Childhood friends turned business partners Thomas Montier Leboucher and Iris de La Villardière say the new Paris showroom for their brand, Viltier, is their ideal vision of a French salon—if it were mixed in a blender with their favorite 1970s style inspirations.
The boutique at 46 rue de Verneuil, on the Left Bank, is inside a former art gallery, and the Viltier duo say they took cues from that history as well as two iconic interior designers, England’s David Hicks and France’s François Catroux, to come up with the look for their flagship store.
“The most important thing that we want our clients and anyone who visits is to feel at ease,” Montier Leboucher says. “Mirroring the fundamentals of our jewelry, the space is highly luxurious and extremely refined in the materials used to create it, along with the art it showcases, but at the same time it is still welcoming.”
Interior designer Fanny Perrier of Studio Perrier helped create the Viltier showroom, which seems spacious thanks to white lacquered ceiling and lacquered walls. Custom mahogany wood framing on the walls serves as a design element and adds warmth and texture, Montier Leboucher says. A matching mahogany coffee table and vitrines (glass display cases) made to order by local craftspeople decorate the living room section of the boutique.
Other furniture highlights include a marble console from Porta Romana, a zebra print seat called a curule from Madeline Castaing, and a 20th-century low chair inlaid with mother-of-pearl by Alain Demachy of Galerie Bellechasse29.
To honor the space’s past as an art gallery, Montier Leboucher and de La Villardière plan to rotate the artwork in the store. For their opening, they displayed a Serge Poliakoff painting and three plates by Pablo Picasso, which were hung on the boutique’s mirrored wall. They also have two Picasso sculptures in their salon.
Viltier’s signature yellow is found on Dior Plisse couches, which were sourced from Baker Furniture and reupholstered using fabric from Pierre Frey. The curtain fabric comes from Dedar, a family-owned Lake Como business that specializes in high-end textiles.
Montier Leboucher and La Villardière got all their Picasso pieces from Ateliers Hugo, a third-generation goldsmith company that worked with Picasso during his life.
Viltier was founded in 2020. Montier Leboucher previously worked at Cartier, and La Villardière for jeweler Marie-Hélène de Taillac. Their new boutique brings them joy, Montier Leboucher says, and they hope it does the same for clients and visitors.
“We wanted to create a showroom that would allow people to connect with the brand in a meaningful way, get a glimpse into our world, and immerse themselves in our DNA,” he says. “We create jewelry that makes us feel happy, and we want to pass that sentiment along to our clients.”
Top: Iris de La Villardière and Thomas Montier Leboucher, partners in jewelry company Viltier, say they want to share art and objects they love in their luxurious new Paris store. (Photos courtesy of Viltier)
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