Pierre Frey at Altfield

The lovely folks at Altfield invited us over yesterday to meet with the equally lovely Matthieu Frey of French luxury home décor company Pierre Frey. He recently joined the family business after some six years with Remy Cointreau and now heads up the company's Asia-Pacific operations. Along with his two brothers, he's the third generation of Freys to take up the reigns at the renowned furnishings house, established by his grandfather back in 1935.

"My background is in business – I love design but that's really my father's thing. I grew up in the fabric industry. My brothers and me would travel with our dad and he'd ask our opinions, so in lots of ways we were involved from an early age - it's a real passion for everyone".

He's in China to introduce the company's newest collections, all either designed or approved by none other than Matthieu's talented father. These latest fabrics include three series under the main Pierre Frey brand, one under Boussac and the last under Italian acquisition Fadini Borghi.

All five were unveiled in Paris just three weeks ago and are now available at Altfield – well worth a look. Matthieu explains "We've seen the China market growing these past few years – it's still not mature, there's still a lot of work to do but the Chinese are very receptive to our products. We're always adapting our collections to the market, and now with the 2012/ 2013 collections, we're definitely keeping Asia in mind".

Anyway, back to those collections, the first being the calming Atmosphere: "It's a very neutral palette but we played around with the textures a lot more on this one. There's a lot of silk, linens and sheers", Matthieu explains. "Design is important, but so are beautiful materials. We do 70% residential and the rest is contract so how the fabric feels in our clients' homes is very important. We do very colourful and bright, but at the end of the day beige, black, grey and white are always popular".



CH's favorite, Voyages couldn't be more different: a riot of colour, the collection is inspired by, you guessed it, travel. "It's very ethnic, inspired by SE Asia, Africa and South America – not just in terms of colours but also weaving techniques – ikat for example. This design is from Morocco and is based on a carpet my father found in a market there".





The third collection under the Pierre Frey brand is designed by grande dame of the design world Andrée Putman. The collaboration marks the company's second with the celebrated octogenarian who also designed the company's Paris HQ some 20 years ago. All monochrome and typically minimalistic in style, it's very, very cool.





It's also worth mentioning the new prints in the 2012 line – they're what Matthieu's grandfather started with back in the 1930s and are still going strong. We love this one, Gaya, based on drawings of Rajasthani ceremonial costumes picked up in a Bangalore market – gorgeous colours, no?



Do head over to Altfield for a browse, the new collections are all available now and just waiting to elevate any Shanghai abode to new levels of classiness. More here.