It’s a grey day when we go to meet Jessica and Hugo Mulliez, however, the photographs of our encounter don’t seem to have been...
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She has the demanding nature coming from years spent working with the greatest luxury companies. Emilio Pucci, Louis Vuitton and Fendi: brands with strong identities, for which Laure Marie designed the furniture of their shops and their global environments. Big responsibilities for an elegant bird silhouette. With a preference for decoration, the interior designer – who has been running her own studio, Stiletta, since 2012 – carries us to a world of commitments. Hers. References to decorative art, between decoration and stylistic details, with creations she made herself. Laure has fun, declines and compares. A huge place to express herself, made of wood, graphic patterns and leathers she mixes with small pieces of ostentatious decoration, specific to the ’70s. Just like a tribute to this childhood nostalgia she likes and modernises. This same nostalgia in which she chose to raise her two daughters Louise and Jeanne, for whom growing up in such a neat setting is part of “normality”. A family life with an astonishing visual, half a shop, half a play, like staged. Let’s go discover this orchestrated perfectionism.
Stanley pendant light large model in polished brass, braided cotton cable.
Dimension : height 33 cm x diameter 26,5 cm.
Suspension Diner 125 cm in brass and clear glass on the 4 sides with an opening at the top and bottom.
Dimension : Depth 22,5 cm x Width 125 cm x Height 25,5 cm
Laure, can you tell us about your career?
I am an interior designer and I studied in the French school of Decorative Arts. The adjective “decorative” shows a certain determinism, since ornamentation and style are quite present in my world. For about fifteen years, I’ve been working on the brand architectural image of great luxury companies, that is to say I’ve been drawing the furniture and global environment of a shop or a pop-up store. Brands such as Fendi, Emilio Pucci and Louis Vuitton have such different identities that relevantly conveying their respective DNAs have been a precious experience. Luxury continues this inestimable school of demand.
How did you get the idea of starting your own brand up?
I had already made furniture and had a brand a couple of years ago. It enabled me to deepen my own taste and to stand out from the brands I was working for. A salutary balance! In 2012, I took the plunge and created my interior architecture studio, Stiletta. Since 2016, I have been also offering to make furniture, pillows, accessories and furniture.
What’s Stiletta?
There is the interior architecture studio part, which offers its services to people just like you and me but also to professionals. I do private works, with my team, on the renovation of a place, from the draft to the very end, often with a selection of layouts and made to measure furniture. I imagine occasional or permanent worlds for brands, always related to their DNAs and artistic directions. Then, since recently, the making of furniture, around textile accessories, cushions, small handbags, bags, and soon furniture. The idea is to offer a range of patterns in line with a theme. The first collection is called “Retropolin”, with modernist or retro designs, with evocative names: Gatsby, Navy and Carnaby. It’s a great place f to express myself.
How would define your world?
I think commitments are mainly what leads my work but I try to get out of the first stances on originality for itself or reference in terms of style. It must sound right at the place on which you work, its architectural style, the time and what the customer desires. I love daring choices, but it must remain coherent.
Which decorative movements inspire you? Is there a time you prefer?
Art Deco inspires me a lot. Its fundamentals cross the times and styles without becoming old-fashioned. I also like the ostentatious decoration of the ‘70s. It’s my whole childhood. The ceiling trellised panels, exotic wood veneers and wall hangings. These are decorative pieces which we don’t use anymore. I try to reintegrate them little by little.
Is there an emblematic object you’d like to have?
A pair of “Capitole” armchairs by Pierre Guarriche. The monolithic seat stands on a teak brace-shaped feat: a real commitment. A quite spectacular pair of rattan elliptical armchairs by Franco Albini.
At your place, what are the objects you are the proudest of?
My sofa “My Beautiful Backside”, an oddity in the world of furniture, designed by Doshi Levien. It looks like no other. The patterns on the back use modernised Art Déco waves rhythms. It’s a very strong visual element and it sets the tone.
Where do you spend the most of your time?
I’m very often behind my desk, which is open on the heart of the apartment. I can look away and see a little of nature. I also love the kitchen. Fully surrounded by glass windows, it’s a true watchtower. I can watch it all.
Is it easy to combine neat decoration and family life?
We often have guests. It’s a lively house, with a cat living both in and outside. So yes, it’s possible, but with some precautions, like putting great leathers on the most fragile sofa and choosing washable paints. As for the rest, the children get used to the constraints of the house quicker than we think.
By the way, are the girls sensitive to their environments? Do they realise the place they live in?
I think they understood the codes of our decoration without realising it. For them, it’s “normal”. I think that at 6 and 8, they can’t have a defined opinion on this theme. However, they understood it was very important to their mummy.
What are your next challenges and projects?
I just finished a work in Normandy, in an Art Deco house, with theatrical high ceiling heights, huge windows and panoramic terraces. Inside, it was not charming, so I tried to give it a modernist style but updated. And then, I have a lot of private works and more projects of making furniture for 2016/2017.
I love the ostentatious decoration of the ‘70s. It’s my whole childhood. The ceiling trellised panels, exotic wood veneers and wall hangings.
Photography : Eve Campestrini – Text : Caroline Balvay @thesocialitefamily
In collaboration with Lacoste.
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