Dizzying Design

Andrée Putman, the doyenne of French design, is renowned for having several projects going at once, but she appears to have surpassed even herself in recent months, collaborating on all fronts high and low. Visitors to Andrée Putman-Beyond Style, a retrospective at the French Embassy in New York, got to marvel at the grand piano Putman recently decorated for Pleyel, with its constellation-starred lid and black-and-white-checked music stand. The limited-edition version of the Voie Lactée (Milky Way) baby grand retails at €200,000. Putman fans on a smaller budget may prefer to invest in Vertigo, the elegant line of cutlery she designed for luxury French silversmith Christofle (9 rue Royale, 8th) or the chic gray shopping trolley done for Périgot (16 blvd des Capucines, 9th).

Originally published in the November 2008 issue of France Today.