If it wasn't already clear, the international design world officially has a new favorite neighborhood. Following the openings of showrooms the likes of Carl Hansen, Natuzzi, and Molteni & C in recent years, the NoMad area has a new name to add to its roster: Liaigre. Today, the Paris-based design house and furniture manufacturer will open the doors to its light-filled, two-story corner location on Madison Avenue and 29th Street, ahead of a grand opening this fall. The showroom is Liaigre's third in the U.S., joining locations on the Upper East Side and in the Miami Design District, and its landing here, specifically, is the result of a long and purposeful process. "When we opened the 61st Street store, I realized it was really a local destination," says Christophe Caillaud, president of Liaigre Holdings. "So I started to visit other locations a long time ago thinking one day we would open something more visible. We looked in SoHo, Meatpacking, Chelsea; then two years ago I started to see the evolution of the NoMad area, and when we finally found this space, we knew this was the one."
With its immensely tall ceilings, nearly as tall windows, and corner real estate, the space was indisputably a good snag. Stylistically, it is worlds away from the brand's 61st Street townhouse and all the tradition and history that goes along with that address. But there's a connecting thread between the uptown and downtown iterations, a distinctly French sensibility rendered in two different ways. Even the townhouse's signature spiral staircase makes an appearance on Madison Avenue, modernized into a sculptural form and painted in a plasterlike white, an equally chic but utterly fresh variation.
The showroom's design was overseen by Creative Director Frauke Meyer, who had been at Liaigre for 18 years before stepping into her current role following the departure of the company's namesake founder, Christian Liaigre, in 2016. It seems hardly a coincidence that the new showroom's design is the result of a creative eye that brings both a hold on the brand's history and a fresh eye.
The idea of presenting two different faces of Liaigre in one city is a smart move not just from a brand visibility standpoint, but also as a way to integrate Liaigre's furniture business and its interior design and architecture practice. "We are a furniture company, that's our starting point, but the creation goes through interior architecture practice," Caillaud explains. "So we are not only displaying furniture in our showroom, but it's something that is more global, more holistic." It's a concept Caillaud, a veteran of he fashion industry, often found lacking in that world. "Sometimes the architecture in fashion stores is something completely different than the brand," he muses. "I sometimes wonder where is the link between the box and whats inside the box."
With the two New York showrooms, Liaigre hopes to show the flexibility of its brand—all presented within the context of its history. When I ask about how the company's Parisian roots manifest differently abroad, Caillaud replies: "We are a French brand, but I would say, like Kennedy in Berlin, when we're in New York, we want to be a New Yorker. Maybe a New Yorker with a Parisian background." At the very least, he emphasizes, "We don't want to impose our identity."
Accordingly, the Madison Avenue space (like some of the other new, more conceptual showrooms nearby) rejects overly branded vignettes in favor of a sort of distillation of modern French style, open to interpretation from New Yorkers—as varied a demographic as that is.
"We want to work with how our customers are living in New York," Caillaud says. "There are different ways of living here. We are a French brand, a Parisian brand, but we also want to really fit our location. We don't have a concept. We want to adapt to our clients. At the end of the day, we're not doing a Liaigre project, we're doing a project for our customers. We want to combine our history with the way our customers are living."
On a practical level, that attitude translates into several useful resources for retail customers and—especially—designers, like themed walls displaying all dining chair styles and sconces or a custom cabinet to store swatches and samples.
"I think New York is a very demanding city, so our first task is to bring this service to the professional," Caillaud explains. "That's adaptability, tools. Right now we're developing much more made-to-measure systems to allow designers that additional service, to be able to adapt Liaigre to their own style and their needs for their clients."
That's not to say there won't be room for fun, though—the space's two, tall-ceilinged floors, graced with multiple seating arrangements and bathed in light, practically beg for a party, and Caillaud already has several ideas up his sleeve. Despite earlier remarks about the presentation at some fashion stores, the executive is a fan of certain brands he feel share Liaigre's values in the context of their own industry. "We will definitely have some events with fashion brands," he tells AD PRO. "We are very close with brands like Ferragamo, Frédéric Malle, Dries van Noten. I think it's interesting to try to find a creation that can make sense across brands in one direction. It's very convenient to have an event where people can walk around, sit, explore things." We'll await our invitation.
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