ENGINEERED ELEGANCE

What do Tom Ford, Steven Spielberg, and Princess Marie-Chantal have in common? Aside from names that can procure last-minute reservations at Nobu, they’re all avid clients of furniture designer Hervé Van der Straeten, famed for his bold, architectural pieces that bridge the divide between interior design and contemporary art.

The Parisian designer’s work—his oeuvre also includes jewellery and lighting—evokes the alien and the ancient, and his methods are both cutting-edge and painstakingly traditional. Bronze, aluminium, wood, alabaster, and goatskin parchment are handwrought, polished, carved, and stretched to create consoles, mirrors, and chandeliers. “A piece is perfect to me when it combines a strong