Press

On a recent afternoon, the Paris apartment of Benjamin Paulin and Alice Lemoine is stark naked save for a single bookcase and a few pieces of art—not exactly what you’d expect chez the son of the late, great French designer Pierre Paulin (1927–2009). “Sometimes we have nothing and sometimes we have four sofas,” notes Benjamin, explaining that their missing furniture, all by his father, is on loan for exhibitions in London and Frankfurt. If that sounds like musical chairs, they like it this way. “When it’s empty,” Benjamin says, “the girls run and dance. When it’s full, they jump from piece to piece. It’s a fun game both ways.” Adds Alice, “We don’t want to be fixed in something that doesn’t move. In French we call it getting too bourgeois.”

It’s no accident that Paulin designs are at the forefront of chic once again. In 2013 the family officially launched Paulin, Paulin, Paulin, dedicated to steering his father’s legacy into a new era. In the time since, they have faithfully realized his designs, many never produced in his lifetime. (New editions can now be found at Ralph Pucci in the States.) It hasn’t hurt that Benjamin and Alice are young and hip—he a part-time musician with several rap albums under his belt, she a former fashion designer—with a social circle that includes Joseph Dirand and Virgil Abloh.

When the couple found their apartment, set in the 9th arrondissement, three years ago, a main selling point was that the building’s staircase would be wide enough for moving large, unwieldy pieces in and out. Paulin was famous for the outsize scale of many of his designs, which ushered in the sexy, loungy mood of the 1970s and won him commissions for the Louvre and the Élysée Palace. Take the Big C sofa, which has reclaimed its place in their living room. Long and sinuous, the piece can seat a dozen children or five-plus adults. When the prototype was delivered to New York City in 2014, the owner, a well-known architect, had to knock down a wall before moving it in.