Maison & Objet

Glamorous and innovative

Maison&Objet is a worldwide leading trade-show, a high-class event, taking place twice a year in Paris Nord Villepinte. Dazzling, sophisticated, baroque and luxurious, it takes a grip on you, as soon as you get in.

Enthralling new design proposals, as well as classical and/or luxurious presentations are displayed to the delighted visitor. The exhibition spaces are from top-quality to luxurious, without rendering its colourful and varied character. In 2010, the Maison&Objet will be in January, Friday 22th till Tuesday 26th and in September, from Friday 3rd till Tuesday 7th. 

Maison&Objet - Nelly Rodi©Francis Amiand

Whoever wishes to get an overview of the newest developments in terms of colours, forms and materials, will find the Maison&Objet as an absolute must go. Here are the trends and products and the good design ideas, the world of interior decorators, furnishing shops and big markets are looking for.

Philippe Starck, the Maison&Objet patron of design 2010
More active than ever, the trade-show organization is pushing forward the impulse of design. Philippe Starck is the Maison&Objet design patron of 2010. Few other designers would be in conditions to deal creatively and productively with the crisis as Starck does, showing a design that refers to the daily needs. Functionality and sustainability are combined with creative elegance. They are the three suporting pillars of his renown and made him one of the most influential creators of our days. In the salon now! design à vivre, ten designers are answering a question put by Philippe Starck : – What is missing? –

The Maison&Objet is integrated in the wonderful and largely promoted event-show Paris, Capitale de la Création, an exhibition and show association, promoting Paris as the metropolis of design-vanguard in fashion and interior decoration.

Maison&Objet - TheOriginalWashstand ©NothingDesignGroup

Growth throughout the Crisis
In 2010, Maison&Objet lets out more space, used for new focal points and a carefully restructured exhibitions. Very special is the integration of the Côté Meuble exhibtiion in January 2010 with sixty exhibitors. The Côté Meuble results to be a forecast to the September furniture show in Villepinte: Paris Meuble. The whole range of interior decoration is now far more present than before.
In 2008 and 2009, the additional hall 7 provided more space to the exhibitors and the fair expanded to aprox. 130,000 m². It is granted, that in 2010, the Maison&Objet will grow further up to aprox. 136,000 m². Despite the growth, there are less exhibitors scheduled. In January 09, there were 3,460 exhiobitors, for January 2010, there are expected about 700 exhibitors less. They will have more room at disposal to present their products and ideas. This kind of offensive crisis management is rarely seen at other trade-shows.
 
Besides the new Côté Meuble, there are other fair-highlights, themes and changes ment to motivate visitors, buyers and prescriptors to pay Paris a visit. Facing a steadily growing product offer, it seems crucial to monitor the visitor structure. During the crisis, visitors had been partiallly shy to the Maison&Objet: comparing the January 08/09 figures, the number of guests had decreased at a 13%. Positive are the September 08/09 figures: here, an increase of 4% had been monitored. The trade-show organization has implemented lots of initiatives to improve the visiting frequency.

Here is a roundtrip through the salons of Maison & Objet 
Maison&Objet is shaped through different shows. The hall plan provides an overview (see pdf). In January 2010, there are
• Maison&Objet – with more than 2,150 exhibitors at the Halls 1, 2, 3, 4, 5A and 6.
• Scènes d`Intérieur – with more than 150 exhibitors at Hall 5B
• Now! design à vivre – with almost 150 exhibitors at Hall 7
• Maison&Objet |projets| – with more than 80 exhibitors at Hall 5C
• Maison&Objet Musées – with about 25 exhibitors at Hall 6
• Côté Meuble – with 60 exhibitors at Hall 5C
• Maison&Objet Éditeurs – with 90 exhibitors at Hall 5B  
 
A Prestige-Rendevous of the Editors
In January 2010, the vanguard of home textile development and wallpaper edition will display at Maison&Objet Éditeurs its newest outcomes, in Hall 5. The Italian Designer Paola Navone will set the scene. Lavishly staged, like no other trade-show for editors, 90 suppliers of the most creative high-end upholstery and decoration fabrics present their products. Some entirely new companies are arriving amongst the 68 foreign editors. The neighbourhood to the Scènes d`Intérieur-show seems to be ideal.

Because of some problems in 2009 quite some editors will not attend to M&O and will open instead there showrooms downtown. A shuttle service will facilitate showroom hopping. This decentralization of product presentations is usually not beneficial for buyers, however, the editors will have their reasons. From a visitor perspective, however, a presentation at one venue is usually more efficient.

Ethnic Chic at Hall 1
The Ethnic Chic exhibition is part of the most fascinating areas. It shows creative high quality furnishing items coming from different cultures from all over the World. The living styles of Asia, Africa and South America come alive. The exhibitors are mainly European wholesalers and importers, caring to select an offer fit for the European tastes and ensuring availability of shippings.

House Textiles at Hall 2
The Maison&Objet textile display is to find – as ever – at Hall 2. It contains mainly bed and tableware, plaids and beddings, as well as bathroom textiles. Traditional exhibitors as Zambaiti or Yves Delorme are here, as well as transcending fashion labels like Kenzo and new unknown exhibitors. The Europeans are dominating; Asia is not relevantly present with textile offers. Exemptions as the Indian company Maspar provide a convincing tasteful presentation of high-quality products.

