Discover Highlights from PAD Paris 2026

Regular visitors to PAD, the Pavilion of Art and Design, in Paris, have come to expect an enthusiastic reappraisal of 1980s design, as the city’s Gen Z gallerists cast their attention back four decades. Paul Ménacer-Poussin and Paul-Louis Betto at Pulp Galerie, for example, who are just 26 and 27 years old, regularly embrace the world of decorative radicals like Mattia Bonetti and Elizabeth Garouste. For this presentation, they added in the bunker-like severity of Mario Botta’s sheet aluminum “Quarta” armchair (1984) and Gaetano Pesce’s upbeat “Square” lamp (1986) in gooey, colorful resin. All concealed behind a wall of inflated clear PVC columns, the pair called their stand “a monumental frigerator.” The vibes were Blade Runner—the original came out in 1982, of course.

But the real surprise at this edition was the rise of the 1970s. Among the more seasoned gallerists, it was the decade du jour. “Casa Vogue circa 1973,” commented a worldly design advisor, as we admired the scenography at Desprez Breheret, where 1950s dark wood chairs with carved backs by the Breton carpenter Joseph Savina were paired with a 1970s modular sofa by Christian Adam, all atop a dirty brown striped Moroccan rug. It kindled a memory of not just magazine shoots, but bygone family homes.

“I call it the Sleeping Beauty principle,” says Krista van Oudhesden at Dutch gallery Atkris, pointing to two totemic lamps by Carlo Nason (approximately $16,000 each), who designed numerous lamps in cast glass for Mazzega in the 1960s and 1970s. These, made of large cast glass sections, show him pushing the Murano makers to the limits in scale, while making the most of glass’s evanescent relationship to color, with shades of tobacco and glimmering blue. Though plenty of lights were made by Mazzega, as van Oudhesden points out, there is a particular thrill in discovering glass—the most breakable of materials—that has survived intact down the years and allowing it to shine again. Meanwhile, Nason, who is now in his 90s, and came from a family of glass makers and still lives in Venice, is enjoying the revival of interest in historic Murano glass and his own work and reappraising his archive.

At Julien Spitzer, known for his careful curation at the Marché Serpette at Paris’s famous Les Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen, a vast sectional Hans Hopfer sofa, originally made by Roche Bobois in 1974, commanded the stand. Here, reupholstered in a sympathetic brown and white combination (let’s call it “coffee and cream” to be really 70s), at around 11 feet long, was a showstopper looking for a very big home. Meanwhile, a brilliant orange stand design at Damien Tison reinforced the period feeling, as did a suite of Italian 1970s chairs with triangular seats upholstered in a brown, beige, and burnt orange check, and padded pole backs. Ironically, the chairs—provenance and designer unknown—were pulling focus from a heroic display of 51 pieces of Picasso’s ceramics, limited editions made with Suzanne Ramié at Atelier Madoura in Vallauris, including the famous owls and dancers. Wrong era, perhaps.

At Patrick Fourtin—yes, the gallery next door to Emily’s office in Emily in Paris—a different side of 1970s style was on show in the high-gloss lacquer work of Belgian designer Emiel Veranneman. These unique pieces, made bespoke for wealthy clients, included a deep red secretaire, complete with a complexity of internal drawers and pigeon holes, and a canary yellow console that both demonstrated Veranneman’s expertise with the lacquer and color. “I’ve seen images of Veranneman’s work in its original settings,” says Omar Ationi of the Fourtin team. “Belgian homes where the paintings were by Francis Bacon.”

This being the Paris edition of PAD, a dream team of judges cruised the aisles, looking for the best in show, while Julia Restoin Roitfeld tried on jewelry at Parisian specialist Karry Berreby. Among them were the founder of the famous concept store Colette, Sarah Andelman, interiors star India Mahdavi, and designer Simon Porte Jacquemus. Their choices are among the highlights below.

Jeremy Pradier-Jeauneau

Jeremy Pradier-Jeauneau showcases his own designs alongside treasured finds from the 1960s and 1970s, which he brings back to life. The designer, who grew up in Versailles, says: “I like to work with strong architectural forms and rich materials.” This is true of his sofa, called “The Waves,” with its wide seat and Art Deco back detail. “I think it’s the time to be bold. The time for color.” Indeed, in tough times, he is calling his luxe booth “The Shelter.” But this is not a designer joke. Pradier-Jeauneau’s ceramic console and mirror are both made in a workshop in Kyiv. “I want to support Ukraine in any way I can,” says the designer.

Laffanour/Galerie Downtown

The gallery won the Historic Design Prize for the “Poisson Buffet” by Joseph Savina, a unique work from 1961. The Breton designer worked as a carpenter for Le Corbusier’s wooden sculptural pieces, while running his own career in the Breton town of Treguier. The Fish buffet and bed shown here feature exquisitely carved bas-relief fish panels on a vibrant green painted background. Chairs, rustic in style with raffia seats, have backs carved with leaves, tendrils, and sometimes Celtic symbols.

Achille Salvagni

The Roman designer, with galleries in Rome, London, and New York, went for primary colors on his stand, including a new edition of his “Indore” cabinet in royal blue. The cabinet was inspired by the designer’s visit to an exhibition at Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 2019 to see the collection of the Maharajah of Indore, known as the Modern Maharajah for his Art Deco tastes. “The cabinet is based on a cigarette case, in silver and black lacquer that I saw in the show,” says Salvagni. His interpretation is this cabinet clad in blue-stained, gloss-finished parchment, with sleek, rounded edges, bronze “wings,” and a final compliment of yellow feet. Pure glamour.

Dumonteil

Winners of the Contemporary Design Prize for a chest, console and series of lights by the Belgian designer Aurelien Veyrat, “He brings a second life to objects and materials,” says Dorian Dumonteil, of the Parisian gallery. “I picked out Aurelien’s work a few weeks ago in Brussels at the Villa Empain. I was really struck by the way he combines the functional, decorative, and sculptural.” Veyrat takes existing furniture pieces and reclads them with materials from the building trade—terracotta and tiles. Lamps of stacked roof tiles are even fitted with reclaimed Bakelite switches. A chic take on the upcycling trend.

Romain Morandi

There really was no other contender for Best Stand. Romain Morandi’s scholarly approach to his profession is, as the French would say, sans pareil (or peerless). This year, he dazzled with the eight-legged “Haberfeld” table, a low, generous piece in oak and brass, made in 1902 for Adolf Loos’s client, the art historian Dr. Hugo Haberfeld, where every element has a structural value. (Loos’s mantra was “ornament is crime,” remember.) But it didn’t stop there. Other pieces included a 1902 cabinet by Koloman Moser, whose sister is in New York’s Neue Museum, next to which a 1984 wall hanging by Jasper Morrison, made while the designer was still at the Royal College of Art, was quite a surprise. It is called Rug with Many Bosoms for a reason.

Elie Top

The former assistant of Yves Saint Laurent, and the jewelry designer of Alber Elbaz’s Lanvin years, Elie Top created a new series of his “Lady in the Lake” repertoire for PAD 2026. Based around the Arthurian legend, the design flirts with a mild Medievalism. A cuff in distressed dark grey silver and white gold, studded with diamonds and citrines in red, green, and orange, demonstrated Top’s usual mastery—it takes both nerve and skill to combine silver and gold—and his characteristic assimilation of romance and strength. The classic pieces demonstrate his love of existing stones, sometimes in old cuts that trade contemporary glitter for historic value. 

PAD Paris is on view from April 8—12.