Tory Burch's Paris Apartment, Told Through the Objects She Keeps
Vogue
In this Vogue tour, designer Tory Burch walks through the Paris apartment she shares with her husband, Pierre-Yves Roussel, and talks about what she calls her "objects of affection." Burch says she has loved Paris since she was very young, when she visited with her parents, and that she lives there now because she married a Frenchman. The apartment was the only one the couple ever looked at. Burch describes the decision as instantaneous: they looked at each other, agreed it was beautiful, and saw what it could become. The tour is less about the architecture than about the objects Burch has gathered and why each one matters to her. Recurring themes include contrast, age and wear, family memory, and pieces that are individual rather than uniform.
A Mysterious Worker at the Entrance
The first object is a 17th-century painting of a man with a pickaxe and spade. The artist is unknown. Burch values it partly because it belonged to Robert Kime, someone she says she really loved. What interests her in the image is what she calls a stark contradiction: the man looks like an aristocrat, yet he is dressed and equipped as a worker.
Burch offers her own reading of the picture. The man may have had a mysterious upbringing, perhaps not knowing who his father was, and so was put to work. The sun rising behind him, in her view, suggests a better future. She acknowledges that it is an unexpected thing to see on first walking in, and calls it welcoming but "a little eccentric," which she thinks is what makes it interesting.
Givenchy's Chairs and a Guiding Idea
A pair of chairs came from the auction of Hubert de Givenchy's collection. Burch says Givenchy is the person she thinks of for iconic chic style, and calls him the chicest man who ever lived, "maybe aside from my father." When she saw the chairs at auction, she thought they would be an incredible starting point for the Paris apartment. She mentions liking both their embroidery and their history.
She then cites a favorite Givenchy quote, that Paris should feel "collected, not decorated," and says it sums up how she feels about interior design. That idea frames much of what follows.
Cow Creamers in the Kitchen
The kitchen is where the couple spends much of their time. Burch shows a collection of antique cow creamers and says she puts them on any table she has. She explains that they originated in the Netherlands and were later adopted by potters in Staffordshire, England. What she likes is that they are individual, because each potter made their own version. They were decorative table pieces used to serve cream with tea and at breakfast.
Burch also points out the work of Studio Peregalli, the architects on the apartment. She calls working with them "another dream" and invites viewers to look at what they did with the architecture.
A Bronze Apple With Two Casts Inside
Burch and her husband spent a day with sculptor Claude Lalanne at her home outside Paris. At the time, Pierre-Yves was thinking about moving to New York, and Burch wanted to give him something special. Since an apple represents New York, she commissioned a Lalanne apple. Lalanne cast both of their lips inside it, and the couple spent the day watching how she made the pieces. Burch calls it extraordinary and "a day we'll never forget."
Old and New: Romuald Hazoumè
Burch says she likes mixing contemporary work with antiques. She describes Romuald Hazoumè as one of her favorite artists. What she admires is how he draws on his own traditions while making them new, and how he takes discarded objects and makes something beautiful from them. She places his work against an old portrait of Elizabethans in lace collars to set old against new. She also stresses that his work carries social commentary: in her reading, he is making a statement about consumerism by turning discarded things into something exceptional.
First Editions and Thinking About Time
In a reading corner, Burch talks about books, which she says she values and thinks about a lot. Early in their relationship, Pierre-Yves gave her first editions of two favorites. One is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, her favorite author. The other is The Little Prince, which she says is good for children and adults alike. She adds that everyone should read it for its message.
She connects García Márquez's novel to her design thinking. The book made her question the perception of time. That, she says, relates to how she thinks about design: longevity, what time means, how something will last, and how it can be passed down through generations.
An Urs Fischer Lamp That Didn't Turn On
A friend at Salon 94 showed Burch a lamp by Urs Fischer. Burch says she had always associated Lalanne with a bird lamp, so she saw Fischer's piece as a different take on the bird lamp. She calls it "unexpected and interesting." When she tries to demonstrate it, it doesn't light, and she admits with a laugh that she forgot to charge it.
A Green Garden With Color in the Pots
The garden was done with Madison Cox. Burch says everything was restored, and the result makes you feel as if you are in the countryside while still in Paris. She calls it zen and relaxing. She wanted a mostly green garden with only certain flowers, and describes herself as very specific about the color palette. The color comes from the pots, and the rest stays largely green. Existing Japanese maples and vines were saved. Hydrangeas were a must, partly because they reference the American East Coast.
