Mathieu Challières

Mathieu Challières came to design by an unusual route. Trained in art history at the École du Louvre, he spent most of his career writing for advertising at Publicis, making objects in his spare time. In the early 2000s he left to work for himself.

With no wish to invest in the business, he chose plaster casting, a technique that needed almost no capital and that he had taught himself. His first plaster lights were soon picked up by interior designers and Le Bon Marché in Paris. In 2006 he created the Volières, birdcage-like lights that have become his signature. Every piece is still made by hand in his workshop in Belleville, Paris.