There is an art to being comfortable. Designer Jacques Grange pats the seat of the sofas and chairs he has designed and eases his tall, trim frame evenly into the curved back of one of the chairs in his line.
Grange, who has mastered the art of comfort, is very much at ease, very much at home. Even though the home is a temporary one in the John Widdicomb Co. showroom, where the Parisian designer showed his first furniture collection for the U.S. The collection, which will grow by a few more Salon pieces at this week’s fall International Home Furnishings Market, will be available in stores in the next few months.
Lori Stengren, a buyer at Richard Honquest says Grange’s designs have a “European flavor and eclecticism” that attracts people who aren’t afraid to mix different styles.
His loose, sophisticated style hints at his disdain for matching wallpaper with upholstery, upholstery with drapes, or drapes with carpeting.
“That is not me. It can be too much,” Grange frowns. “You see where people are trying to match the toilet paper with patterns in their bathroom towels, and you want to say, `Please, stop it.’
“Everything is not a perfect fit in one’s life, no?” Grange says in his French-accented English.
One reason Grange is so much at home in the Widdicomb showroom here is that much of his collection is based on designs in his Paris apartment, which once belonged to the writer Colette.
The only things missing are the walls of books Grange speaks so fondly of and the courtyard view of the Palais Royal Gardens, near The Louvre.
The 20-piece Grange collection includes a Russian chest in cherry and French walnut, inspired by the Louis XVI period; a round occasional table inspired by the French designer Andre Arbus in Italian olivewood and Indian rosewood; and the upholstered salon chair inspired by French designer Paul Iribe with tapered cherry legs a sweeping curve of cherry wood outlining the upholstered curved chair’s shape.
Prices in this collection are for the high-end shopper who is willing to spend $1,040 for an ottoman to $24,775 for a china cabinet.
What you get for that kind of money, however, is elegance and sophistication. Grange designs with a contemporary authority that freely mixes styles and periods.
Those who meet Grange are also touched by his free spirit. He wears his 52 years as comfortably as the tan-colored cashmere scarf draped around his neck. He takes long, quick steps, stands and walks tall in a manner that suggests confidence and satisfaction with where he is in life.
With his furniture’s U.S. debut, Grange is where he wants to be as a designer.
“He is considered France’s most important designer,” says Madeline Roth, who owns the fashionable antiques store Pariscope in St. Charles. She averages a visit to Paris almost every two months to shop for her furniture boutique. “He brings things from the past and they fit into your present.”
Grange grew up in a Parisian home that was decorated in 18th Century furnishings and later in 1930s designs. And he always has been passionate about design and art.
He had his first job as a designer when he was 21, working as a draftsman in a firm’s decorating department. He has designed homes for French actress Isabel Adjani and fashion designer Yves St. Laurent. And he received a Chevalier for Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture in France in 1986.
“I think what he is doing will catch on for those who are tired of the English look,” says Roth.
Grange joins Mario Buatta, the king of chintz, as one of Widdicomb’s principal designers.
“We’re really a tale of two cities,” says Stephen Noble, president of the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Widdicomb. “There is one who loves (Buatta) London and one who loves (Grange) Paris.”
For those in love with Paris, the look Grange is selling is one easily translated from a fashionable flat on the Left Bank to a Tudor-style home in Barrington or a bungalow in Chicago’s historic Beverly.
Noble describes Grange’s look as a harmonious mix of classical designs from the 18th to 20th Centuries.
Noble says Grange brings a freshness and an excitement to Widdicomb.
“You never know what he will come up with,” adds Lynda Gould, vice president and executive director of the American Hospital of Paris. The hospital sponsors the 1997 French Designer Showhouse showhouse in New York, which opens Tuesday. It features the majority of work and designs by French designers–Grange among them.
One thing you can count on: Next spring, Grange will add bedroom pieces to his collection.
“People want to be cozy. More than anything, I see that in the American people,”says Grange.
He has an almost childlike curiosity in his voice as he politely asks showroom visitors how they feel as they sit on one of his sofas or chairs.
“Are you comfortable?” the designer asks as one person reclines, eyes closed, on a shapely, ripe pomegranate chaise. “It’s comfortable, no? You look comfortable.”
For Grange, that’s what it’s all about.
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Jacque Grange’s Salon Collection for John Widdicomb Co. will be available at Richard Honquest Fine Furnishings, 1455 S. Barrington Rd., Barrington, 847-382-1700, the Beacon Hill showroom, 1866 Merchandise Mart, 312-527-3151, and Porters of Racine, 301 6th St., Racine, Wis., 800-558-3245.