The oldest piece in the apartment stands here: a 16th-century figure of Flora, goddess of gardens and greenery, associated with fertility, which once stood in a fountain. Burch says she loves its age and would like to know what the figure has seen over its life.
Jardinières That Improve With Wear
Burch says she is starting to notice that she uses certain things again and again, and Napoleon III jardinières of enamel and iron are one example. She likes that each is different. What she loves most is that the older and more worn they get, the more beautiful she finds them. This echoes her earlier remarks about longevity.
The Dining Room and Bracquemond's Plates
The dining room began as what Burch calls "a white box," with no closets or storage. The couple hired Féau Boiseries to add paneling that curves and creates storage space.
On the table is a setting by Félix Bracquemond. Burch describes him as a French painter and printmaker who also worked with Japanese artists. She collects his plates and again likes that each one is different. In her account, he took his printmaking and was the first to apply it so beautifully to pottery and china. Pointing to a rooster and numerous insects in the designs, she remarks that she is "a bug person."
She also talks about flowers, which she calls another obsession and a way she relaxes. She works with a grower named Clemence, who has a farm about two hours outside Paris. She picks what she wants from what he grows, and he brings the flowers in.
Symmetry and Reverse-Glass Paintings
Burch says she thinks a lot about symmetry. In one room, a closet with plenty of storage is matched by an identical door on the other side, which she calls a bit of a trompe l'oeil. It looks like another closet but actually leads to the hallway. The symmetry continues into the powder room.
There she has hung 18th-century Indian reverse-glass paintings. They date from a period when European techniques reached India and merged with local traditions, a meeting of cultures that has long intrigued Burch as an art history major. She notes that reverse painting on glass produces very vibrant colors. She admits she has not always liked that, but with these pieces she does. She is also drawn to the fact that the subjects all look away rather than at the viewer, "as if you caught them in a moment," and says each has a story.
A Bedroom Built From an 18th-Century Vest
For the bedroom, the couple worked with brothers Nicolas and Sebastien Reese, whom Burch describes as masters at restoring or creating beautiful things based on existing references. The starting point was an 18th-century men's vest they had found. From it, the Reeses hand-embroidered and painted the curtains and fabrics, which were also used to upholster chairs and dress the windows. The same treatment continues into Burch's dressing room, on the walls and a couch. She praises how precisely they matched the colors.
Family Talismans
In the dressing room, Burch shows a few personal pieces. One set is squares she made, based on one of her grandmother's bracelets, bearing her sons' nicknames: Pickle, Saucy, and Hanky. She calls herself very superstitious and says she has to take them on every trip, or she "can't get on the airplane."
The other is a charm necklace connected to her parents. Her father had a gold Zippo lighter made and soldered charms onto it, and Burch has turned it into a pendant. She remembers that as children they were not allowed to touch it. The charms range from a St. Christopher medal to a Tiffany tag. Others include a German shepherd for the family's kennel, a New York Stock Exchange tree, references to the family's tennis and Burch's horseback riding, and his lucky number 13. Burch says the piece shows exactly who her father was: someone with exceptional style who did things in an interesting, different way.
She also displays a dress she wore the night before. She says she included it because she loves designing beautiful things. Its embroidery is all done by hand in an ombré meant to look as if it is moving, and she likes it paired with something structured.
A Cabinet for Her Mother
One of Burch's favorite pieces is a 1930s cabinet from La Galerie Parisienne, which she calls one of her favorite Paris shops. Her mother always wanted her to have a Coromandel screen in one of her homes, and Burch never wanted one. But this cabinet reminds her of such a screen, so she considers it an homage to her mother.
The Bathroom and a Handwoven Bag
The tour ends in the bathroom with a handwoven tote made with Nidhi Allen, whom Burch describes as a friend who brings artisanal work to life. Burch went to many concerts growing up and carried market bags like this. She calls it "the Grateful Dead bag." The question she asked was how to bring that kind of bag to life through Indian artisanship, which she says is what Nidhi Allen's work makes possible. Burch says the bag reminds her strongly of her childhood. It is the kind of thing she sees as nearly impossible to find, which is why she found it interesting to include it in her fall collection on the runway.
She closes by thanking Vogue for visiting and says how much she loves being in the apartment.
