Edgar Jayer, a 26-year-old interior and furniture designer based in Paris and Venice, was already yearning for beautiful craftsmanship when he started attending a press school program at Swiss manufacturer Vitra at the age of 13. I was itching. He then received a rigorous education in interior architecture and design at the École Camonde, a sister school of the Musée Nissim de Camonde in Paris.
Trevor Tondolo
An armchair from the Unheimlichkeit collection acquired by Mobilier National this year.
While still a student, Jayet won the Grand Prix at Van Cleef & Arpels with artist Victor Fleury-Poncin for their design for the “Napping Bedroom,” inspired by the writings of Albert Camus. His Unheimlichkeit collection, presented last year at Milan's Sofia Zevi Gallery, advances this fusion of historical reference and reinterpretation. The mortise-and-tenon pear wood furniture features panels of raw cotton canvas woven by textile designer Chiara Stella Cattana. It was used as munitions in the 1800s.
Trevor Tondolo
Jaye's workspace.
Next came a suite of aluminum stools with seats made of silver passantry (usually used for decorative items). “Modern design can still connect to designs from thousands of years ago,” says Jayet. It is this singular vision that has given this prodigy his most remarkable accomplishment to date. This year, one armchair from the Unheimlichkeit collection was purchased by France's Mobilier National.
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This story was originally published in the March 2024 issue of ELLE DECOR.subscribe