©Louis Vuitton Malletier - Cyrille George Jerusalmi
Q&A
What inspired your Objets?
To me, Louis Vuitton is more than a brand, it’s a House dedicated to the art of living and travel, and devoted to luxury. While today we have a tendency to travel lighter than ever, who can forget the legendary made-to-measure trunks that opened up to reveal their ingenuity and, with extreme elegance, of fered a whole range of different, sophisticated uses? I thought of the valet as a continuation of this idea. I imagined it being taken out of one of those treasure trunks, an object dedicated to its owner, standing slightly to one side, discreet, of fering its services regardless of time or fashion, devoted to a single purpose: the art of living.
While designing the Objets, did you think first about form or function?
Harmony between function and form has to be arrived at naturally – that’s the designer’s job. It’s a perfect balance, which is the result of a back-and-forth between the two, and which guarantees an object its coherence and delicacy.
How did you use the savoir-faire of Louis Vuitton’s ateliers?
For a designer, roaming around Louis Vuitton’s ateliers is an absolutely magical moment. After all, a designer is nothing without the savoir-faire of the artisans who bring the ideas and sketches to life. It is always stimulating to meet these men and women who use their hands to transform things and make them sublime.
“A designer is nothing without the savoir-faire of the artisans who bring his ideas and sketches to life.”
Damien Langlois-Meurinne
Biography
A “designer of high-end furniture and spaces”, Damien Langlois-Meurinne began his career with Christian Liaigre before founding his own agency, DL-M, in 2003. Since then he has worked on a wide variety of interior-design projects that have brought together French elegance and a certain sense of timelessness. His design philosophy is less about imposing a style on a space and more about channelling serenity into it, while respecting the personality of each client. As well as his interior design work, Langlois-Meurinne creates bespoke furniture collections that mix sophistication and simplicity. Conscious of the importance of the spaces and objects that surround us, he uses only natural materials such as bronze and precious woods.
