‘TAGGED’ Surveys the Most Sought-After Pierre Paulin Furniture on Instagram

When Pierre Paulin was designing one-off chairs and interiors in the second half of the 20th Century, little did he know the popularity his work would receive in the distant age of social media. Having now appeared in everything from Louis Vuitton campaigns, Kanye West’s Atlanta warehouse, to Frank Ocean’s living room — the French designer’s legacy lives on as his work has become a status symbol for celebrities and art enthusiasts around the world.

For the latest installment of TAGGED, HYPEBEAST surveyed the most sought after Paulin pieces on Instagram. Despite their whimsical and unorthodox appearance, Paulin was a functionalist and made objects that he intended to be used, not simply admired in the pages of history. “A lot of the models my father designed in the late ’60s, beginning of [the] ’70s, were never really produced in [a] series,” said Pierre’s son, Benjamin, in an interview with HYPEBEAST. “Sometimes produced for French palaces, for government commissions, but never really produced for the people to own,” he added.

That would change in 2017, when his family estate, also known as Paulin, Paulin, Paulin, began reissuing some of his iconic designs, such as the Mushroom Chair, the F-444 Lounge Chair and the modular Dune Sofa. “We took the archives and we put them in today’s environment, today’s context, today’s philosophy,” said Benjamin’s wife Alice.

Check out the full deep dive on Pierre Paulin in the latest episode of TAGGED.

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