Hi Vogue, I'm Tory Burch. Welcome to our place in Paris and we're going to talk about some of my objects of affection.
I've always loved Paris even since I was very, very little. I used to come with my parents, but I married a Frenchman. That's why I'm here. And I have to say the minute that we walked in to this beautiful apartment we knew we wanted it immediately. It was the only apartment we ever saw and I think it was instantaneous. We looked at each other, Pierre-Yves and I, and we said this is so beautiful and we saw what it could be.
This is the gentleman with the pickax and spade, 17th century. I love this because it belonged to someone I really loved, Robert Kime. It's such an interesting painting because we don't know who painted it, but I love the stark contradiction of a man that looks like he's aristocracy but he's also a worker. And so he definitely had a mysterious upbringing, didn't know maybe who his father was, so he was put to work, but also has the sun coming up so it means there's a better future for him. I think it's a bit unexpected to see it as you first walk in and it's kind of a welcoming and it's a little eccentric and I think that's what makes it interesting.
When I think of someone that represents iconic chic style it's Hubert de Givenchy, and so when I saw these chairs in his auction I thought this would be an incredible starting point for our Paris place. And I love the embroidery, I love the history, and certainly think he is the chicest man, maybe aside from my father, that ever existed. One of my favorite quotes by Hubert de Givenchy is that Paris should feel collected, not decorated. And I think that kind of sums up how I feel about interior design.
So, here is our kitchen. Place where we spend a lot of our time. We're here a lot. And I wanted to show you these cow creamers because wherever I have a table, I put them on. And they originated in the Netherlands and then Staffordshire, England sort of adopted them and took them over. I love how individual they are. Each potter had its own kind of cow creamer. And they were decorative, used for tables, for cream, and served with tea, and also during breakfast.
I had to show you this because working with Studio Peregalli was another dream. It was amazing. And the way they worked on this apartment and the architecture, look at this. Come on in.
So, here is our Claude Lalanne apple. I was lucky enough with my husband to spend the day with Claude Lalanne in her beautiful home outside of Paris. And it's when Pierre-Yves was thinking about moving to New York. So, I wanted to get him something special. And of course, an apple represents New York. And so, Claude Lalanne actually cast both of our lips inside. And we spent the day with her looking at how she made them. It was pretty extraordinary. It's a day we'll never forget.
I love the idea of mixing contemporary with old and antiques. And Romuald Hazoumè is one of my favorite artists. I love the way he takes part of his traditions, but also then makes them super interesting and new. And takes old objects that were discarded and creates something beautiful. I love the way it's set against this old portrait of the Elizabethan with their lace scarves, but I like the old and the new. His work is so intriguing because it's about social commentary as well. I mean, he's definitely making a statement on consumerism and taking things that were discarded, as I mentioned, and making something new and exceptional out of it.
This is the perfect place to read, and books are something that I think a lot about, I value. So, when I first was with Pierre-Yves, he bought me two of my favorite books and he bought me first editions. One is One Hundred Years of Solitude by my favorite author, Gabriel García Márquez, and then of course The Little Prince, which is a book that is great for children and adults. Everyone needs to read this book. The message is superb. I think One Hundred Years of Solitude just made me question time perception, and I think that is interesting about design. I think about longevity and time and what that means and how something will last and how can we make it be something that's given down throughout generations.
Here is a lamp by Urs Fischer. My friend Genie Rowaton showed this to me. She's at Salon 94 and I loved it. I also was thinking it's kind of interesting 'cause I've always known Lalanne to have a bird lamp. And I thought that this was kind of a different take on a bird lamp, and I just think that it's a bit unexpected and interesting. I'm a little embarrassed to say you usually do this and it turns on, but I forgot to charge it. So, you have to charge it. That would have been good.
This is our garden in Paris and we were lucky enough to work with Madison Cox. They restored everything and they created a space that makes you feel like we're in the country in Paris, and it's just very zen and relaxing. So, I wanted it to be almost a green garden and then certain flowers. He said I'm very specific actually when working with me about the color palette. So, the color comes in the pots and the rest is pretty green. We had some beautiful trees like these Japanese maples and just vines that we saved and everything, and then of course we had to have some hydrangea, which also references the East Coast a bit.
Okay, this is probably the oldest piece in our apartment. It's 16th century and it's Flora, goddess of gardens and greenery, and it's about fertility and it used to be in a fountain. I love the age and probably would love to know what she's seen in her life.
