Bal Harbour

C O U R T E S Y O F S T É P H A N E R U C H AU D A N D C H LO E L E R E S T E architect Aline Asmar d'Amman and Coco Chanel had lived during the same era, they would surely have been the best of friends. The Lebanese- born, Paris-based architect and founder of Culture in Architecture designed le Petit Salon at Le19M, a building by architect Rudy Ricciotti at the edge of Aubervilliers in Paris, which houses some 700 artisans responsible for the savoir-faire for which the House of Chanel is so esteemed. Pleaters, embroiderers, beaders, feather appliers, fabric flower makers—these are the people responsible for every detail on a Chanel creation. The fashion house began buying these specialty workshops, called Métiers d'art, in 1984, but they were scattered around the city. This building centralizes them under one roof, something especially convenient for the cross-pollination that goes into Chanel's annual Métiers d'art collection, which is intended to showcase the talents and details of these ateliers. (It should be noted that not all the Métiers d'art in the building work exclusively for Chanel, but are also engaged by other couture houses.) If For d'Amman, the commission for le Petit Salon, which is intended for private functions, was a dream come true. On a recent day, d'Amman was wearing a vintage black-sequined Karl Lagerfeld jacket for our Zoom interview. It glistened and flashed as she gesticulated, leaned forward into her computer, or pivoted on her chair to reference a book on the jam-packed bookshelves behind her. "I love to quote Coco Chanel," d'Amman says of the legendary couturier of casual chic, who died in 1971 at the age of 87. "She paved the way for women, living her life as she solely intended, daring, free, and ahead of her time, mastering her destiny and her business. I just came across this the other day: 'People have always wanted to put me in cages: cages with cushions stuffed with promises, gilded cages, cages that I've touched looking away from. I never wanted any other than the one I would build myself.' " In a sense, le Petit Salon at Le19M is a cage of which Chanel would have approved. It is inspired by the exquisite craftsmanship that transpires under its roof every day in hundreds of ways, but it is solely the vision of one woman who, like Coco Chanel herself, is flawlessly refined and self-possessed. Le Petit Salon is decorated with d'Amman's own furniture designs, as well as with unique elements that refer to the various maisons housed in the building. For example, pleats are everywhere—in a Soleil d'or light fixture, in the sculptural form of a bespoke desk, in wall panels—all of them tributes to the Lognon workshop at Maison Lemarié, one of the ateliers in the building. Lognon itself was founded in 1853 by Émilie Lognon, who used her irons to curl fabric. Today, Ateliers Lognon employs cardboard molds to create pleats according to the same methods established at the workshop by Gérard Lognon, the founder's great-grandson, in 1945. Yet to achieve the folded metal pleating of the Dark Ribbons desk, which is meant to recall a bow tie, d'Amman commissioned the famed 130-year-old French metal smithery Atelier François Pouenat. Similarly, the resin plaster screens that envelop the desk could not be fully executed by the Lognon artisans, so d'Amman enlisted the help of Atelier Del Boca, which has specialized since the 1920s in plaster work, "The intersection of the worlds of fashion and decoration is palpable and induces a desire for creative exploration that broadens horizons." — A LINE ASM A R D'A MM A N The designer at work with one of her collaborators. OPPOSITE PAGE Le Mobile des Metiers by d'Amman is a collaboration with famed metalsmith Francois Pouenat and displays the various couture capabilities now housed under one roof at architect Rudy Ruccioti's building, Le19M in Paris. BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M

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