Andrée Putman, it is THE feminin figure of the French design. Her talent and her classe made her famous all around the world. Paris, New-York, Hong-Kong, from residential buildings to minister offices and hotels, Andrée Putman leaves an indelible mark on the planet design. I am inviting you in this article to make a feedback on her work and to discover, if you still didn’t knew it, her style : rigourous, sobre and bold.

Andrée Putman is the most famous french feminin designer around the globe. It is impossible to not speak about her and her style. Andrée Putman equal :

AUDACITY with her chessboards,

SOBRIETY with neutral colours and a minimalist spirit,

RIGOUR, with an incredible care for the details.

In this article, I am inviting you to discover the 10 best projects of this famous designer as well as a style that will give her the status of reference for the french design…

The Hôtel Morgans, New York – 1984

The Hôtel Morgans, located at the 237 Madison Avenue in New York is born following the style of Andrée Putman. The designer didn’t hesitate and covered entirely the bathrooms of the hotel with a huge black and white chessboard . We are in 1984. With this hotel, Andrée Putman follows the trend of the boutique hotel, that was really popular during the 80’s and the 90’s. This concept is born to react against an ultra standardization of the hotels owned by the big hospitality chains.

HOTEL MORGANS
237 Madison Ave,
New York, NY 10016,
United States of America

The Putman Hotel, Hong Kong – 2007

Hong Kong, 2007. The french designer had the honor to create an hotel that owned her name, the Putman Hotel. Own by the National Hotel Collection, the building show off an art-deco style on its front wall composed with geometrical forms colored with some pop colours such as blue, orange or even purple. Almost 30 years after the Morgans Hotel of New York, The Putman Hotel take back the concept of boutique hotel.

HOTEL PUTMAN
202 Queen’s Road Central, Central,
Hong Kong
China

The Jack Lang office – 1985

In 1985, Jack Lang the french minister of culture and creator of the Regional Fund for Contemporary Art. He decides to start the renovation of his office. Andrée Putman was obviously the designer choosen to accomplish this task. She creates the office Ecart. This piece is composed by some caissons, an hemispheric tray made of oak wood, a drawer and a leather writing. Obviously it is a limited edition, and if you want to have one of those desk in your office, you’ll need to spend between 1 500€ and 2 000€.

CULTURE MINISTERY
Palais-Royal
3, rue de Valois
Paris 1^erFrance

— MORE INSPIRATION HERE —

The Concorde – 1994

In 1993, the french company AirFrance decide to renovate all the elements composing the inside universe of the Concorde. Andrée Putman seduced AirFrance for several reasons. The sobriety, the abscence of superfluous, a classe and an elegance really developped and a research of the essential. As you can see above, colours are neutral and the design is minimalistic.

Guerlain in the Champs-Elysée – 2005

The brand Guerlain on the Champs-Elysées is a magical place. The visitors are impressed by the majesty, the luxe and the light of the famous french perfumer shop. In 2005, the designer Andrée Putman and Maxime d’Angeac create a first transformation that will be even more embellished in 2013 by Peter Marino. The shop is magnified by the splendid chandelier made of metallic mails and the perfumes pumps used to full filled the empty bottles were renewed by the designer.

BOUTIQUE GUERLAIN
68 Av. des Champs-Élysées,
75008 Paris,
France

Gildo Pastor Center Monaco – 1996

The Gildo Pastor Center is a luxury commercial center located in Fontvieille in the center of Monaco. It own its name from its monegasque creator, Gildo Pallanca Pastor. The designer Andrée Putman realized a part of the building works by creating this majestic lighting stairs messing up with our visual sens. The result is stunning and really confusing.

GILDO PASTOR CENTER
7 Rue du Gabian,
98000
Monaco

The piano Voie Lactée – 2008

Let’s not forget that before being a designer, Andrée Putman was a pianist. It is normal that she get involved in a partnership with the house PLEYEL to create the piano Voie Lactée in 2008. We can find on it the chessboars that is a characteristic of the designer. This piano is … PERFECT. Mesuring 2.17 meters long, composed of wood, corian and nickel, the sound was worked by Stephen Paulello. Voie Lactée cost approximately 20 000 euros for the limited edition of 8 models.

ATELIER PLEYEL
95 avenue Daumesnil
75012
PARIS

Putman pour Nespresso – 2010

In 2010, Andrée Putman is making a collaboration with the famous coffee house Nespresso and create a range of 5 cups designed for 5 different kind of coffee. Under its simple appearance, this collection called Ritual hide a researched design. The cup litteraly take the shape of the liquid that is meant to take place inside it and the color correspond to the intensity of the drink. The smallest cup, with a black colour correspond to the expresso. The biggest cup without under-cup is made for tea. Genius idea no ?

— MORE INSPIRATION HERE —

Christofle for Pierre Hermé – 2018

In 2005, a collaboration with Christofle, allows Andrée Putman to launch her first jewerly line. 13 years later, Christophle starts a partnership with the famous chef Pierre Hermé to make a tribute to the designer. Indeed, the pastery house will hide inside their epiphany cakes a special bean. Inspired by the famous jewel line called Idole, created by Putman, the beans will be hided inside 60 epiphany cakes in limited edition obviously. The winners could come to search their gift in the Pierre Hermé shops : some office designed accesories coming from the collection Vertigo draw by Putman.

The bio of Andrée Putman

Andrée Christine Aynard is born the 23rd of December 1925 in Paris and come from a rich family. Originary of Lyon, her family is composed by strong character people. As an example, her grand dad, Edouard Aynard was a banker and an important political figure of Lyon. His wife, born Rose de Montgolfier, is coming from the inventors of the warm air baloon.

As a young girl, Andrée Aynard discover art by the way of music and play a lot of piano. She will study this instrument during several years at the Conservatoire of Paris. Annoyed, she decides to go work on the cinema industry and become scene decorator. This emancipation period allows her to analyze her environment, to understand what are the new trends and the new artists, she gets interested by arts, fashion and understand the hided talent of the artist of her time. During the 50’s she will make a decisive meeting : Jacques Putman, a renown art critics that will make her meet several personnalities such as Pierre Alechinsky, Bram Van Velde, Alberto Giacometti or Niki de Saint Phalle.

Thierry Mugler, Ossie Clarck, Claude Montana, Issey Miyake or Jean-Charles de Castelbajac are all talents revealed by Andrée Putman from the 70’s. It was mainly possible thanks to the creation of the company “Créateurs et Industriels” funded with Didier Grumbach. It is also from the 70’s that she started to be really known. From now on, her carreer is definitly launched and it will only stop in 2013 when “La Grande Dédée” as she liked to name herself will pass out on her parisian flat.