CRISTALLERIE SAINT-LOUIS

Hello, my little cats! 

I'm back today to tell you about a lovely project we completed a few weeks ago. Cristallerie Saint-Louis asked us to imagine the windows on rue Royale. So, for the sake of general knowledge, let me tell you a little about Cristallerie Saint-Louis... A long, long, long time ago, in the 16th century, a glassworks was established in Münzthal, a locality in Lorraine. A Because of the 30-thirty-year war, which was wreaking havoc in the surrounding area, it was the beginning of chaos, the glassworks were dormant, a kind of technical unemployment of the time. Then, on February 17, 1767 (I didn't do it on purpose), King Louis XV authorized the resumption of the glassworks' activities. As the king is great, this workshop had the good fortune to bear the title of Verrerie Royale (Royal Glassworks). Bolstered by their title, they innovated, and a few years later succeeded in perfecting crystal, since until then England had held the monopoly on the recipe. The director of Saint-Louis bought other glassworks in Belgium, and in the 19th century decided to become the Compagnie des Cristalleries de Saint-Louis. The glassworks is still in business today, perpetuating its incredible expertise, and the icing on the cake is that 25 years ago it was bought by a certain luxury house called Hermès.

Well, that's it for the cultural part, but it was important for you to know a bit of history for what follows... The project began in December, when I met the Saint-Louis team. I must confess that when I first entered the store, I was afraid to move for fear of breaking something. And that was the heart of the brief... The teams "launched" ideas, the window had to be playful, people had to have fun with the crystal, not be afraid to touch it. It had to be quirky and fresh, and the sacrosanct crystal had to be de-dramatized... Okay, I wasn't even breathing at that stage of the meeting. 

After a few discussions with their teams, there was something else to consider: the calendar and the wedding list period... Ah, the wedding! So, as we were in the middle of a big paper cake phase, we decided to come up with some "pièces montées", made up of several layers of paper cakes with crystal glasses in between, an idea that was literally keeping me awake at night.

For the realization, we had to consider a major constraint: the weight of the crystal! So we made wooden frames, which were then covered with paper and decorations. Sleep again. But we were lucky enough to have a jigsaw for Christmas. Chance has a way of doing things... So, between two jigsaw breaks, we cut the paper decorations until we lost our minds... 24 tubes of scotch tape glue and 12 reams of Clairefontaine paper later, we did it!

The initial inspiration was the beginning of the year, the wedding list period, a polar spirit that didn't evoke Christmas, and then I'd loved the work of Lorenzo Papace for his clip Ödland.... We also wanted to add an airy touch, to make people want to touch the crystal, to go against its legendary fragility with an unlikely installation... So on a freezing Thursday morning in January, Charlotte and I got up at the crack of dawn and went to set up the windows... We assisted and helped with the dismantling and assembling of the crystal chandeliers - needless to say, we were in a state of apnoea. Once we'd unpacked our cakes, it was time to get to work on our set pieces! 

Today, after many hours of work, we're proud to show you the result! I hope you like it, and you can come and see it for yourself until the end of March at 13 rue Royale, 75008.

Thanks to Noémie for her time, to Antoine and Thomas, and of course to Jeanne, Charlotte and Anne! And our little 3D for the road!