“I always thought that sooner or later we’d have to be present in homes with a bit more than just vases and chandeliers,” says Baccarat CEO Daniela Riccardi. After 250 years of producing fine crystal, the company thought it was time for a change. So two years ago, Baccarat agreed to a collaboration proposed by Alberto Vignatelli, founder of the Italian company Luxury Living Group, to produce a 50-piece furniture line. The project follows on the Baccarat Hotel, an American Express Fine Hotel & Resort property, which opened in New York City in 2015 and allows guests to place orders for the hotel’s chandeliers and champagne flutes just as easily as they might take home a robe and slippers.
Vignatelli was an early champion of combining his furniture with other leading names in design, fashion, and hospitality, most notably launching Fendi Casa in 1988. Since then, other collections have followed, including Bentley Home, Trussardi Casa, and the Ritz Paris Home Collection. “We share the same values of luxury,” Riccardi says. “We’re able to go all over the world and do artisanal work where the quality and the preciousness of the materials is guaranteed.”
The newest collection, Baccarat La Maison, arrives with a suite of pieces for the entire house, each with its own soupçon of bling. (It’s not the brand’s first foray into furniture, however: Philippe Starck produced a limited series in 2012.) “The most difficult thing to figure out was how to combine crystal with materials like wood and metal,” says Raffaella Vignatelli, who took the reins of Luxury Living after her father’s death in 2017. Understanding Baccarat’s wide-ranging fan base was key. “You can just as easily hang a Baccarat chandelier in a mansion as you could in a loft,” she says. “This line needs that same range.”
To achieve this, Luxury Living turned to top-shelf Paris talents, such as Jacques Grange, Arik Levy, and Gilles & Boissier, to create a collection that strikes a balance between classic and contemporary. First, there are the showstoppers: For example, Grange’s bar is made using backlit, carved-crystal tiles that were inspired by the Baccarat Hotel’s façade. While some things are embedded with rows of crystals, such as a chest of drawers and a circular mirror, others take a less literal route. “You won’t be surrounded,” Vignatelli says reassuringly, pointing out the line’s svelte, demure staples. “If you order a complete room set, not everything will be shiny!”
