Stéphane Parmentier began his career in fashion, working with the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, Hervé Léger and Lanvin before moving into interiors and furniture. He’s now working with Christofle as the silversmith’s creative director, completely revamping the brand’s image, redesigning its stores and revitalising its product range.

Stéphane on…

… modern design:
One day you fly first class, the next day you are on the metro. One day you cry, the next day you are happy. One day you are rich, the next day you are broke. It’s the same with a home… not everything in it is going to be high-end. You might have been to Thailand, so you have some pieces from there. The whole thing reflects your personality. To me, eclecticism is very modern, I like to play with things. It’s like fashion. You play with your dress – one day you wear it with a sweater, one day with heels. It always looks different because of your mood. I think this is the way to be modern; it’s about what you mix it with.

… Christofle’s newly revamped boutiques around the world:
One thing I really respect is the customer. Nowadays there are so many brands, and you get information all day long. It’s too much. When it comes to buying expensive things from brands like Christofle, you need to have a great experience. We started with New York two years ago, then we opened LA in October and now Hong Kong. The look is about reflection, masculinity and femininity. On the masculine side, there’s all the ebony and the linear elements; on the feminine, you have the bees, the hexagons, the beige. I love the communal table we’ve installed in each store, too. The table is a key element for Christofle: we decided we had to go back to showing how tableware looks on the table.

… Christofle’s new hexagonal motifs:
Christofle has about 12 hallmarks. Half of the hallmarks are hexagonal, and if you look inside them, you’ll almost always find bees. Because Mr Christofle liked bees very much; they produce graphic and beautiful things, and they work a lot. Bees are also the symbol of the emperor. So we came up with this idea of using more hexagons. It belongs to our story, it goes back to our roots.

… his role as creative director at Christofle:
I have to be very detailed. God is in the details, Mies van der Rohe said. Thinking about the brand as its creative director is all about the details… I have to start from the details to get to the big picture. I really enjoy this.  

… his favourite fashion designers:
Charles James
Nicolas Ghesquiere [note accent on second e]. He did an amazing job at Balenciaga
Martin Margiela. For me, what he did 25 years ago was a revolution
Rei Kawakubo from Comme des Garcons. What she does is completely new
The shoemaker Pierre Hardy

… on fashion in general:
I love fashion, I spend so much money on fashion. I recently purchased a new apartment in Paris, now I will have a bigger closet!

The post Interview: Stéphane Parmentier appeared first on Home Journal.