Alain Delon’s forgotten fling with furnishings

Because the world (above a sure age) mourned the dying of Alain Delon on the weekend, a small nook of the design trade lamented the lack of a real – if temporary – expertise, too. Delon was rightly extra celebrated for his cinematic ventures and insouciant allure, however a set he designed within the Nineteen Seventies for the rarefied French design home, Maison Jansen, exhibits a deft expertise for translating his aptitude into furnishings.

In Delon’s assortment, that can be purchased at present through 1stDibs, we discover all the perfect hallmarks of Seventies design which have re-emerged en vogue of late: smoked glass tables; brass deco-style bookcases; louche curves in every single place; over-upholstered lounge chairs and sofas, ripe for seduction. There’s even a white lacquered credenza and a mirrored console. No leopard print, although.

Maison Jansen can be sadly not with us. As soon as thought-about a pioneer for taking their designs past nationwide borders and into the world at giant, they went as far as to furnish rooms for the royal households of Belgium, Iran and Serbia, and fitted out the Crimson Room on the White Home underneath John F. Kennedy’s tenure as POTUS. Regardless of such giddy heights of decor standing, the esteemed maison closed its doorways for good in 1989

A deeper dig on Delon’s personal design credentials reveals he additionally attended Salone del Cell in 1975, with a spread designed this time for the Udine producer Vittorino Sabot. In keeping with a good attendee (reported many years later in 2015) Delon duly took his place on the corporate’s stand: “like every common small-medium entrepreneur”. Alas – the reviewers of the time had been much less form. Delon’s Sabot assortment was reviewed in La Stampa thus: “Silk and boar leather-based, black and white, polished brass, copper and metal on gentle briarwood. The impression is that of being within the incorrect place; as a substitute of a home, we’re on a transfer set, a make-believe luxurious and unscrupulous atmosphere.” It appears like heaven. RIP Monsieur Delon.