In 1927, a young Charlotte Perriand gained recognition at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs with her Coin de Salon—a triumph that would launch her career and romantic life with her first husband, Percy Kilner Scholefield. As a pioneering woman in industrial design, Perriand favoured utility over ornamentation, embodying the independent, cultured, and effortlessly chic woman that Yves Saint Laurent would come to dress for. In April, nearly a century later, Saint Laurent’s creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, brought four of Perriand’s privately kept furniture designs out of obscurity for Salone del Mobile 2025, creating a dialogue between two visionaries who, across generations, redefined what it means to live with purpose.

In 2014, under the creative direction of Hedi Slimane, an exhibition at the Saint Laurent Paris store on Avenue Montaigne paired Perriand’s furniture with designs by Yves Saint Laurent. The show suggested that Perriand’s work played a formative role in shaping Saint Laurent’s vision of modernity. Today, this collaboration aligns with Saint Laurent’s initiative to reinterpret works of modernist heritage through contemporary eyes, a mission particularly resonant with Perriand’s work. 

Perriand was born in Paris in 1903 to a tailor and seamstress. Her free-spirited yet practical approach, seen in modular creations that honour natural materials and embrace industrial progress, not only earnt her a spot in Le Corbusier’s design team but also captured the admiration of Saint Laurent himself, who collected her pieces throughout his life. At Padiglione Visconti, the designers’ parallel visions of liberated practical elegance reunite as Vaccarello brings four of Perriand’s designs to the public: Fauteuil Visiteur Indochine, Bibliothèque Rio de Janeiro, Table Mille-Feuille and Canapé de la Résidence de l’Ambassadeur du Japon à Paris. The former two works include reproductions of a chair and a library, respectively made for her own home. She commissioned the third piece for the Vietnamese embassy, while a small prototype on the designer's desk inspired the creation of the final piece.

In 1943, during her tenure as the Director of Crafts and Applied Arts of Indochina, Perriand designed the Fauteuil Visiteur Indochine, one of two works in the Salone collection that remained in her personal possession. It was during this time that she started a family with Jacques Martin, the then Director of Economic Affairs of Indochina, and thoughtfully designed an ensemble of furniture pieces for their home, including this refined armchair. Honouring Perriand’s original designs, traditional Thai cushions were upholstered in leather and sewn edge to edge on a rosewood base. Perched on a curved chrome tube, the seat bridges Perriand’s legacy with quality craftsmanship. The reissued chair distils her modernist rigour with the integration of contemporary materials, including soft leather cushions and a rosewood frame, juxtaposed against a chromed tubular base.

Designed in 1962 during her time in Brazil, the Bibliothèque Rio de Janeiro is the second piece of the capsule. She conceived the library, a gift to Martin, around her desire to properly showcase books and art in their home. Striking for its colossal Brazilian rosewood frame, the piece commands attention as it encumbers the space. It distinguishes itself through intricate canework braiding on its sliding cabinet doors, inspired by local artisanal techniques seen on window shutters in traditional Brazilian homes. These doors can stay open or closed for storage, making for a rhythmic arrangement that brings both balance and visual interest to the library. The piece has been exposed three times in the last 25 years, each time with great public reception. 

The following year, Charlotte Perriand designed the Table Mille-Feuille, named after the French pastry of ‘a thousand layers.’  The table was never produced beyond a small prototype due to its complexity and the limited technical capabilities of the time. The table’s round tabletop is composed of stacked sheets of interchanging light- and dark-toned wood (rosewood and cherrywood), meticulously assembled to create a medley of colour and grain. The horizontal strata on the surface reflect Perriand’s interest in revealing the natural contrasts within materials. Supported by a minimalist solid wood base, the table balances weight with lightness. 

Designed in 1967, the Canapé de la Résidence de l’Ambassadeur du Japon à Paris stands as the final piece reissued for the Saint Laurent-Charlotte Perriand collaboration. The sofa was originally conceived for the newly built Japanese embassy in Paris during the designer’s tenure as interior architect and furniture designer. Inspired by contemporary art encountered while in Japan, Perriand envisioned a sofa with a visually weightless presence: a 7-metre-long frame composed of two elegantly curved wooden beams cradling deep blue cushions, designed to seat up to six. The sofa’s floating silhouette adheres to both modernist clarity and sculptural nuance. Vaccarello worked closely with the Japanese embassy to identify and reconstruct key elements essential to the sofa’s faithful reproduction. Reintroduced today, the piece embodies the cross-cultural dialogue and radical elegance that defined Perriand’s legacy—and continues to resonate through Saint Laurent’s design-led vision.

The exhibition at Padiglione Visconti bridges two eras of design, paying tribute to Perriand’s vision while renewing her designs with a contemporary perspective. Each piece has been carefully selected and reissued by Saint Laurent in close collaboration with the designer’s estate, with a respect for the integrity and spirit of her original works. More than a retrospective, this partnership affirms Saint Laurent’s mission to create access to important design artifacts—reviving works that have long remained hidden in private or inaccessible collections.