Andree Putman was the grande dame of French design. Known as La Reine du Damier (the Queen of the Checkerboard),Putman was renowned for her signature monochrome style and has been credited with inventing boutique hotel style.
The designer, who died at her home in Paris on Saturday at the age of 87, gave her name to a skyscraper in Hong Kong, as well as redesigning in interior of Concorde, several luxury stores and numerous private residences in a career that spanned nearly seven decades.
She was a passionate believer that good design should be affordable. “Of course style and money have nothing to do with each other,” she said in an interview with House Beautiful magazine. “Good design is pure and simple, and I am interested in that family of things that will never date. “
Born in Paris in 1925, Putman was destined to become a concert pianist. But that dream, which was possibly that of her musician mother, came to an abrupt end when one of her professors told her it would take ten years before she would know if she was a great composer. Putman abandoned music and moved into design.
After a brief stint working for magazines, in 1958 Putman became artistic director for the home accessories range of Prisunic, a chain of shops known for its cheap fashion fixes. There she promoted the idea of good, honest everyday designs for every budget, according to Wallpaper .
Putman then worked for various style agencies and designed private residences and boutiques for friends such as Karl Lagerfeld and Thierry Mugler, before setting up her own company, Écart, in 1978. It specialised in re-editions of furniture by designers such as Eileen Gray, Mariano Fortuny or Robert Mallet-Stevens.
Then came the Morgans Hotel, on New York’s Madison Avenue in 1984, which has since been called the moment at which the boutique hotel was invented. The black and white bathrooms (pictured above) made her name internationally and she began designing hotels all over the world. In 1994, she redesigned the interiors of the supersonic Concorde for Air France.
The Belle Etoile bench designed by Putman for the Italian company Serralunga
Andree Putman, La Grande Dame of Design.
amazing lady – she reminds me of someone we know x