DESIGN FOR LIVING: Add Alexis Mabille to the ranks of fashion designers turned curators.
Christie’s has tapped the French couturier to select items for a private sale celebrating the taste of the greatest fashion designers. “A Salon by Alexis Mabille” will be on view at the auction house’s Paris headquarters through Nov. 19, free and open to all.
It comes on the heels of Christie’s sale of works by sculptor François-Xavier Lalanne in New York City, which followed an exhibition curated by Simon Porte Jacquemus.
Mabille — who has a thriving sideline as an interior designer via his design agency Beau Bow — selected objects that bring to mind the sales of the estates of great fashion figures such as Gabrielle Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent and Hubert de Givenchy.
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The aim is to show how historic pieces can live in a modern interior, Mabille told WWD. “The idea is to bring a fresh pair of eyes to this type of sale by drawing in the type of person who might buy a Pop Art painting and showing them how they might mix it with a Louis XV mirror or antiques,” he said.
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In rooms with flamboyant pink or purple walls, he juxtaposed items including a Coromandel lacquer screen like those owned by Chanel, or a Diego Giacometti table and a set of 18th-century chairs that might have appealed to de Givenchy. They sit alongside pieces from his own line of collectible designs.
“For me, it was important to have a clash of generations in there,” said Mabille, who is putting the finishing touches to his own apartment in Paris.
“There are some things I would be thrilled to have for myself,” he noted, singling out a set of 12 busts of Roman emperors, dating from the 19th century; a Georges Jacob table; the Giacometti pieces, and a 9-foot-tall rococo-style mirror.
Adding extra resonance to the project, the Christie’s building on Avenue Matignon used to be the home of the Callot Soeurs couture house.
The auction house has been stepping up its collaborations with designers from all disciplines. In 2022, Giambattista Valli created an original set design for the first Parisian edition of the “Thinking Italian” auction, while interior designer Vincent Darré was artistic director of its Luxury Week.
It’s part of a global trend merging fashion and art, with designers including Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner and Rejina Pyo turning their hand to curating.