Theoreme Editions Highlights French Design and Craftsmanship

Experimental design company Theoreme Editions brings together the visions of contemporary designers with skilled European artisans. Launched by David Giroire and Jérôme Bazzocchi, the brand has just opened its first showroom at the Palais Royal in Paris. The duo met while working at Dior in 2005. Giroire started his own communications agency soon after (his first client was Studio KO), and in 2018 they began to discuss and create what would later become Theoreme Editions. “I had already studied architecture, design, and lifestyle by working with a new guard of young designers like Emmanuelle Simon and Francesco Balzano. And I thought to myself, why not take the experiment a little further by managing their images through editing pieces?” says Giroire. “Jerome and I already collect, and this is where the idea for Theoreme Editions came from.”

Though Bazzocchi also does not have an education in design or architecture, he always had an eye for objects. “At 12, I wanted to be an auctioneer. I spent a lot of time in the sales halls of Drouot, and I looked forward every week to the arrival of La Gazette at home,” he says.

L’OFFICIEL: What is the guiding idea behind Theoreme Editions?

DAVID GIROIRE: We have exceptional artisans in France, so when we think of furniture for architects or designers, it’s impeccable quality. The prices are always high, and to justify the price, there is often a sort of bourgeois element around it all. Whereas in other countries like Germany, we’ve always found very perfect objects with a less polished side, and we were surprised not to find that in France. This is what we wanted to do with Theoreme—making objects of remarkable quality but with a fresher aesthetic. So we played with the colors and materials, like with our plaster lamps; we also worked with resin, crystal, and stone.

L’O: So you selected designers and then the objects were created….

JÉRÔME BAZZOCCHI: The first six designers we started working with were ones that David knew; we had a perspective on their aesthetics and knew what we liked about them. They were given a brief: “monolithic, sculptural, and minimal.” They were free to choose the types of objects and materials. They offered us several ideas, and we curated it all so that it made sense. We don’t touch the design at all, but we have an idea of what we want or don’t want. So there is a conversation with the designers.

L’O: Had these designers’ work been made and distributed before?

DG: Yes, but they had carte blanche. We did not try to set them at a price; the designer offered us drawings with a few directions and then we edited from there. We chose one piece per designer for which we take into consideration the typology of the object—the color, the volume—so that the collection is coherent as a whole.

L’O: The common thread is that all your designers are French.

DG: For the moment, yes. Covid made it quite difficult to get together, but we still managed to have pieces produced all over Europe, which was quite a challenge. But for the third edition, we’ll have European designers. The idea is to be open and not so French.

L’O: You have traveled around Europe to meet the best craftsmen. What was it like to find and work with them?

DG: It actually wasn’t so complicated, because we came up with a fairly new project, with a creation of rather original objects. Artisans often have the habit of replicating the same gesture to realize the same kind of forms, and they found it interesting to work with us to bring their work to another level. Those who made these armchairs are used to making banana or bean sofas because that’s the trend. So when we came in with our ergonomic 3D chair, they worked to find the perfect curve—it was a real sculpture. Especially since our artisan is 75 years old and does not work from a 3D drawing.

JB: The idea with Theoreme Editions is to challenge the craftsmen by pushing their techniques and their limits.

L’O: The Theoreme Edition offering is quite eclectic; you are not looking to decorate an apartment from A to Z.

DG: We have indeed tried to find an eclecticism between each of the pieces, be it between a very classic crystal object and a much more modern resin bench in order to be able to speak to different audiences. We would also like to showcase more unexpected objects.

L’O: And what are your other added values?

JB: Special attention is paid to design, designers, crafts, etc. We have strong lines but are discreet; we are timeless.

DG: In my opinion, all objects already exist. The challenge today is to create objects that arouse emotion, to which we can attach ourselves. Each time we observe them, we can have a different perception of them.