THE NEW CONCEPT STORES – OBJECT GALLERIES: THE AGE OF RETAIL CURATORS
Sunday 27 March —
14:00
- 14:45
The Talks — Hall 7
Description
After the boom years for concept stores that banked on eclecticism, surprise and a diverse product offer, a new generation of shops have decided to concentrate and deepen their more limited stylistic stances, like a gallery owner who defends and develops a group of artists that share a similar approach.
Participants
Julien Catala & Georgina HarrisFounders - Amour Fou
Pauline VincentFounder - La Romaine Editions
Cécile BlancDirector - La Maison de Commerce
Jean-Luc Colonna d'IstriaConsultant
Julien Catala & Georgina Harris
Founders - Amour Fou
L’AMOUR FOU is a Modern Hardware Store for Everyday Marvels. This is a Parisian boutique in the Bastille neighborhood that is reinventing the rules of the bazaars and drugstores of yesteryear by adding a modern spirit that is POP-inspired, GREEN and ECO-FRIENDLY, founded in 2020 by Georgie Harris, a milliner for major fashion houses, and Julien Catala, a creative director in the music world. L’AMOUR FOU also offers a range of everyday objects designed in collaboration with artists and illustrators: Agathe Sorlet, Samuel Eckert, Piment Martin, and more. A Romantic Hardware Store x A Rebel Drugstore x A Pop Bazaar All You Need is L’AMOUR FOU!
Pauline Vincent
Founder - La Romaine Editions
Pauline Vincent has always been surrounded by objects and loves remembering decorative settings from her childhood, the artists’ workshops that her aunt and grandmother visited for their decor shop, and museums where she followed around her mother, a curator, absorbed by the colors and soothed by the shapes. For a long time, she observed it all, developing her taste for the talents and craftsmanship of others. After managing the A Rebours boutique, where she sharpened her eye for contemporary design, she is now launching La Romaine Editions to continue her search for simple, spontaneous beauty.
Cécile Blanc
Director - La Maison de Commerce
After more than a dozen years at Cartier, Cécile Blanc spent time at the Hôtel Lutetia as Marketing and Communications Director, before joining La Maison de Commerce in 2021.
Jean-Luc Colonna d'Istria
Consultant
Since 1990, In France or in Japan, acting as a home buyer or a retail entrepreneur, Jean Luc Colonna d’Istria has the passion and the patience for searching and revealing, brands, makers or designers who bring a real change, a retail or a product innovation to the lifestyle, design or products scene. The retail concepts he founded have been the educational toy catalog Bien Joué, the chic hardware retail chain Resonances and more recently, until 2015, the Parisian fashion and design concept store Merci in le Marais. Today, he is bringing his long experience to the new generation of entrepreneurs or retailers, as an independent board member or as a consultant. The new challenge is to imagine new physical or digital or retail formats to make available to a larger audience the fantastic vitality of new design brands.