ASTIER DE VILLATTE
The Aesthetic of Imperfection
"Not only will you never get two identical pieces with handmade work, but each one will carry the imprint of a human being," say the founders of the French brand of decorative ceramics, perfumes, and home fragrances, Astier de Villatte.
Finding great beauty in the small imperfections typical of artisanal, handmade work, Ivan Pericoli and Benoît Astier founded a unique craft workshop in 1996. They modernized the traditional French methods of 18th-century ceramic production and breathed new life into old printing techniques.
An old printing press with lead letter casting technology, the last of its kind in France and one of the few in the world, was revived in the Astier de Villatte atelier as another source of inspiration discovered in ancient, artisanal methods.
An atypical publishing house was the logical next step, and its first printed publication was a guide to Paris titled "Ma Vie à Paris," with text and drawings by Lou Doillon. Paris is, after all, their inspiration—a city that is part dream, part reality.
The perfume atelier came to life through collaborations with perfumers and the creation of colognes, aromatic sticks, and candles for a fragrant journey around the world.
www.astierdevillatte.com
