Do we really need a new chair? A new lamp? You’d expect a designer to say, “Why, of course! And let me draw you one!” Not so with 5.5 Designers, a collective design group of five graduates from the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art in Paris. What’s their answer? “Of course not! Give us what’s broke; we’ll fix it.”

Since 2003, they have been causing a stir in the landscape of consumer products. Vincent Baranger, Jean-Sébastien Blanc, Anthony Lebossé, David Lebreton, and Claire Renard scour our alleys and yard sales in order to return their found objects as unusual diversions from their original use.

Read the rest of this entry »

Even if you’ve never read Proust, you know that sensations can bring back memories reaching as far back as your childhood. So it’s important that any impression you leave be as unique as you are, lest you be associated to the wrong memory. That’s exactly what Fabrice Penot and Edouard Roschi had in mind when they launched Le Labo in early 2006.

With its bar counter, vintage leather sofas, and percolator and Serge Gainsbourg in the background, Le Labo feels like a trendy neighbourhood café, not a place of scientific experimentation. But on a cozy spot on Elizabeth Street in New York City, you will find the boutique-cum-lab where you can create, with the help of a specialist, your made-to-measure scent.

Read the rest of this entry »

It is no secret that Saint Germain des Prés in Paris is the home of some of France’s most revered artists and literati. It’s also no secret that it is one of the most luxurious and elitist neighbourhoods in the city, with designer boutiques, expensive restaurants, and legendary café after legendary café. But these days, you might also stumble upon an upside-down vintage Citroën in front of the Louis Vuitton store, a ten meter schoolgirl across the street from the Deux Magots, Sartre and de Beauvoir’s haunt, and in Place Furstenberg, one of Paris’s most photographed squares, an ethereal fantasy family lounging in the lawn.

Read the rest of this entry »