155 / 218
155
REPORTAGE
AT THE
HEART
OF THE
FRENCH
STYLE
"When we talk about comfort in
a piece of furniture, we also talk
about its visual comfort,
”
repeats
Michel Roset, Chief Creative
Officer at Ligne Roset. The
conquest of the level of comfort
that has built our company's
reputation was accompanied by
an ambitious quest for aesthetics.
"I like the idea that design has
meaning, that it plays a social
role,
”
he adds. Since the 1960s,
this conviction has given rise to
several groups of bold designers,
such as Memphis. These questions
about the role of aesthetics are
embedded into our creation
process.
"This ambitious approach has
won us recognition by museums.
Asmara
, a modular outdoor seat
designed by
Bernard Govin
in 1966 and the
Ploum
sofa by
Ronan
and
Erwan Bouroullec
(2011), are part of the collections
displayed in the Museum of
Decorative Arts in Paris.
In the 1970s, the young publicist
Jacques Séguéla created this
premonitory slogan for Ligne
Roset: “Designed to last more than
fashion.
”
The "Made in Bugey"-
the name of the region where
the company's headquarters and
factories are located - furniture is
manufactured to last for decades
and their design goes beyond
decoration trends. The brand
knows how to be audacious, with
creations like the asymmetrical
Confluences
seat by
Philippe
Nigro
or the
Car Light
lamp by
Nathalie Dewez
, inspired by a
car light. But Ligne Roset also
masters the French decorative
codes, updated to our times. For
more than 20 years, the decorator
Didier Gomez
has created
deliberately sober and elegant
furniture for the brand, which
relates easily to both Art Deco
or Louis XVI furniture. This year,
with its
Riga
seats, the designer
Éric Jourdan
delivers an ultra-
contemporary reiteration of the
Voltaire armchair.
In 2000, this common cultural
heritage, combined with formal
and technical innovation, brought
together Ligne Roset and designer
Pierre Paulin
. Having gained
international recognition for his
layout of the private rooms of the
Élysée for the Pompidou couple
in 1971, he knew the history of the
decorative arts like the back of
his hand. Yet he was passionate
about machines and innovative
materials. He had an obsession for
foam padding and elastic fabric
which was perfectly channeled
in the Briord factory. There,
he revisited his Élysée seats to
create the models "
Pumpkin
" and
"
Élysée
", as well as designing the
Anda
(2008) chair, reinterpreting
his unforgettable
Mushroom
model of 1959. Gone in 2009,
Pierre Paulin
has since officially
become a monument in the
history of decorative arts. In 2016,
a retrospective honored him at
the Center Pompidou. In the art
market, his creations are alive and
kicking. Ligne Roset edited and
re-edited some of them, with the
complicity of the Paulin family,
including the
TV
chair and the
famous
Daybed
of 1953, or the
Curule
chair in beech or solid
walnut, created in the 1980s, which
reveals the designer's love for the
tradition of cabinet-making. The
Pompidous had commissioned
him to embody their motto:
"Change in continuity.
”
His
historical work at the Élysée
represents the happy marriage of
the French decorative tradition
with aesthetic and industrial
innovation. Ligne Roset, now the
only large-scale manufacturer
of furniture in France, carries his
torch.