This is Peter Marino’s recently completed project for Chanel on Avenue Montaigne in Paris. The interior features Wendell Castle’s gilt-fibreglass Triad chairs (2006). The master prototype of this design was acquired by Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in 2008.
It’s aggressively voluptuous and exaggerated form seems to lurch through the space that is otherwise decorated with monochrome rectilinear patterns and fashion. Castle is known for his organic and even slightly surreal tendencies. This chair reflects the most feminine aspect of this interior and upstages the understated elegance of the clothes. Maybe that is why we found it pushed back into a corner when we recently visited the store.
Chanel and Wendell Castle … a good match?
