Andrée Putman

Spiritually charged with sophistication, France has long been a bastion of classical style. Louis XIV laid the cornerstone in the 17th-century and inspired a global mania for all things French, from the gilded courts of the ‘Greats’ — Peter, Catherine and Frederick — right through to the Maison Jansen-draped White House of Jacqueline Kennedy. Few deviations were made from this blueprint of elegance although it has not remained entirely static, as evidenced more recently in the oeuvre of Andrée Putman.

“Having been born into what is convenient to call the cradle of good taste,, a must-have in the library of any selfrespecting aesthete. This manifesto, of sorts, formed my first encounter with the designer. One chapter showcased Putman’s own Paris loft from the early 1980s — a precursor to the eclecticism that remains, until today, so very au courant. Done over almost entirely in black and white, the space is punctuated by classics of early 20th-century design and modern pieces juxtaposed against magnificent curveballs, such as a pair of 19th-century Egyptian Revival armchairs that once belonged to late 19th-century French actor Sarah Bernhardt. Back-to-back either side of a square white column, the armchair composition reads like a sphinx and claw-clad sculpture, elegant but idiosyncratic rather than any homage to the Ancien Régime. “It is through an impassioned choice of furniture, objects and spaces,” she continued, “and through the luxury of the unexpected that houses are sometimes sublime.”