Three Layer Cake

Hervé Matejewski:  Reinterpreting the past

It’s a grey overcast afternoon as I walk briskly toward the workshop of Hervé Matejewski on rue Bisson in the Belleville neighborhood of Paris.  Hervé’s workshop, which hand produces all of the work of the mat&jewski label, is situated on the third floor of a seven-story commercial building with a print shop on the ground floor.  He greets me at the door to the workshop and invites me in to a windowed workspace to talk.  At the door to the workspace, the lady of the shop greets me.  Scarabé Chinois is Hervé’s cat, a very friendly, outspoken grey and white cat which checks on us often to make sure things are going smoothly. 

I was mesmerized by Hervé’s feather pendant lamps (at right) at Maison&Objet and in his workshop, and the smile he had for everyone who stopped to see his work.  In his workshop, the smile is the same and the lamps are hanging just waiting to be touched.  The handling of the feather, le maniement de la plume, is a dying art.  He notices my awe and explains a little about the origin of the feathers (the far east), the sterilization and dying process, and the considerable difficulties many of his clients have importing his creations because of strict controls over animal products.  “I don’t have a problem myself importing any more, but it is really a nightmare for clients.  If a client misplaces even one piece of the documentation, the entire shipment has to be burned.  It’s quite risky and requires so much more attention than the other products.”  In this workspace fitted with ceiling high wood shelving and four long tables at one end, there are prototypes, bags of feathers, shades, sequins, fabric, lace, shelves piled with boxes of materials.  It seems more like a haute-couture costume shop than an interior accessories shop.  Three collaborators, one of whom is a plumassier from La Maison Février, now  SPPN (Société Parisienne des Parures et Nouveautés ) one of France’s few remaining feather arts schools, are working away on an order, and I get a glimpse of the very meticulous work that goes into perfectly gluing the hundreds of feathers on each lamp shade to form what has become mat&jewski’s second signature creation.  His first signature creation, and his favorite, is the aluminum Totem lamp.  In fact, the best clue that it is an interior accessories shop is the heavy machinery in the next room where there are aluminum tubes, saws and a drill.  This is where Hervé personally bores the holes in all of the Totems—each one is different.

Hervé became a designer full time six years ago.  His decision to do so was grounded in his desire to enjoy every aspect of his life.  He began his career as a chef, working in some of Paris’ finest restaurants.  Although he liked very much being a chef, after five years of living out of synch with his friends’ lives, working nights and peak holiday season, and therefore unable to balance his personal life with his professional, he went to work in advertising sales for France Telecom.  That put his schedule in line with his friends, but did not bring him the satisfaction he desired from his work.  “One day, I asked myself where I thought I could go in that profession.  I looked around me and saw my supervisor and I realized that that was as far as I could realistically expect to go, and I thought that it wasn’t where I wanted to be.”  Hervé wanted to cultivate his creative interests and see if that might not give him the balance he was looking for.  He applied for the corporate development program which encourages its employees to take a year off to pursue formation in an unrelated field.  Because there was no course of study in interior design, a long-standing passion, he chose to study industrial design.  The first materials he learned to work with were aluminum and wood.  Six months into his studies, in 1998, he sold his first lamp.  His designs met such interest and success that he never went back to France Telecom.  He had found his balance and was determined to make it work.  (Totem, pictured left)

 
mat&jewski debuted at the 1999 Fall edition of Maison&Objet with its lamps.  Today the company remains small, but has increased its offerings from lamps to other accessories, like pillows using hand-painted fabrics, lace and embroidery and lamps with interesting shaped shades printed with digital images.  His creations are feminine, unique, and often offer anachronistic modifications on classic themes, like the fluorescent-accented (hand painted) toile featured in the March issue of Elle Decoration (France).  In keeping with Rococo-themes, mat&jewski has also recently introduced a new collection of Limoges plates, decorated with the erotic images of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a Rococo era French painter (one image from the six-piece set, pictured here).  Hervé has given this line the fictitious name ‘Porcelain de Belleville’.  They have already been snapped up by a specialty boutique in New York.  In Paris, his creations are carried in several large retailers like Le Bon Marche, +Bo, le BHV, Siltec, and abroad at Harrod's in London, Kiki de Montparnasse in New York , and Visionnaire in Milan.  His primary markets are in fact outside of France, including Japan.  Hervé thinks it’s a price issue.  In his opinion, the French people are still not comfortable spending significant amounts of money on lighting.  Instead, he said, his creations go where people see them, fall in love, and just have to have them.  That’s not to say that he isn’t well-regarded in France.  He is.  (Just the other day the Press Office of one well-respected French designer who headlined at January 2006 Maison-Objet mentioned that they have their eye on him as one to watch, “His work is really unique, we know it well, and we really like him a lot.  He’s one of the hottest designers in Paris.”)

