“Creative Paris,” by editorial director Anne-Sophie Leroux, is the newest offering from My Little Paris, a media and e-commerce group founded by five women. With more than 130 employees, it addresses a community of five million women. Its signatures are the power of zero (no investment or fundraising), and a love for craft in the digital age. My Little Paris has now expanded into Germany and Japan. A+A recently interviewed Ms. Leroux via email:
Who’s the target audience for this book?
The book was initially intended for Japanese publishing. We set up our offices and started sending My Little Box in Tokyo for four years. The Japan community that has since joined us wanted to continue this experience beyond the box and discover the creative Paris. In designing the book, we realized that it could also interest other readers. Thanks to Flammarion, the book could exist in France and abroad.
The intent of the book?
This book was born from the same and simple ambition as our media, to surprise and tell stories. This time, by introducing our readers to real Parisians, in their home-sweet-homes, their parquet-molded fireplaces, their bazaars without elevators. We also wanted to introduce our own offices in Paris, Berlin and Tokyo. Because we are convinced that the layout of the space where we work every day, like the one we find every night, can put our creativity to sleep. Or, on the contrary, transcend it. We choose this second option.
How did you select the interiors?
Just the way we sent the newsletter at its beginning 10 years ago, we shared this project with our employees, who shared it with their friends. Then we tried to maintain a balance between different types of places (surface, decoration, etc.-
What was the threshold of design they had to meet?
No matter how many square meters they were, we looked first and foremost at the ideas with which they were furnished before being furnished with objects.
The inspiration for the book?
We have sought inspiration in the daily lives of Parisians, and that is why we have supplemented it with the favourite addresses of its inhabitants at the end of the book.
The challenges of putting it together?
Over the pages, show readers the most secret and invisible Paris. Did you know the Butte Bergeyre and its houses that communicate through the roofs? The garage in Saint-Denis has been renovated by a poet junk shop owner? The meeting room in the shape of a double bed with a view of the Sacred Heart? The most beautiful rooftop in the capital, reserved for a few bees and the lucky ones who rent it for one night? To get away from the beaten track. As far as possible.
For more, go here.
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