IN CONVERSATION WITH MATALI CRASSET

The French designer's core values unfurl in a candid conversation about her early life, design inspirations and a visit to India

- TWINKLE TOLANI

Matali Crasset, a name synonymous with bright colours, is a French designer known for her conscious yet candid ways. "Colour is life, and life is colour. I don't understand why we are so afraid of colour. I use colour for its power to bring life to our everyday life. If you are afraid of colour, you are afraid of living," says the designer with unabashed conviction.

Born in Châlons-en-Champagne, Crasset's sense of experimentation and consciousness kicked off early during her childhood in her native village, Normée. "I come from a small village of 80 inhabitants. My parents were farmers, so I grew up in nature.

Every day outside, there was a new toy—sometimes a piece of a branch, sometimes a twig. Each day was unique—a brand new situation and a different playground. I was gifted with the liberty and the comfort of using our environment and its elements to displace, dissect and experiment. That's what I'm doing today too—creating evolving structures, just like when I was a kid. Building, trying to invent stories around it and then tweaking," explains Crasset candidly.

To expand her horizons, Crasset had to move to Paris. "It was my dream to come to Paris because I knew it was a needed cultural shift to quench my curiosity. Here I could go to museums, exhibitions and theatres," says Crasset. In Paris, she attended the ENSCI (École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle) to earn her diploma in Industrial Design.