Marie Daa?ge's Spectacular New Flagship Store Is a Celebration of Fine Dining
Fine dining is in Marie Daa?ge's blood. Daage comes from a lineage of painters and creatives, and the dinner table was the heart of family gatherings. Daa?ge's fondest childhood memories are of her mother proudly setting the table for Sunday lunch or holiday meals. While for some, food is the fodder of childhood nostalgia, for Marie Daa?ge, it is the china. Porcelain became extricably linked with meaningful life events from weddings and engagements to birthdays and funerals. Daa?ge's entire life centered around the table even before her first brush stroke landed on a plate.
Since its humble origins three decades ago on the sixth floor walk-up on Rue de Rivoli, Marie Daa?ge's hand-painted ceramics have blossomed into a sought-after luxury by every designer, event planner, and hostess in the know. Daa?ge's delicate designs are hand-painted painstakingly onto each Limoges plate, using colorful pigment glazes as an expressive form of watercolor that requires multiple layers of firing and polishing.
Coinciding with Paris Design Week and the company's 30th anniversary, Marie Daa?ge is officially opening its new flagship in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Pre?s on the ground floor of the Grand Ho?tel d’Entragues. But it's not just any shop: It's a creative playground for the color- and pattern-obsessed.
Cinnabar-hued walls are an instant invitation to browse the artist's paint box of glazes, pigments and intricately hand-painted samples lavishly displaced along every wall. Daage likens the process to a couture dress. When something is made with care and imminent taste, it will never go out of style.
The business is inherently a custom one, as each piece is made-to-order in her studio in Limoges. In the '90s during her second pregnancy, the orders were mounting and Daage was in need of help. She turned to Limoges, a southwestern French city known for its hand-painted porcelain. The painters a dying profession, however, and she found only a few quality ateliers painting tiny pill boxes for tourists. This quest lead her to train craftsman in her painterly aesthetic, and she has been preserving the traditional techniques of hand-painted porcelain ever since.
While Daa?ge's designs are a fresh take on archaic patterns, her business is rooted in keeping the experience and tradition of custom design alive. The flow at the new location invites an afternoon of contemplation and inspiration. The storefront is not intended for impulse purchases, but a leisurely experience in creating one's own design. The highlight of this process is, of course, working directly with Marie, as even today after 30 years of expansion, she works with each new client to create a design that works for their needs and desires.
This is the first time all of Daa?ge's oeuvre will be displayed in one location, and it brings a sense of pride in seeing her life's work to the present gathered together.
“Opening this new location on my most loved Paris street is a great emotion for me. It is a real milestone for the brand and a mark of what we have collectively achieved since the very beginning for Marie Daa?ge when I started painting in a tiny garrett in 1990. As the place got full of painted plates, I put them in boxes and went door-to-door to design stores. Celebrating our 30 years of existence is also an occasion to express my gratitude to these people who share my passion for the Art de vivre, who appreciate our creations and contribute to the recognition of the Marie Daa?ge brand across the world.”
Daa?ge's quest for a well-dressed table has spread to the future generations, as her oldest daughter, Constance, has taken to designing furniture. The new Rue de Tournon location is sporting some of her latest table designs.
Marie's youngest daughter, Axelle, has come into the fold of the business these past couple years, taking the lead on marketing and helping with the design of the new location.
Thirty years in the business has shown that the brand defies being boxed in to a specific aesthetic. Marie Daa?ge tableware is as suitable for a formal table as a more relaxed one, and Daage attributes this to the fluidity of her painting techniques. A slightly translucent finish to the glazes make the piece light and airy, but full of movement that propels them into ever-fresher tablescapes. Marie Daa?ge, after all, was one of the first to rebel against matching sets and champion the art of pattern-mixing at the dining table. The dress reference is again fitting: The secret of a chic, well-dressed woman is her ability to effortlessly mix styles and trends into her own brand.
Marie Daa?ge embodies the art of je ne sais quoi design in the most luxurious way only the French can achieve. Whether casually browsing or invested in the full experience, you will inevitably leave the new shop with a little bit of Marie.
The address of new location in Paris is 12 Rue de Tournon, 75006 Paris, France. As many of us are unable to travel to Paris, keep an eye out for Marie's new collaborations launching soon with Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Moda Operandi.
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