbags, and costume jewellery; soon after, decorated and designed her private residence. His designs were commissioned byโฆRead More →
Paul Poiret (1879 – 1944) – King of Fashion
In the early decades of the 20th century, Paul Poiret was a crucial figure in the French fashion industry, notably by adding a deep oriental flavour and rich colours to contemporary clothing.Read More →
Martine Bedin (b.1957) radical architecture and design
Bedin was one of the founders of the avant-garde Memphis group in Milan in 1981. Also, she has worked as an architect, industrial designer and professor. Her work is held in many important museums and private collections. Bedinโs aesthetic is typically colourful and self-consciously kitschy.Read More →
Jan and Joel Martel (1896 – 1966) twin brothers and French sculptors
Jan and Joel Martel (1896 – 1966) were twin brothers and French sculptors. They were born in Nantes and active in Paris. Cement, glass, steel, mirrors, ceramics, lacquers, and synthetics were all used in their projects.Read More →
Jean Patou (1880 – 1936) ๐ฉ Fashion Designer
One of Patouโs most famous customers was the French tennis champion Suzanne Lenglen, whom he dressed both on and off the court. This lean and active young woman epitomised the 1920s โnew woman.โ She created a furore in 1921 when she wore Patouโs knee-length pleated skirt, which revealed much of her legs when sheโฆRead More →
Andre Salomon (1891 -1970) French Lighting Engineer
He was an engineer at Tompson before setting up the small electrical firm Perfรฉcla (Perfectionnement de IโEcla), regularly working with architects and designers, including Pierre Chareau, and Andrรฉ Lurcat, Renรฉ Herbst, and architect Robert Mallet-Stevens. For the latter, he produced the widely published 1929 lighting fixture designed by Francis Jourdain in the form ofโฆRead More →
Pierre-รmile Legrain (1889 -1929) French Furniture Designer
He submitted cartoons in 1908 for Paul Iribeโs satirical reviews Le Tรฉmoin, LโAssiette au beurre, Le Mot, and La Baionnette. Iribe invited Legrain to collaborate with him on projects including furniture and interior design, jewelry for Robert Linzeler, and dress designs for Paquin.Read More →
Maison Gripoix costume jeweller – glass with class
Maison Gripoix, a French costume jeweller, was located in Paris. Around 1890, Maison Gripoix sold glass beads and buttons wholesale. Subsequently, specialised in handmade imitations of precious and semi-precious jewels, including parures for Sarah Bernhardt.Read More →
Fernand Nathan French furniture desiger
A painter before becoming active as an interior architect, he was a cabinetmaker and designer of lighting, printed fabrics, and furniture. His furniture reflected the influences of Chippendale, Louis XVI, Directoire, Restauration, and Louis Philippe styles. Some of Nathanโs furniture was produced by Beyne.Read More →
Raymond Loewy (1893 – 1986) ๐บ๐ธ American Designer
He arrived in the United States in 1929, just in time for the great depression. As it happened the beginning of the depression was a fortuitous time for a talented designer with new ideas to arrive in the United States. The old design aesthetic was disappearing with the collapsing economy. Manufacturers wanted to stimulateโฆRead More →
Andre Hermant (1908 – 1978) French architect and furniture designer
In 1936, he became a member of UAM (Union des Artistes Modernes); after World War II, he participated in the reconstruction of the port of Le Havre under the direction of architect Auguste Perret.Read More →
Sociรฉtรฉ des Artistes Dรฉcorateurs (Society of Decorative Artists) – France
The creation in 1901 of the Sociรฉtรฉ des Artistes Dรฉcorateurs (SAD) reflected the increasing significance in France of this new profession of Decorative Arts. This resulted from a series of government-funded projects carried out in the fine and applied arts schools of France to improve the status of applied arts and training.Read More →
Jean-Paul Gaultier (b.1952) French Fashion Designer
Before launching his label in 1976, Gaultier worked for Cardin, Jacques Esteirel, and Patou. From the onset, Gaultier was dubbed the ‘enfant terrible de Paris’.Read More →
Eileen Gray (1879 – 1976) Irish/French Furniture Designer
