Move over Haute Couture... every January buyers, press and design lovers descend on Paris for the Maison & Objet design fair at the Parc des Expositions, scouting out new homeware – predominantly accessories, tableware, glassware and objets as the fair’s name suggests. Meanwhile, showrooms in town host launches and events. It’s international in scope but being Paris-based, homegrown French design is at the forefront with many brands such as Ligne Roset, Hermès and Roche Bobois unveiling their annual collections. Here we round up the Gallic-flavoured luxury highlights from this year’s show.  Hermès go wildUntil now Hermès has only produced scarves and textiles featuring the exotic flora and fauna sketches by the late artist and naturalist Robert Dallet, but now his captivating wild creatures have been translated to porcelain in the form of the Carnets d’Équateur tableware collection. Dallet worked with Hermès from 1984 and when the artist passed away in 2006 they purchased his archive.  A host of his accurately drawn animals have been brought back to life: jaguars crouch poised on dinner plates, capuchin monkeys hang languidly around the rim of bowls and Amazon parrots perch on the curved exterior of tea cups. Dining from this is like taking a virtual safari traversing through tropical rainforest, marshland and savannah. Rather than simply replicate completed paintings, Hermès have captured the sense of the artist’s studio with a variety of his methods recreated - sketches in charcoal, pencil, or wash, gouache colour, and hyper-realistic rendering in paint – making the collection a true tribute to his talents.  Vervloet's door gemsDesign, as they say, is in the details and Vervloet's Bubbles collection of door handles is certainly one way to give your doors polish. Dreamt up by Paris-based designer India Mahdavi (best known in London for her all-pink revamping of the Gallery at Sketch and the rich, dark and moody Coburg Bar at the Connaught) who's brought her glamorous aesthetic – and love of geometrics – to this capsule range of brass door hardware for the Belgian brand Vervloet, who’ve been making such things since 1905. “Curved shapes are for me the real antidote to all that is cold, bland, to all that which disrupts the natural beauty of life,” she said of the collection.  Seventies flair Family-run rug company Toulemond Bochart made a splash last year with a pretty pastel collection of rugs by model-turned-muse Ines de La Fressange. At Maison this year they unveiled a cushion collection with the standout designs being the Carrioca range of vibrant colourful embroidered wool and cotton cushions by interior designer Géraldine Prieur. They combine a flamboyant Seventies palette with hints of gold and are due to be stocked in the UK at Roche Bobois.  Wine tasting at PuiforcatRevered French heritage silverware brand Puiforcat, owned by Hermès and the silverware of choice for state banquets at the Elysée Palace, presented their new Sommelier Collection. Conceived by London-based designer Michael Anastassiades, Puiforcat’s director Nicolas Cantenot described the range as “a collaboration between three forces”: award-winning sommelier and owner of Parisian restaurant Il Vino Lombard Enrico Bernardo, Anastassiades and the house’s silversmiths.  Promoting the “art of taste”, the 11-strong collection includes a variety of accessories and five delicate wine glasses (white, red, champagne, dessert & liquor), each designed to sit on a weighty silver or gold-plated stand. The stem-free concept was Bernardo’s idea, engineered to enhance the wine drinking experience with a horizontal flow (rather than vertical) allowing the mouth to savour the wine in more complex ways. Puiforcat made a canny choice in commissioning Anastassiades, his minimal approach to design and flair with metalwork are echo the approach of the Houses’s most famous silversmith, the 1920s avant-garde modernist master Jean Puiforcat. The clean architectural forms of this collection may be new, but can also be viewed as a continuation of his design legacy.  Light is a cabaret The creative ringmaster behind the decadent lighting company Magic Circus Éditions, is former antiques dealer Parisian Marie-Lise Fery. A lover of “the world of cabaret and the stage” her striking pendants and chandeliers are made from brass and opalescent glass globes and look good on or off. A simple premise, like Mahdavi’s Bubbles, their spherical-and-rod-combo construction chimes with lighting by other contemporary designers such as Bec Brittain, Christopher Boots, and Michael Anastassiades and yet they also hark back to Sixties sputnik designs and the glamour of art deco. Right now we obviously can’t get enough of lighting that displays strong geometrics, minimal lines and yellow metals – call it warm minimalism.  Pointillist influencesOk, so it’s Milanese, but Golran rug company has been creating a series of distinctive, award-winning collections with international designers, such as the Triangles kilim collection with Dutch designer Bertjan Pot and Lake with Raw Edges, both big hits when they launched in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Now they’re back with Meteo, a subtle, textured range of three rugs by cutting-edge French designer Inga Sempé, someone whose work is characterised by experimentation with textiles – check out her now iconic Ruché sofa for Ligne Roset - and an interest in the material dimension of projects. An update on the traditional Persian carpet the pattern is incredibly subtle, pointillism reincarnated in warp and weft – an effect made possible by the artisans who make the wool and silk rugs in Nepal.  Eighties revival Everyone says the Eighties were the decade that style forgot and yet one of the hero pieces in the 2016 Ligne Roset collection is Plumy, upholstered in rich velvet. This delightful soft cloud of a sofa by Annie Hiéronimus was born in 1980 and is probably the most stylish Lazy Boy in existence, the head and seat cushions unfold to create a gently reclining chaise. Other statement seating included the modular Slice by Pierre Charpin, its strong silhouette and bright palette embodying the designer’s fascination with colour, plasticism and early Memphis Group influences. Andy, Pierre Paulin’s 1962 reinterpretation of the Florence Knoll classic which was actually reissued last year – won plaudits for its reimagining in forest green velvet upholstery.  Bowled over at St Louis Also part of the Hermès stable, the crystal brand St Louis is constantly innovating in an attempt to seduce a younger audience and encourage customers to reappraise this classic material. This year they extended their 2011 Les Endiablés range by José Lévy, adding pieces which also subvert existing designs from the St. Louis archive by pairing two objects in one – ie a candlestick holder turned upside down becomes a small bowl. The new pieces include a mirror, lamp and the coupe, known in-house as the “strawberry” for obvious reasons (see picture, left)  American transferFrench furniture brand Roche Bobois's collaboration with American designer Stephen Burks continues with outdoor versions of his Traveller armchairs. Like a 21st-century version of the peacock chair with its arching hood the chair comes in two Mediterranean colourways, the tropical coral orange and yellow or the cooler blue, white and grey. Constructed from hi-tech weatherproof, with a steel frame wound with cord,it’s part of a wider collection that includes dining furniture and a sofa. What’s more it hits the showrooms this March
From wild tableware to cabaret-inspired lighting, Bethan Ryder rounds up the best French creations at Maison & Objet