Pierre Frey's art of living

If the "art de vivre à la française" really existed, what would it be known for? The sophistication of its tastes, the inventiveness of its gastronomy, the architecture of its ancient buildings, the elegance of its silhouettes, the freedom of its mores, the eruptiveness of its people? Perhaps a little of all that. But beyond the somewhat overdone mythology of the French as cultured, refined bon vivants, the French art of living has a lot to do with a certain idea of decorative aesthetics: that of the French Maison, celebrated the world over for the beauty that illuminates the walls and floors of domestic spaces.

From wallpapers to wall coverings, rugs to upholstery fabrics, carpets to home furnishings..., Pierre Frey has been carrying this hexagonal promise of embellishing the things in life for decades. In continuity with its initial project, formalized in pre-war 1935, when Pierre Frey created his company and set up shop on rue des Petits Champs, near the Palais Royal. A royal house, dedicated to creating, editing and manufacturing fabrics, whose style and aesthetic codes draw on both the French imagination of the 18th century and the imagination of faraway lands.

In partnership with designer Jean Chataney, Pierre Frey established himself in the 1950s as one of France's leading names in upholstery fabrics. His fabrics were exported all over Europe and crossed the Atlantic; the United States perceived in his fabrics the French genius at work, which for centuries had been deploying the art of dressing homes as well as bodies. But it was in the early 1970s, when son Patrick joined the father's company, that the business really took off, with the expansion of the product range and the creation of a line of accessories coordinated with the Maison's fabrics. Patrick Frey's approach to expanding the brand and taking it in all the directions of a dream factory is in keeping with a family heritage that oscillates between fidelity to origins and product reinvention. The artistic director has signed numerous licenses with prestigious brands. These include furniture designers Grange, Delorme and Flipo, as well as France's oldest porcelain manufacturer and tableware specialist, Deshoulières.

Over the past thirty years, the Pierre Frey brand has established itself as a herald of the heritage of the French textile industry. In 1989, Pierre Frey acquired the Denimal weaving mill in northern France, renowned for its expertise in weaving wools and outdoor textiles. In 1991, it took over the famous cloth manufacturer Braquenié, which supplied Marie-Antoinette with Jouy fabrics and indiennes. In the 2000s, Braquenié went on to acquire powerful brands such as Fadini-Borghi, which has specialized in silk weaving since the 13th century in Italy; Boussac, an old French brand specializing in fabrics with dazzling geometric patterns; and Le Manach, a symbol of French style that draws its inspiration from Far Eastern silks and 18th-century printed cottons.

Each buyout has a single goal: to defend the know-how and ancestral practices of the French luxury goods industry, combined with values such as creativity, technical excellence and aesthetic quality. These are the values promoted by Pierre Frey's own Comité Colbert, which is responsible for promoting French luxury worldwide. Nourished by all these values and the desire to continue the tradition of savoir-faire, the Pierre Frey brand is the colorful face of French luxury. As he points out in a recent book, Pierre Frey. Tissus, papiers peintints, tapis et mobilier (Flammarion), its artistic director Patrick Frey knows how much he owes to his father, but also to his mother, who was a decorator, and who "taught him to see". To distinguish the structure of a Savoyard door from that of a Breton one, to grasp the subtlety of a detail on a fabric, to perceive the importance of nuances, colors and lines, to be constantly attentive to beauty, to everything that, in the apparent insignificance of forms, gives life a healthy glow. Like the recent "Rising Sun" collection, which revisits the fantastical bestiary of tigers and dragons in the Far East, in natural hues that evoke the spirit of Zen. A way, through fabric, of calming the spirits, of making one's way towards the pleasure of inhabiting a space.

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