TSÉ & TSÉ - Unique Homeware Shop in Paris

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TSÉ & TSÉ – Unique Homeware Shop in Paris

France

Mood of Living October 21, 2014

Catherine Lévy and Sigoléne Prébois brought their ideas to life by drawing, manufacturing and distributing their vibrant artwork and unique homeware at Tsé & Tsé associées.

Catherine Lévy and Sigoléne Prébois were 16 when they were introduced to each other through Sigoléne’s brother Christophe. Their friendship became the start of a beautiful partnership. Unsatisfied with the mundane, they experimented with crafts at a young age. After completing industrial college, they moved in with school friends and aspired to create art, they started a unique homeware shop together.

They brought their ideas to life by drawing, manufacturing and distributing their vibrant artwork and home décor. Little by little, these two artists transformed their dreams into an internationally praised brand. Today, Prébois and Lévy can be found working in their eclectic store in Paris, France known as Tsé & Tsé associées.

Q & A WITH Sigoléne Prébois

Mood of Living: Hometown?

Sigoléne Prébois: Paris, France

MoL: How would you describe your occupation and business?

S.P: With my partner Catherine Lévy and under the name of “Tsé & Tsé associées,” we start by imagining the objects we would like in our environment. We draw and design them, and then we look for a manufacturer to make them. We order them in a series of 100 or 500. We show these products at professional fairs and sell them to shops…and start [the process] again.

MoL: Did you always wish to become a designer?

S.P: I was dreaming of being a designer even before knowing the name. During my industrial designer studies, I sometimes wanted to be a photographer, but not for long.

MoL: Where do you aspire to be in 10 years?

S.P: Not in a hurry.

MoL: What inspired you to become a designer? Please elaborate.

S.P: Ever since I could use a pair of scissors and a stick of glue, I would modify all objects around me, clothes, shoes, furniture etc. I don’t know why. Sometimes it seems like a sickness, but I need to have it my way.

MoL: Where did you learn your craft?

S.P: In a serious way, at the École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle, but also in my everyday life.

MoL: How does it affect your process?

S.P: Sometimes we find a piece that inspires us by the way it was made, and we use the same technique in an object of a very different use.

MoL: When was the moment you realized you could really do this?

S.P: When people around me started wanting to have my own objects, I realized that what I really wanted could be shared.

MoL: Favorite hobby?

S.P: I am not sure it is really a hobby, but I like going to landfills, looking very carefully at objects and imagining the stories of the people who owned them. When I learned the existence of a university doing sociological research from garbage, I wished I started again.

MoL: Favorite quote?

S.P: “I won, but we may go on,” said the Death in Level Five, Chris Marker.

MoL: Who is an influential figure in your life and how did they inspire you?

S.P: A whole bunch of great feminist women always influence and inspire me. Lately, I read an Isadora Duncan book she wrote about her life. Her natural enthusiasm inspired and convinced me that creation can be done all over in life.

MoL: Best advice you’ve ever received and from whom?

S.P: “Become such as you are, having learned what that is,” said Pindar, a Greek poet.

MoL: If you could have a conversation with any person or fictional character, who would it be and why?

S.P: Orlando, the epic character created by Virginia Woolf, because I am in love with that transgender character since my youth.

MoL: What is something you know now that you wish you knew before?

S.P: Dancing, and not to be shy, but I am not sure [I] know that now.

MoL: Favorite words of wisdom?

S.P: “Fame is the sum of the misunderstanding that gathers about a new name,” said Rainer Maria Rilke.

Prébois’s apartment in Paris, France.

MoL: What place do you go to for a peace of mind?

S.P: Where I am right now, a small North Brittany island with few people and stuff to find on the seashore.

MoL: How do you achieve a peace of mind?

S.P: Creating something from nothing; today, holiday time, I played with my seven-year old daughter, painting little pieces of wood from the sea shore, transforming them into animals, or [other things].

MoL: We find that people who make beautiful things are more likely to lead an artistic lifestyle. Do you spend much time creating a beautiful home?

S.P: Yes, sometimes I even think I spend too much time on that.

MoL: Do you entertain?

S.P: Yes, sometimes I even think I spend too much time doing it.

MoL: Do you cook?

S.P: Sometimes, but by luck I am living with a cook.

MoL: Do you have a favorite recipe you would like to share?

S.P: Yes, I have a recipe: a delicious coriander Turkish salad (I learned in Turkey to eat the stem of every green). Take a big bunch of coriander, wash it and cut the whole stem in very small slices. Season it with pomegranate vinegar (Turkish delight), grainy mustard and olive oil. Add your favorite nuts (pine, pistachio) and fresh pomegranate on the top to make a beautiful contrast between green and red.

MoL: What advice would you give to anyone interested in starting his/her own business?

S.P: Read books about mountaineering and go, go, go!

Photography courtesy by Sigoléne Prébois

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