The Parisian Homewares Brand Bringing Joy To The Mundane 

Feeling flummoxed by the vogue for tablescaping? Don’t overthink it. Instead, invest in a few candy-coloured, hand-blown glass candlesticks and, say, a quartet of napkins embroidered with radishes, courtesy of La Romaine Editions. The digital homewares platform was founded by Parisienne Pauline Vincent, a womenswear-turned-homewares buyer for the French department store Galeries Lafayette, in 2021. Struck by the realisation that “putting energy into the mundane daily things makes life more joyful” during the confinement (as the French term lockdown), she used her maternity leave to build a business.     

‘Expressive’ is the watchword for the pieces stocked on her e-shop and which arrive in themed drops. First came flowers, and the bestselling daisy-shaped candlesticks from Paris-based artist Samantha Kerdine. Next, all things red, including a morello-cherry-hued vase by designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen, a school friend of Vincent’s now based in New York.   

For spring 2022, the theme is la moisson, or the harvest, for which Vincent has cooked up designs featuring an ear of wheat. “It’s going to be quite eclectic,” she enthuses. For now, she’s dealing with a rush on novelty vegetable-shaped knife rests, which debuted at a dinner she held at buzzy Paris restaurant Mokonuts. “I sold 50 boxes in one day!”   

Ellie Pithers is a freelance writer and British Vogue contributing editor based in Paris