Architectural Digest

“I wanted to do something that really honoured what France does better than anyone: material, craftsmanship, tradition, and innovation all at once,” Ingrao told me, surveying the dreamlike vignette. Set against a backdrop of decorative painting by Atelier de Ricou, the space included a sculptural bar, chess table, and an armchair so opulent it might need its own passport.

Cristina, the detail-obsessed architect in Ingrao’s atelier, led the charge on the design, along with visual developer Andrew McCourt. And if you’re wondering how they pulled off such a high-touch feat within the compressed timeline of the Biennial, the answer lies with the company, Par Excellence: Guillaume Bouchez, its sharp-suited CEO, and Stéphanie Desbant, the ever-elegant managing director who makes the impossible look rehearsed. “Honestly, working with these artisans is the easiest part,” Hurtado de Mendoza said with a smile. “They’re all perfectionists.”

She wasn’t exaggerating. That one armchair alone involved five workshops: Atelier Nicolas Souchet did the frame, Atelier Jouffre the upholstery, Bonvallet supplied the alpaca (a fabric called Yosemite), Ateliers Fey crafted the scored leather back, and Atelier Lebuisson embroidered it, no less. That’s a lot of hands, and not a stitch out of place.

The rest of the installation was just as layered: Flower-shaped pendant lights in leather and straw; custom chess pieces that could double as objets d’art; a bar with decorative lighting by Ozone, stools wrapped in lush fabric, and a rug woven in Burgundy with the precision of a haute couture hem. Puiforcat lent the finishing touches with sculptural tableware, and everywhere you looked there was texture, colour, craftsmanship – and a whisper of something theatrical.

“This kind of project is exactly why Par Excellence exists,” said Desbant. “We wanted to show what can happen when designers and artisans work as equals, across borders, with a single shared vision.” And if Révélations is about anything, it’s that. A platform not just for showing, but for connecting. For reminding people that true luxury is made by hand, by people who know exactly what they’re doing. Luckily, Tony Ingrao already knows.