Vogue: House tour: inside the Paris home of Zadig & Voltaire designers Thierry Gillier and Cecilia Bönström
Having recently left a beloved Haussmann apartment, Thierry Gillier, founder of Paris-based fashion house Zadig & Voltaire, his wife, artistic director Cecilia Bönström and four children, now live in a five-bedroom, 500-square-metre home that features a minimalist interior framing an abundant and varied collection of original art pieces.
Before making his distinctive mark on the fashion world, French-born Gillier was an artist. Collecting — be it fine art, furniture or found objects — became a passion. His love of contemporary art, especially minimalist and monochromatic work, began when he was living in New York, having studied object design at Parsons School of Design, and painting and film at Bard College in the 1980s and ’90s. After working at Yves Saint Laurent, rather than follow a path into the family textile business, he established his own fashion brand named after his favourite book, Voltaire’s Zadig, or the Book of Fate. For Gillier, fashion is as much an art as literature or film.
As the brand’s artistic director, Bönström brings her own sense of style into the mix. Originally from Sweden, her aesthetic is founded on the minimalism of Scandinavian style, however there are subtle differences to the simplicity sought by her husband. Indeed, after the couple started buying art and objects together, their collection gradually evolved away from quiet refinement and into something more imaginative. It is in this way that Gillier and Bönström’s home — a conversion encompassing two floors on Rue Galilée in Paris’s 16th arrondissement, a mere five-minute stroll to the Zadig & Voltaire headquarters — oozes sensuality, showcasing both elegance and play. Here, Gillier shares his insights into their shared aesthetic and how he and Bönström have translated it into their home.
