Tuileries folding chair

A graduate in architecture from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris, in industrial design from Cooper Union in New York, and in graphic design and furniture from Parsons School of Design in New York, India Mahdavi began her career in the 1990s with Christian Liaigre and became his artistic director. From this experience in a school of rigour and monochrome, she draws her own signature: glamorous, sensual and colourful. In 1999 she founded her design studio on rue Las Cases in Paris, opened her first showroom four years later just next door, and launched her first furniture line. In 2012 she opened a second store devoted to small objects, while at the same time designing private residences and famous public venues around the world — the APT lounge bar in New York, the Condesa df hotels in Mexico City and L'Apogée in Courchevel, The Gallery brasserie at Sketch in London, the Germain restaurants in Paris and I love Paris by Guy Martin at Charles-de-Gaulle airport... She has also designed a collection of cement tiles for Bisazza, rugs for La Manufacture Cogolin, the Parrot tables for Petite Friture..., creations through which her Iranian-Egyptian origins shine subtly, blending poetically with Western decorative currents.

The meeting between India Mahdavi and Maison Drucker happened when the Beaumarly group, run by Gilbert and Thierry Costes — creators of some of the most beautiful cafés and restaurants in Paris — entrusted her with renovating the Café Français on Place de la Bastille. "Maison Drucker is part of our identity," she says. "It's thanks to its armchairs and chairs that you recognize the terrace of a French café." The first Tuileries model the architect-designer created for Drucker is the Candy Chair, "whose colours recall those of sweets, or even small sugary sandwiches," she says. The next creation, the Vichy Chair, is a variation. Both chairs are also featured in the "small objects" collection sold in her Paris boutique. "For these two models, I worked the pattern as if it were a textile. The chairs have been placed in many interior architecture projects. Our adventure with Drucker is far from over," concludes India Mahdavi. "On both residential and public projects, our collaboration continues."