Andrée Putman

Interior Design & Furniture

About

Andrée Putman (1925–2013) was a French interior designer, furniture designer, and entrepreneur, known for her minimalist, avant-garde aesthetic. Born in Paris, she studied music at the Paris Conservatoire before turning to design.

Putman is best known internationally for her groundbreaking interior design of Morgans Hotel in New York (1984), widely credited as the first boutique hotel. The project — transforming a run-down Murray Hill property into a sleek, minimalist destination — established the template for a hospitality genre that would transform the industry.

Before Morgans, she founded Écart International in 1978, a company devoted to re-editing forgotten masterpieces of early 20th-century design, including works by Eileen Gray, Robert Mallet-Stevens, and René Herbst. Through Écart, Putman rescued these designs from obscurity, bringing them to a new audience.

Her subsequent commissions included interiors for the French Ministry of Culture under Jack Lang, the Concorde supersonic jet for Air France, boutiques for Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, and Thierry Mugler, and the interior of the CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux. She received the French National Order of Merit and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur.

Curators' Picks

'Seated On A Cloud' Chair

With Opened Arm Chair

Young Lumberjack Low Table

Cartesian Reflect Mirror