THE IDEA OF NOW

Measured, qualitative and ageless. With plans to arrive in India this year, Liaigre answers how to hold on to history in the age of digital speed

- TEXT BY PRATISHTHA RANA PHOTOGRAPHS BY CLAIRE ISRAEL, MARK SEELEN, SYLVIE BECQUET

Of the many movements in Europe's arts and design history, the rise of Art Deco remains a powerful milestone of the 20th century. The term is said to have gone global, after Paris hosted the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in the 1920s. Almost 50 years later, Liaigre emerged. Their first studio on the rue de Varenne in Paris is the late Christian Liaigre's forward-thinking universe of interior architecture and design – ascetic, modern but tethered to olden French roots.

Leap into 2018, when the studio opened a new address on the luxury shopping district rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Stand here and see the historic facade of four levels rise above your vision in splendour. The building, we're told, once housed the famous antiques dealer Steinitz.