LIVING FRENCH TOAST

Sisters Judith Milgrom and Evelyne Chetrite (of Maje and Sandro, respectively) invite ELLE to one of their raucous dinner parties.

- Alexandra Marshall

About an hour before 15 dinner guests are due to arrive, Evelyne Chetrite bursts into her sister Judith Milgrom’s apartment in the Sixteenth Arrondissement of Paris. After happy hellos and kisses to Milgrom and chef Elio Bombace—the sisters, faithful clients of his Neapolitan bistro, Cibus, near the Palais Royal, have lured him over to cook—Chetrite surveys the long dining room table. “Non, non, non!” she exclaims, as the remaining daylight streaming through the picture windows flashes off her big gold cuff bracelet. The dark chairs, interspersed with bright woven ones by Franz West, are bringing the room down. White chairs are brought up from storage; the lace tablecloth is changed to a less formal linen—softer against Milgrom’s massive Charlotte Perriand bookshelf.

These changes are merely fine-tuning, as the apartment is difficult to improve upon. Designed by in-demand Parisian decorator Isabelle Stanislas, it’s avowedly contemporary, with major collector furniture, including a midnight-blue horsehair sofa and two chairs by Pierre Jeanneret, and oversize canvases by Richard Serra and Sterling Ruby. But neither of the two sisters, better known as the founders of the contemporary French labels Sandro (Chetrite) and Maje (Milgrom), got where they are by ignoring the details.