Eileen Gray was an French furniture designer and architect. Her work reflected a stylistic pastiche of far eastern and french influences.Read More →
Renรฉ Lalique (1860 – 1945) French goldsmith and glassmaker
Artisan in glass and creator of family firm Cristal Lalique Renรฉ Lalique was a French glass designer, jeweller, furniture designer, painter, and sculptor. He was born in 1860 in a small town in the province of Champagne. The family moved to Paris, and Lalique was apprenticed to the well known Paris goldsmith, Louis Aucoc,โฆRead More →
George Barbier one of the Great French Illustrators
George Barbier was one of the Great French Illustrators of the early 20th centuryRead More →
Jean Adnet (1900 – 1995) French designer
In 1928, Jean Adnet became director of the window-display department at Galeries Lafayette, where, in 1922, brother Jacques Adnet became director of its La Maitrise decorating studio; they collaborated under the name โJJ Adnet.Read More →
Mario Botta (b.1943) Swiss Architect and Designer
While the space arrangements in this structure are inconsistent, its relationship to its site, separation of living from service spaces, and deep window recesses echo his stark, robust and towering style.Read More →
‘Exposition Universelle’ Paris 1900
The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world’s fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. It was held at the esplanade of Les Invalides, theโฆRead More →
Malvine Tcherniak (1894 – 1968) French/Russian Decorator
In the 1920s, she designed ceramics, textiles and wallpaper and domestic items for the Primavera department store of the Au Printemps department store, Paris.Read More →
Lucien Falize (1838 – 1897) French goldsmith and jeweller
Lucien Falize (1838- 1897) was French goldsmith and jeweller. He was active in Paris and son of Alexis Falize, father of Andre Falize. When his father retired in 1876, Lucien assumed directorship of the family business. He attempted to expand the business by showing at 1878 Paris ‘Exposition Universelle’ and becoming partners with GermainโฆRead More →
New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style (Hardcover)
New York Fashion has been a seminal book on the story of American fashion since its hardcover debut in 1989. Caroline Rennolds Milbank chronicles the enormous changes in the fashion world from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century and the rise of prominent American designers such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein,โฆRead More →
Jean Luce (1895 – 1964) French ceramicist and glassware designer
French designer. He worked primarily in ceramics, but also designed for glass and gold. His ceramics, in an Art Deco style, were manufactured in LimogesRead More →
Jean-Maurice Rothschild (1902- 1988) French decorator and designer
He began working in 1921 for Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann in Paris as a designer and artisan. He participated in the design of Ruhlmann’s ‘Hรดtel du collectionneur’ at the 1925 Paris ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes.’Read More →
Jacques-รmile Ruhlmann (1879 – 1933) outstanding furniture designer
Jacques-รmile Ruhlmann (1879 – 1933) was a French designer who was born and lived in Paris. n 1907, he took over his father’s house painting company in Paris. He first exhibited his work in 1911, with architect Charles Plumet and couturier Jacques Doucet, Frantz Jourdain, and Tony Selmersheim.Read More →
Philippe Starck (b.1949) the artist-designer
Phillippe Starck is one of the most widely known artistโdesigner ‘names’ in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Starck is one of France’s most fรชted designers who has worked across a wide range of media. His work epitomises the intersection of art and design, its often fanciful qualities attracting both critical approbation andโฆRead More →
Paul Follot (1877 – 1941) French decorative artist and sculptor
His early graphic design reflected a fascination with mediaeval and Pre-Raphaelite art. He joined Julius Meier-shop Graefe’s La Maison Moderne in Paris in 1901. He met Maurice Dufrรฉne and designed bronzes, jewellery, and fabrics.Read More →
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