 
Hervé would like very much to produce furniture but, as is the case with many small designers, lacks the production capacity.  Therefore, he has begun working on design partnerships with larger firms, like Sheer and Maître en Scène  to produce a range of products that would apply his designs to their technical expertise, making the best of both worlds.  “I don’t have the capacity to do that, but these companies are specialized and very good at what they do.  Sometimes all they need is a designer to make their designs work.  I think designing for companies in this way would be a good way to expand the products I can offer,” he said.

 
The conversation can’t help but turn to food, given Hervé’s background and the Three Layer Cake themes.  Talking about food, he smiles even more than he has during the entire interview, especially when he talks about the traditional Polish pastries, similar to doughnuts covered in granulated sugar that his grandmother used to make (he’s second generation French, his grandparents came to France after the second world war).  I ask him to tell me which restaurants are the best and I ask advice on where to go for seafood.  He throws his head back in savory recollection as he tells of his preferred dining experience at Alain Ducasse’s restaurant, Hôtel Plaza-Athénée , where his friend, Denis Courtiade, is the maître d’hôtel.  “Thanks to my friend, whenever I go, we’re treated as VIPs.  It’s really an unreal experience.  The food is perfect, the atmosphere is amazing…”  Hervé says smiling.  But alack and alas, I don’t have a Hôtel Plaza-Athénée budget, so I settle for Hervé’s other suggestions, which are nonetheless fantastic—reservations required (See next page.)

mat&jewski design philosophy: What you want each person who sees/purchases one of your creations to know about you, the story they will tell to their friends who admire the object? I hope they make history with them, I hope they think they’re fun!

Which of your accomplishments to date has been your favorite? I love all the projects I’ve done, but probably most of all the cow tent, because it's so fun to go camping and people can't see the tent, they think it's just a cow (at right).

How do you work through your ideas from beginning to end? Does it start with a sketch? A model or photograph? It can be a material, something which speaks to me and communicates something special.

Any designers or mentors or friends/family who have shaped your ideas? My grandmother for the velours de gène and some of the photo lamps (lampshades). My sisters for the toile de jouy painted in fluorescent colors (pictured above).

What are you working on now? What would you like to work on? What’s next? I’m working with the Comedie Française on a set of plates of Cyrano de Bergerac and a bag in toile de jouy for Molière. In the future, I’d like to work with people like Hilton McConnico. I like fun people.  

What dessert best describes your design style?  How has it changed over the past five years?  What would you like it to be in five years? Baba au rhum.  Round, generous and makes your head turn (with the alcohol!).  I hope my style has changed in a good way and I hope in 5 years it will be different (better) with different propositions, like from interior designers, shops, and more... 

The first thing you notice in a restaurant?  The space (place for people) and the style of the decoration (ambiance) and the light. 

Eating what food brings back the best memories?  Dishes that my grandmother made for me or dishes I ate while traveling.

The last piece of art you fell in love with?  A painting in Copenhagen at the Carlsberg Museum, the name is "la baleine".  And some galleries in a Danish museum— the parts with African art.  I love them.

If money were no object, you’d buy what for your home? A professional kitchen and a super bathroom inside my bedroom. 

Company/place/institution you’d love to leave your mark on. In some museum like the Toile De Jouy Museum in Jouy-en-Josas.  They took some of our hand-decorated fluorescent pieces for their permanent collections.  I don’t want this for my own benefit but for people who like to discover different ideas and objects.

Place you go for design inspiration?  In the street and from some materials and sometimes in my head.

Magazine you can’t live without.  Newspaper 

Celebrity you’re inexplicably intrigued by.  Hervé Matejewski (laughter)

You're most proud of your collection of...  Toy robots

You can never have too many...  I really love shoes!

Hervé's Parisian Restaurant Recommendations

Fish
Le Boissonerie
69, Rue de Seine
Paris 75006
Tel: +33 1 43 54 34 69

 
Midory (Japanese restaurant/Sushi)
49, rue de l'Arbre Sec
Paris 75001
Tel: +33 1 42 97 47 30

 
Alain Ducasse au Hôtel Plaza-Athénée
25, Avenue Montaigne
Paris 75008
Tel: +33 1 53 67 65 00