Jean de Merry

Award-winning photographer Kiliii Yuyan’s breathtaking work is heavily informed by his ancestry: Nanai (East Asian Indigenous) and Chinese-American, with shots providing a new perspective on Indigenous communities and their relationship to the natural world. Specialized in Arctic photography and Indigenous storytelling through his lens, he works in extreme environments and cultures outside his own, surviving harsh climates and harrowing natural incidents.

Master of spectacular and minimalist interiors, Paris-based architect Joseph Dirand is a celebrated superstar of French interiors. His signature style blends classic, elegant elements with minimal, modern shapes for clean, crisp spaces replete with bold lines, neutral hues, sumptuous materials, and abstract art. His sharp attention to detail lends itself to a meticulous precision delivering timeless interiors sans lavish and superfluous paraphernalia.

Pedro Almodovar’s highly acclaimed 1991 melodrama Tacones Lejanos (also known as High Heels) features a languid, incredible rendition by Luz Casal of the 1935 Spanish song Piensa En Mi. Referred to as a painting or a graphic design, creating a world that exists only in its own terms, Tacones Lejanos is a sharp, audacious and memorable film peppered with mystery and laughter.

Step into a perfect, modern interior peppered with covetable design pieces and sublime works of art. An invitingly sleek space, it features the iconic Tulip side table by Eero Saarinena mid-century design that blends into most contemporary interiors with easeand unique, hand-printed wall art by award-winning English artist and designer Deborah Bowness. A warm color palette on a backdrop of white exudes quietude, serenity and a much-needed respite from the rumble of the world outside.

La Mala Educación (also known as Bad Education) is a Pedro Almodovar melodrama par excellence; it takes on the heart-wrenching realities of Franco-era religious schooling, sexual abuse, transsexuality and the remarkable story of two childhood friends. With a powerful cast that renders the dizzying film-noir exciting and rapturous, Almodovar delivers a fantastical, outrageous and complex film. Gael García Bernal lip-synching the legendary Sara Montiel’s "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" is a gloriously memorable scene in this sensuous meta-movie.

New York-based designer Crystal Sinclair conceives spaces that are as much about proportions as about emotions. Her work on an apartmentlocated in a prewar building in Manhattanfor a newly wed couple was inspired by their love for Parisian interiors and informed by the small quarters, heritage elements and the stunning herringbone oak flooring. The result is an elegant inviting apartment with various ornate original details blending in with contemporary sleek lines all in a sharp and neutral palette and crisp whites.

A new residential project by Ukrainian architects Evgeniy Bulatnikov and Emil Dervish is a minimalist haven boasting a reductionist approach and a soothing neutral palette. The aptly named ‘Beige Apartment’ is luxuriously modern and elegantly spare. With warm earth tones highlighted on a creamy backdrop, the contemporary furniture and clean lines blend in effortlessly with the exquisite historical elements such as the ornate ceiling roses, embellished wall strips and curved window frames.

A dark drama, and a ballet film, The Red Shoes by the award-winning British-Hungarian duo, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is a lush and rapturous romp and a definite dance classic. Released in 1948, the movie cast renowned dancers, a prima ballerina and a famed choreographer for an astonishing, heady and memorable result. The elegant ballet masterpiece at its heart questions the place of artistic expression alongside emotional desires leading to a dramatic crescendo and a bruising conclusion.

Master of minimal interiors, Belgian architect Hans Verstuyft creates elegant homes instilled with warmth and comfort. His work highlights raw natural materials that age gracefullysuch as wood, stone, metal, leather, and wooladding on to the rich narrative of the surroundings. Sober and reductive yet clearly refined and exquisite, the serene interiors are a respite from the distractions of the modern world, inviting a sense of meditative tranquility.

Reminiscent of futuristic abstract shapes and sci-fi tales, the Chifre floor lamp by Jean-Louis Deniot, seen through the eye of American photographer Nicholas Cope, stands out and takes centre stage. Crafted from Plâtre de Paris with a long, sleek wood frame, Chifre illuminates and sparks conversations. https://jeandemerry.com/product/chifre-2/