One hundred years after the birth of Andrée Putman, the Paris–New York studio brings past and present into conversation at Park Avenue Armory, turning an extraordinary design heritage into a proposition for the future.
What makes a design legacy relevant long after its creator is gone?
For Andrée Putman, the answer was never about preserving the past. It was about knowing what deserved to survive and having the vision to give it a new life.
From November 4 to 8, 2026, Andrée Putman Studio brings this philosophy to SALON Art + Design in New York, at Booth D21, presenting a residential scenography that brings together archival designs, contemporary editions, and the studio’s ongoing creative practice. Furniture, lighting, mirrors, and textiles share a carefully composed interior, where different periods coexist through a common language of proportion, material, and light.
The presentation arrives at a defining moment for the studio. Following the centenary of its founder, celebrated throughout 2025 and 2026 through exhibitions, furniture editions, architectural projects, and cultural collaborations, the practice is entering a new chapter under CEO Aurélie Laure and Artistic Director Olivia Putman. Its New York home, opened in 2026 at 344 Bowery, further reinforces an increasingly international identity, connecting its Parisian heritage with the city that played a decisive role in Andrée Putman’s global recognition.
To understand the significance of this moment, it is worth returning to 1978. At a time when contemporary design was moving toward increasingly expressive forms and new visual languages, Putman founded Écart International with a radically different proposition: rediscover the work of forgotten modernist designers and bring their creations back into production. Eileen Gray, Jean-Michel Frank, Mariano Fortuny, and Pierre Chareau were among the names she brought back into the conversation. Her approach was not nostalgia. It was an act of cultural reclamation, recognizing that the future of design could also be built by looking more carefully at what history had left behind.
That instinct would soon reshape contemporary hospitality. In 1984, her interiors for New York’s Morgans Hotel, commissioned by Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, challenged the conventions of luxury hospitality. Replacing traditional opulence with graphic precision, intimate proportions, and restrained materials, Putman helped establish the language of the boutique hotel. The iconic black and white checkerboard became more than a signature. It embodied a new understanding of luxury, one based on atmosphere, experience, and character rather than display.
This distinction feels particularly relevant today. In a design culture increasingly driven by accelerated production, visual immediacy, and the constant demand for novelty, Putman’s work proposes a different relationship with objects. One grounded in longevity, craftsmanship, and the intelligence of form. Her legacy also speaks to a broader shift in how design history is understood, not as a closed canon, but as a living resource that can be questioned, rediscovered, and reinterpreted.
At SALON, this idea takes physical form. Some pieces, originally conceived for private residences, hotels, and architectural commissions, enter production for the first time. Others return as new editions developed in collaboration with French artisans and manufacturers. The resulting scenography deliberately dissolves the distance between historical work and contemporary creation. An archival mirror can sit alongside a newly developed collector’s edition. Architectural lighting finds its place beside contemporary upholstery and textiles. Each piece contributes to a larger composition rather than existing as an isolated collectible.
Under the direction of Laure and Olivia Putman, the studio is extending this approach across bespoke interiors, furniture editions, collaborations, and new design projects. Its commitment to French craftsmanship remains central, while its Paris and New York presence opens the practice to a wider international conversation.
The ambition is not to recreate an aesthetic frozen in time. It is to keep its underlying intelligence in circulation.
A century after her birth, Andrée Putman’s most enduring design may be the idea that true modernity is never simply about what comes next. It is about recognizing what is worth carrying forward.