Paris Design Week recently ended in a serene mood, despite the turbulent international environment of our times. The many initiatives that have populated the city have all been collected in a practical guide, branded Paris Design Week and perfectly aligned with the Maison&Objet fair, in which the contributions of the different participants appear in a very clear and useful way to orient oneself and select the destinations of one's interest ... an indispensable and well-done tool, chapeau! Guide at the ready, we also visited a few spots that looked full of promise, curious to understand how France is living its moment dedicated to design today. Our gaze has ranged from the Rive Gauche to the Opéra / Concorde / Etoile district, passing through the Palais Royal / Marais / Bastille, for a wide overview which embraced the different places of the event. Some interesting discoveries at the Paris Design Week-Factory: here emerged the research of young and well-known designer, together with established and emerging companies looking at investigation on new materials, such as for instance an elegant upholstery material for made from 100% of fish scales. Remarkable was also the participation of many galleries, that speaks of an explicit vocation of the event to Art Design, with great vivacity and many interventions. Less engaging, on the other hand, was the experience in the showrooms of the big of Design (with exceptions, obviously). Here the new collections presented do not focus on the mise-en-scene work, more than they do during different times of the year. It is impossible not to draw a comparison with Milan Design Week, where you can feel how everybody tries to raise the bar of showmanship, pushing more and more toward even emotional involvement of the visitor (with results that in many cases could certainly be discussed).
We left the city with a big question mark: ... that Paris does not believe in it enough?