Table top and Decoration at Hall 3
To invite friends for dinner, for instance, is a trendy motive. The trade-show has inserted the idea as a new leitmotiv to this edition: Cohabitation. In the so called Parcours d`Influences, the visitor gets to see the laid table with glass ware, cutlery, porcelains and accessories. In this concept, the ecological design becomes more and more perdominant: eco-food is served on eco-friendly dishes. Greenpan is one of the specific companies deserving the eco label. Also in Hall 3, lots of oils, teas and chocolates can be ordered.

Côté Déco at Hall 4 and 5A
The Côté Déco exhibtion shows many interior decoration products as are furniture, lightings and outdoor furniture and decoration items. There are theme displays and they are often put in surprising neighbourhood features, providing original inspirations. The moving of the furniture trade-show Paris Meuble to September will cause significant changes. An increase of furniture presentations at the Côté Déco is expected to follow. In the trade-show sector, a holistic conception of interior furnishing displays is best palpable; it is not because of the deliberated intention to state a point in the holistic display – as does the German company Lambert – but just because of the composition of ehhibiting companies by the organizer.

M&O 09 - Ecological Floor and Wall finishings
© ART UNIC EKOBE

At present, the exhibitors are mainly from Europe and those coming from other countries are carefully selected. Very often, they arrive with highly original items designed for high-end requirements, as for instance the furniture and interior decoration objects of the Ecuadorian Galeria del Mueble.

Objet de Mode, Moving and Esprit Studio at Halle 6
Most diverse interior furnishing items are to be seen in Hall 6, in a somehow colourful way, but with lots of ideas and inspirations for the interior furnishing shops. There is nursery and young furniture, paper and toy-merchandise as well as wall decorations. Here, the parcours Maison&Objet Musées is offering at a central point the new product ranges destined to museum shops: high quality souvenirs and Art repros. Maison&Objet is continuously expanding the Parcours Musées, throughout the whole fairground area.

Scènes d`Intérieur at Hall 5B
In the Scènes d`Intérieur exhibition, Maison&Objet is highly interested in displaying the superlative of interior furnishings. Refinement combined with sometimes ironical elements give way to a luxurious and elegant fashion show. Most sophisticated interior decoration items are presented by the best known exhibtors in quality and high-end requirements: the Haute Couture de la Maison is a true challenge to the consumer world of “everything but expensive”. Here you find important companies as Baxter, Redaelli, and for the first time, Christofle, Devon & Devon and some high-value creative companies of less renown. Side to side with the Scènes d`Intérieur the editors are presenting. In a nutshell: Hall 5B gathers on a small area the high value options of the world market in interior decoration.

10 years Now! design à vivre in Hall 7
Now! design à vivre exists since 2000. In the new Hall 7, more room than ever is allowed to the presentation of most modern and new design for every day use. In 2010, there will be many new exhibitors, a lot of them high-end Italian creators as Formitalia or Borella Design

Philippe Stark is present in Now! design à vivre, as well. He posed the above mentioned question: – What is missing? – to ten selected designers.

Côté Meuble in Hall 5C
The furniture fair Paris Meuble will be moved, both, from January to September and from Le Bourget to Villepinte. Thus, the Paris Meuble coincides with the Maison&Objet September edition. The exhibitors of the Paris Meuble interested in a January show have been offered to join the Côté Meuble and other sectors of the Maison&Objet. Therefore, in January 2010, hall 5C will present sixty renowned exhibitors, presenting exclusively furniture. For the Maison&Objet, this is a kind of general rehearsal for its September edition and an important step towards the presentation of all leading interior decoration product groups.

Maison&Objet |projets| in Hall 5C
The exhibitors of Maison&Objet |projets| are highly specialized in techniques and products needed to the interior architecture and furnishing sector – hotels, public buildings, conference rooms and other. Sophisticated solutions in materials, forms and colours are definitely required. Therefore this sector is best destined to specifiers and contractors looking for high-end inspirations to their projects.

Visitors Structure at Maison&Objet
The admission to the trade-show is only to professionals, no general public is allowed. In January 08 and 09, there were generally more visitors than in the September edition of the same years. Eventhough the visitor figures of the January edition decreased, the visitor figures of the September edition recuperated. In September 09 there were almost 72,000 visitors, of which about 69,000 professionals and more than 3,000 were press. Most of the international visitors came from Italy and Belgium.

66% of trade visitors were retail purchasers or specifyers, 20% were from large retail systems and department stores, 12% were Import-Export wholesalers and 2% came from the service or public administration sector.  By regions, 75% of all visitors were Europeans and almost 10% Asians.

Maison & Objet is the World Leading European Interior Decoration Trade-Show 
In 2009, the exhibitors came from 42 countries, mostly Europeans, with french exhibitors as largest protion. From Asia, Africa and Latin America, there were only very selected presentations.  

Base: Living XL Special Edition 1/2010

Back to Focus Interior Decoration Fairs
Maison & Objet in a nutshell
Report Maison&Objet September 2008