Serge Mouy, creator of the legendary Formes Noires series of lights, would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2022. An opportunity to revisit the story of this jeweler turned designer who devoted most of his life to passing on his knowledge and passion.
This is an icon. Serge Mouy actually marked the world of design with his black Forms line of lights. 2022 marks the centenary of the birth of this man who, at 13, will be the youngest student of Applied Arts of his time. It was there that he got acquainted with jewelry, which was trained in particular by Gabriel Lacroix. After graduation, he continued on this path by joining the company Hénin Orfèvre Paris. Then after the war he collaborated with many houses. It was in 1952 that he created his legendary three-armed floor lamp, which would mark the beginning of the Black Forms, at the request of Jacques Adnet, director of the French Society of Arts.
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chest lamp
The luminaire, both delicate and sensual, was originally designed for South American customers. But above all, it is the starting point of his Black Forms, instantly recognizable by their delicately curved metal bars, their breast-inducing lampshades, their elongated brass ball joints. A unique line that Serge Mouille would abandon in simple floor lamps, wall and ceiling lamps, and which would be especially appreciated in the Steph Simon gallery, opened in March 1956 at 145 boulevard Saint-Germain and furnished by Charlotte Perrian.
Serge Mouy would continue to develop many models: Cocot, Saturn, Conch, Flam, Shil… Ten years after the creation of the three-armed floor lamp, in 1962, Serge Mouy, who also has a teaching career at the university. At the National School of Applied Arts and Crafts, where he succeeded his teacher Gabriel Lacroix as head of the goldsmith’s workshop, he decided to radically depart from the spirit of black forms by designing pillar lights using a fluorescent tube. A small revolution, which, unfortunately, will not achieve the expected success.
Classics
And so it was that in 1963, Serge Mouy stopped making lights to devote himself exclusively to broadcasting until his death in 1988. That’s without counting Jin Mui, his wife, who after his death decided to perpetuate his legacy with Claude Delpierre. The two created Éditions Serge Mouille in 1999 to continue their lighting production. Since the passing of Jean and Claude, Serge Mouille publications have continued their mission under the direction of Claude’s son, Didier Delpierre, to produce, as Serge would have done, these lights that have become classics. Such is the success, too, that the site notes that production times are skyrocketing given the influx of orders.
Publications Serge Mouille. serge-mouille.com
Source: Le Figaro
