The DNA of Maison Pierre Frey

10, Sep 2021 | DNA

Présentation

Founded in 1935, Pierre Frey creates and produces fabrics by taking inspiration from classical and contemporary art or from faraway ethnic groups, always interpreting it in a very French style. The collection of 7,000 references gathers Pierre Frey’s creations with those of four other prestigious brands of the Maison, Braquenié, Fadini Borghi, Boussac and Le Manach.

Although Pierre Frey is historically a fabric and furnishings company, its modernity has led it to also distinguish itself in interior decoration and furniture, since the end of 2017, with the takeover of one of the first French seat and furniture manufacturers, and all its know-how.

Pierre Frey is finally a heritage, a remarkable collection of archives of more than 20,000 documents from the 16th century to the present day, available to customers and museums worldwide.

Heir to a know-how that it claims and member of the Colbert Committee, La Maison Pierre Frey is not less inventive and deeply eclectic. Because to create is to dare,” as Patrick Frey, the group’s president and artistic director, likes to say, “no matter what the source, as long as the essential is respected: the trace of extreme refinement.

Art and Know-How

The DNA of the House is turned towards art, craftsmanship and the valorization of the trades of gestures. Creation is indeed the key word of the House. Patrick Frey and his sons have always had a link with Art: educated in the culture of painting, architecture and music, they are also great travelers, curious and immersed in the cultures of the world.

Moreover, by taking over a French manufacturing workshop dating back to 1928, Pierre Frey wants to preserve a precious know-how. From the site management to the designers, seat carpenters, seamstresses and upholsterers, it recruits journeymen or graduates of major art and design schools specialized in craftsmanship.

It is this shared artistic sensibility, the conviction that creation feeds creation and all this preserved know-how that allows the House to enrich itself also through collaborations with artists from different universes (like the one with Ken Fulk, which is described below).

A few words on some of our new collections, demonstrating the importance of art within the House, as well as its eclecticism:

COLLABORATION WITH KEN FULK

Ken Fulk is an American decorator with a singular universe that is very famous in his country. Very close to La Maison Pierre Frey, he has developed a collection of fabrics, wallpapers and carpets with the publisher’s design studio in the form of a dreamlike pastiche. The collections play on the mix of eras and cultures with motifs celebrating neo-classical or brutalist architecture, gardens and landscapes, dog portraits and references to illusionist works or surrealist parties.

DRAW ME A WALL

Patrick Frey wanted to let children, young and old, imagine the decor of their dreams when he created the “Draw me a wall” competition in the spring of 2020, which was open to all children of Pierre Frey customers and employees. The contest gave birth to a collection of fabrics and wallpapers, 10% of the profits of which are donated to the Fondation de France in order to reduce school drop-out rates , for a period of five years.

LES DESSINS 5

For several years now, “Les Dessins” wallpaper collections have brought together the favorites of Pierre Frey’s design studio, the common thread of these collections being the eclecticism of the motifs, without prejudice to style or period. The specificity of the “Les Dessins” collections – including the new “Les Dessins 5” – is that they are only composed of artists’ works which are then reinterpreted by the design studio in order to adapt them to the specific constraints linked to the creation of a wallpaper. This year, a desire for new horizons and optimism guided the creative team to imagine this figurative collection.

FURNITURE SEPTEMBER 2021 : COLLABORATIONS

Pierre Frey continues to passionately develop its business as a furniture publisher under the artistic direction of Sam Baron and unveils three new collaborations with renowned designers: with Zanellato and Bortotto, with Constance Guisset (the DOLMEN collection), and with Gonçalo Campos. Handcrafted in the workshops of La Maison Pierre Frey in Villers-Cotterêts, in the Hauts-de-France region, each piece is the object of careful attention, the result of several hours of passionate work and the meeting of several trades.