Contract Textile International

Paris Design Week, A First in Paris

Paris’s vitality, the quality of its professional network, its design education, and its sparkling creativity and cultural environment make it a one-of-a-kind international focal point for attracting global talents in search of development and innovation opportunities in the design and lifestyle sectors. With the goal of bringing together and federating those talents with a major annual event in the same spirit as the MAISON&OBJET trade show, SAFI is launching PARIS DESIGN WEEK, from Monday September 12 to Sunday September 18, 2011. Inspired by events held in London, Milan, Tokyo and Moscow, Paris is preparing to experience an international-scale event with an assertive identity, which includes trade events and ones geared for the general public.

Paris Design Week is an event awaited by all and aimed at everyone who is passionate about design, be they amateurs or professionals.

It is an expression of the art of living from a design and innovation angle to discover all the new releases about furniture, objects, architecture, decorative arts, industry and technology, fashion, gastronomy, and arts and culture.

Under the banner of Paris Capitale de la Création, the week starts by emulating the September home and fashion trade shows, during the last days of MAISON&OBJET and closes with the Heritage Days.

A hundred consumer and trade events

PARIS DESIGN WEEK is both cultural and commercial, professional and consumer-oriented. It will bring together a hundred events, including the MAISON&OBJET international trade show, top-ranking design exhibits, new collection launches, round tables and debates, installations, studio visits, exceptional places and celebrations. These events will give the general public the opportunity to freely discover the facets of design where it resides: editors, designers, galleries, institutions, hotels, restaurants, etc. Whether you’re looking to learn, work or make work for others, PARIS DESIGN WEEK aims to satisfy everyone’s expectations.

An international platform for cultural and expertise exchange

In synergy with MAISON&OBJET, the first PARIS DESIGN WEEK aims to support the international standing of design in Paris. The birthplace of Haute Couture, but also of fine craftsmanship and design, from Charlotte Perriand to Jean-Michel Frank, Philippe Starck to Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, the top-ranking venue for the international organization of exhibitions and a major tourist destination, Paris is a laboratory of ideas and an essential hot-house for talents, attracting 8,000 international designers and creative businesses. PARIS DESIGN WEEK is designed to put them in the spotlight and help them exchange new ideas, develop their contacts and business, take advantage of the creative environment and celebrate design.

At the height of the fall season

PARIS DESIGN WEEK is ideally scheduled on the calendar. Under the banner of Paris Capitale de la Création, the week starts as an echo to the September home and fashion shows during the last days of MAISON&OBJET show and is capped off by the Heritage Days. It is an ideal time to unveil to the many French and international professionals present in Paris innovations that will make their mark on the year. During this period, some 100,000 visitors are present in Paris, including some 3,500 journalists from all over the world.

5 questions for Etienne Cochet, Managing Director of SAFI

What characterizes PARIS DESIGN WEEK?

It is a week celebrating design through a popular event for both the general public and professionals. It will have a strong multidisciplinary effect, bringing together major design players in the broad sense of the term, from furniture to graphic design, by way of interior architecture, the decorative arts and even gastronomy. It will provide an opportunity to discover new products made by Italian editors present in Milan and launched in September, as well as launches of new original collections. Emblematic places such as Lieu du Design will be involved in the event, as well as galleries and even Colette! It will feature the work of design schools, offer visits to designers' studios, an interior design show at Artcurial etc.

Why was SAFI the originator of PARIS DESIGN WEEK?

Aside from MAISON&OBJET, there were no major international designer events in September, and we could legitimately invent one with a quality-driven, open-minded spirit that reflected the positive and vigorous image of our show. We already organize press conferences every year all over the world to talk about Paris’s strong points. So it was a logical development.

Why did you wait to create a Design Week?

First, we had to establish genuine legitimacy. We created now! design à vivre ten years ago and it took time to integrate the distribution sector and develop interest in design, via upscale editors and companies like Ikea that injected some reality into French design. After ten years of professional work, a "general public" link in the design chain was still missing, so we decided to produce it with PARIS DESIGN WEEK.

How does PARIS DESIGN WEEK fit into the international calendar?

It was essential not to be self-focused but create a new, concertedly internationally driven event. The dates we chose reflect that. Early September brings an upscale international customer base to Paris, as well as buyers and journalists here for the major exhibitions. It is an extremely busy time in Paris. Design has become a strong sign of a country’s high level of culture and the quality of its industry, on a global scale. The French have a genuine asset in this field which will be promoted at this time of the year, going forward.

How many visitors do you expect?

We are expecting 100,000 people for this first edition. The dates and the rich content of the program will really work.