Lisa White / Creative Director and Director of Lifestyle & Interiors, WGSN
Published on 3 April 2021
With offices on all five continents, WGSN is one of the most important trend analysis agencies in the world. Lisa White is a Franco-American analyst based in Paris, with over 25 years of experience in the field.
Self-portrait. We invite professionals from the lifestyle, culture and communications world to snap six shots that sum up their story. Smartphone in hand, they have fun revealing all the little nothings around which their world revolves. It’s time to take a peek behind closed doors.
“I have been working from home for a year now, which is a huge change from working in our WGSN offices around the world. Despite the situation, I have appreciated the chance to slow down and focus on my home, and on the fantastic 15-minute city that is Paris.”
Futile object / Useful object
“Design and lifestyle are my professional passions; plants and flowers are my personal ones. These interests combine in my much-loved collection of vases, which have the advantage of being both useful and beautiful. Beauty is far from futile--it is absolutely essential to our well-being, so when flower shops were closed in the spring of 2020 I would collect flowers along the road during my daily runs. This roadside poppy found a home in my smallest vase, designed by François Azambourg, in collaboration with the CIAV for Meisenthal. I received it from the Fondation Liliane de Bettencourt when I was on the jury for Le Prix de l’Intelligence de la Main. The idea of “the intelligence of the hand” is a powerful one.
My largest vase is by the artist Jean-Luc Vilmouth, created in collaboration with the Manufacture de Sèvres. It is based on the shape of one of their classic teapots, minus the spout and the handle, and enlarged to the extreme. I love the way he took an everyday object and made it simply extraordinary.”
Good luck charm
“Anything by the Tsé Tsé! Even in black, their work has such warmth and humanity, and this family of vases given to me by my children is great to play with, arranging flowers here and there, under a photo by Josh van Gelder from an exhibition I curated during the London Design festival, and next to a Castiglioni lamp I picked up when visiting his atelier in Milan during the Salone.”
A souvenir
“When I curated the International Design Biennale of Saint Etienne in 2019, in the “Biofactory” area dedicated to bio-design I wanted to showcase an object that spoke of creative collaborations with nature that everyone could understand. This chair by Gavin Munro at Full-Grown Futures took seven years to grow. Patiently formed by hand, soil and sunlight there is no glue or nails--it’s nature’s 3D printing! ”
Current crush
“Just before our latest lockdown, I needed an IRL culture fix, so I took the afternoon off and visited some art and design galleries. When I arrived at the Galerie Chevalier, which specialises in textile art from ancient to contemporary, this tapestry from Françoise Paressant caught my eye. It is one of her early pieces, hand dyed and woven, and its joyful exuberance made my day.”
