PARIS, France — Maison Objet continues to slip as a showcase for high end fabric lines while Deco Off, a new exhibition also known as PDO, continues to gain steam. 

“The fabric industry is still smarting over its treatment when the show organizer closed down the tents due to high winds and rain three years ago,” an informed source told F&FI. “The problem is that 95 percent of the European editeurs including Kravet are still boycotting Maison & Objet because of that incident an important wholesaler told F&FI.

“You need half a day to cover Maison & Objet Editeurs while you need three days to cover PDO. photo by Kravet

“This wasn’t the case three years ago when the editeurs all exhibited together at Maison Objet under the same roof. When a thunderstorm occurred and prevented the visitors to enter the M&O Fabrics Hall for the first two days of the fair, it was the death-knell of fabrics at M&O,” the informed source said. “It seems that in the end, the editeurs were not well compensated by the organizers and these editeurs decided to open their own show under Deco Off.” 

This year, the PDO show took place in the respective showrooms of the boycotting editeurs in two regions of Paris depending on the location of the showrooms. It seems that the showrooms are all concentrated in Saint Germain in Rive Gauche or Rue du Mail in Rive Droite.

The only important editors with the biggest visitor turnout that still support Maison & Objet are:

DEDAR (Italy), because his Paris showroom is very small; 

ELITIS (France) also his Paris showroom is small, his main showroom being in Toulouse in the south of France; Designers Guild (UK) which has no showroom in Paris; CASAMANCE-TEXDECOR (France) considered Very Important with no showroom in Paris.

Also in Maison & Objet, mainly because they didn’t have a showroom in Paris: Fabricut, Robert Allen, Sangetsu (Japan), Gaston Y Daniela (Spain), Voyage from the UK.  

While in PDO, the list is much more important: On the Rive Droite: Sahco Hesselin; Kravet-Brunschwig; Pierre Frey including Fadini and Boussac brands; JAB in a very new and beautiful showroom. Lelievre Aldeco (Portugal); Romo-(UK); Sanderson, Harlequin and Zoffany brands owned by Walker Greenbank, all UK based and Fischbacher (Switzerland). On the Rive Gauche: Rubelli-Armani-Donghia; Brochier, Colefax and Fowler, Larsen- Manuel Canovas, Osborne and Little, Jim Thompson, Nobilis, Nya Nordiska; Casal-Luciano Marcato; Metaphores

Pierre Frey (second showroom); Decortex and Dedar in its small showroom.

“So you can compare the strength of PDO versus Maison et Objet just like war and politics. Besides, for PDO exhibiting in their own showroom will cost them much less than having a stand at Maison,” the anonymous source said.

The ‘reporter’ also said that “collection wise, not too many interesting things were shown.” It was almost just a place to show off!” Rubelli, Nobilis, Sahco, Jab, Colefax were above the average. In a crisis period investing in collections is risky and might lead to cash problems.”  F&FI