So, one thing I'm starting to realize is that I do use things over and over again, and these jardinières are one of them. I love them because each of them are so different. They're Napoleon III, they're enamel and iron, and the thing I love most is that the older they get and the more worn, I think the more beautiful they are.
This is our dining room and we had to hire Féau Boiseries to do this. It was a white box and so we didn't have any closets or anything or storage, so we curved it and created the space.
Félix Bracquemond is the French painter and printmaker, and he also worked with Japanese artists as well, and I love his plates and I collect them, and what I love about them is they're also each different. And he took this incredible printmaking and really was the first to put it in such beautiful pottery and china. This is pretty exceptional when you look at it. The rooster and a lot of bugs. I guess I'm a bug person. I like bugs.
Another one of my obsessions is flowers, and it's, I don't know, a bit of like me and how I relax. I work with this incredible man named Clemence who has a farm two hours outside of Paris, and he grows the most magnificent things, and we pick what we want and he comes, and look how beautiful. It's pretty extraordinary what he does.
One thing I think a lot about is symmetry, and this is kind of a bit trompe l'oeil because you have the closet here that we did with plenty of storage. And then over here we have a matching door which looks like it might be, but it actually goes into the hallway.
Okay, and here's the symmetry going into the powder room, with these Indian reverse glass pictures that I found, which I love because they're 18th century and it's when Europe brought some of their techniques to India and they melded their traditions with some European techniques, and that was something I've always been intrigued by as an art history major. If you come in here, there's more in here. You look at them and some of the colors are so vibrant, and that's one thing that happens when you do reverse painting on glass. It's funny because I've not always loved that, but with these I love it. They all have a story and I think that's what's so interesting. They're all looking away, not directly at you. It's almost as if you caught them in a moment.
This is our bedroom and we worked with the Reese brothers, with Nicolas and Sebastien, and they're masters at restoring or creating beautiful things based on something else. And we found this 18th-century men's vest and that was the beginning of the inspiration for this room, and they hand embroidered and painted the curtains and the fabrics. The attention to detail is just so incredibly beautiful. We upholstered chairs with it and then on the windows as well.
We brought the same detail into my dressing room and again we did it on the walls and on the couch. I think it's just pretty exceptional the way they got the colors exact. And then a couple pieces we made, I made these, they were off of one of my grandmother's bracelets, these squares that I put my boys' nicknames: Pickle, Saucy, and Hanky. And I'm very superstitious, so anytime I go on a trip I have to take them with me or else I can't get on the airplane.
And then the only other thing that I have is a charm necklace of my parents'. My father had this gold Zippo made and I turned it into a pendant, but I remember growing up we weren't allowed to touch it, and he soldered all of these incredible charms onto this gold Zippo, and everything from, I don't know, St. Christopher to a Tiffany tag. We had a kennel of German Shepherds, so he has a German Shepherd here. The tree of New York Stock Exchange, we were tennis players, I rode horses, his lucky number 13. This shows exactly who my father was. He had the most exceptional style and just did things in a very interesting, different way.
I wore this last night so I had to put it up here because I love designing beautiful things, and this I thought was just so pretty. Some of the embroidery that we did is all hand done and ombré to look like it's moving, and wearing it with something structured I think is quite beautiful.
This is actually one of my favorite pieces I found at one of my favorite shops in Paris, La Galerie Parisienne. It's a cabinet, and the reason I love it so much is that my mother always wanted me to get a Coromandel screen in one of my homes and I didn't want that, but I actually love this and it reminds me of that. So, this is really an homage to my mother. It's from the 1930s and I just think it's absolutely beautiful.
Okay. Welcome to my bathroom. Let's start with my friend Nidhi Allen, who brings these beautiful artisanal things to life. And growing up I always went to a lot of concerts, and so I call this the Grateful Dead bag, because the Rolling Stone bag. I used to take market bags like this and I thought, how do we bring this to life with beautiful Indian artisanship? And that's what Nidhi does with us. I love the craft of it, and this reminds me so much of my childhood that I couldn't, you know, I think about things that are impossibly hard to find, and that's this. So, to mix this in with our fall collection, I thought was very interesting on the runway.
Bye Vogue. Thank you so much for coming and looking at our apartment and seeing some of my objects of affection. I love it here and I hope you loved it. Au revoir. À bientôt.
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