Brand Story
French luxury furnishings brand Liaigre looks to its fourth decade with a renewed focus on impeccable detailing and craftsmanship
Liaigre celebrates its elegant minimalist aesethetic while creating new collections that mix craft and innovation
Dark wood, bronze hardware, neutral tones and rectilinear lines—this sophisticated combination has shaped minimalist interiors as we know them. It’s the signature design scheme of Christian Liaigre and his eponymous brand, and it is a look that has endured for nearly 40 years since the founding of the interior architecture and furniture company in 1985. This pared-down approach has been a winning formula, so much so that Liaigre became the interior designer of choice for fashion legends Calvin Klein, Karl Lagerfeld and Kenzo Takada, as well as a favoured design name in the yachting world.
FRENCH FLAIR
While Liaigre has stepped down from helming his namesake company since 2016, his elegant ethos still holds true for the brand. Today, the firm is led by CEO Christophe Caillaud, with Frauke Meyer shaping the brand’s artistic direction as its creative director. Meyer has rich and deep ties to the company—she was headhunted by Liaigre himself in 1998. The German-born interior architect had just completed her studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris, when she first met the company’s founder on her graduation day. From the very beginning, Meyer had felt an instant connection with the “pure and elegant simplicity” of Liaigre’s aesthetic and was thrilled to join the company just as it was on the cusp of change. “At that time, the company was only known by few and on its way to become what it is today,” recalls Meyer. Liaigre had just completed the design of the loft-inspired rooms of The Mercer Hotel with hotelier André Balazs in New York, a landmark project that drew international acclaim. Other key projects that followed in the ‘90s include the Hotel Montalembert
in Paris and the Selfridges store in London. Today, the brand has 29 showrooms around the world, with boutiques in Singapore, Shanghai, Bangkok, and most recently, Seoul. “Liaigre is now undergoing an evolution, not a revolution,” says Meyer. “The new creative direction we are taking today is meant to help us examine our roots and the sources of Liaigre’s creations, which have made us so successful, while reinterpreting them in the context of current times and maintaining the artistic and creative heritage we leave behind.”
CREATIVE DIALOGUE
At the heart of Liaigre’s design philosophy is the unique symbiosis of its interior architecture services and furniture production, in so much that its collections are inspired by the needs of spatial design of past and upcoming projects. Be it a residential home, a retail boutique, a luxury yacht or hotel, the firm’s interior projects become the source of inspiration for future collections. “We introduce in our collection about 20 new pieces every year, each of them reflecting the unique needs of an interior design project and of a cultural context,” says Meyer. Recent examples include the Nagoya desk, which was originally designed for a meditation house in Nagawa, Japan; the Hestia lounge chair that was crafted for a residence in Munich; and the Soupir sofa that was first conceived for a snow-capped Swiss chalet in St Moritz.
“LIAIGRE IS NOW UNDERGOING AN EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION”