Paulin, Paulin, Paulin's Furniture Dreams, Dreams, Dreams (EXCLUSIVE)
Designer Pierre Paulin dreamed up some of the 20th century's most brilliant furniture, long before anyone else had ever conceived of super-soft couches or sprawling beds of cushions. Back then, Paulin's innovations were considered far too radical to ever be mass-produced.
As his son Benjamin Paulin describes them, these designs were "industrial utopias" deemed too costly, too complex, or too experimental for production. The wavy Dune sofa and snaking low-hung Déclive recliner remained mere ideas until Paulin, Paulin, Paulin was born.
Formed in 2008, a year prior to Pierre Paulin’s passing, Paulin, Paulin, Paulin run by the late designer's family and still follows Paulin’s original plans to the letter, creating limited-edition runs of his genius furniture that had previously never seen the light of day.
The company calls these "late first editions" and they will never be mass-produced. They may, however, be made more available.
Almost two decades after the company was born, with Paulin’s ingenuity adopted en masse by celebrities and retrospective exhibitions held with increasing regularity, Paulin, Paulin, Paulin is turning a page.
To kick off this new chapter, Paulin, Paulin, Paulin is releasing several re-editions born of designs that originally made it to production.
"We now feel confident enough to release this collection, which can be sold directly on our website and through selected retailers unlike the industrial utopias, which are only sold directly by us,” Benjamin Paulin tells Highsnobiety. Benjamin founded Paulin, Paulin, Paulin alongside wife Alice Lemoine and Pierre Paulin’s wife and business partner, Maïa Wodzislawska-Paulin. “For us, it’s about opening the doors a little further and meeting people where they are,” he adds.
A trio of cutely named Pierre Paulin furnishings will launch as part of this initial release, including the Tongue Chair (1967), a floor-level wave-shaped seat that’s in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. “It’s one of my father’s most important works, the culmination of his research into tubular structures, molded foam, and stretch fabrics,” says Benjamin.
The Tongue Chair is accompanied by the rotund Blub Blub Sofa (1972) and squat Groovy Armchair (1973), all available on Paulin, Paulin, Paulin’s website.
Unlike the rest of Paulin, Paulin, Paulin’s items, this trio of re-editions won’t arrive in quite-so limited quantities. They were originally designed to be widely distributed, and so they shall be, to some extent.
“Even though they are still handcrafted and finished in our workshops, they can be produced in larger numbers than our late first editions,” says Benjamin. “They will never be ‘IKEA-priced’ but they can open the door for new collectors.”
Thus, Paulin, Paulin, Paulin aims to lure new collectors deeper into the wild world of Pierre Paulin.
This is an extension of the far-reaching appeal garnered by sleeper hits like the Dune Sofa, a modular seating system that forms bulging peaks where its pieces meet. This undulating sofa has gained newfound fame propelled by appearances in the homes of Justin Bieber, Frank Ocean, and Peggy Gou.
“In recent years, we’ve been fortunate to see his designs embraced by a younger generation, musicians, artists, and cultural figures who connect with his work,” says Benjamin. “I think there’s an eternal youthfulness in his way of thinking. The youth of today meets the youthful spirit in which these pieces were created.”
The brightly colored, organic shapes of Paulin's furniture do have an undeniably whimsical, youthful feel. But the deep-rooted practicality that runs throughout it all grounds Paulin's work in reality, a sober counterpoint to the designer's far-flung ingenuity.
“My father never liked to talk about ‘creation.’ He preferred the word 'discovery.' He didn’t see himself as a creator, but as a discoverer,” says Benjamin. “For him, design was about solving a problem, improving something that already existed by using new techniques.”
That problem-solving is epitomized by Paulin’s modular sofas and distinctly curvaceous chairs that were always ergonomic in form even when their shapes lean toward the alien. That's because even Paulin's most innovative furniture was already rooted in genuine quality.
Paulin often used tubular metal frames with molded foam and elasticated textiles to shape his furniture, for instance, ensuring that his works were both strong and remarkably lightweight.
“His vision of design was rooted in innovation and in a genuine desire to be of service, to make people’s lives better,” says Benjamin. “Aesthetics, in a way, were almost accidental, the natural outcome of finding the best solution to a functional problem. Of course, that 'accident' depends on the sensibility of the designer, and my father had a deeply artistic sensibility. That’s why his solutions were often infused with poetry.”
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