Neptune Papers

Martin Brûlé knows how to install himself rent-free in your head. Not just through his work, which stands for the exact opposite of anything rent or free. Writer Heike Blümner has come to meet @martinbrulestudio not to marvel at the furniture in his home although that cannot be avoided. Her main interest is to get a feeling for the inner fabric of the man, who is an epitome of discretion yet unapologetic about posing in his lavish interiors, as the ultimate aspirational character in these settings, that exude sleekness and wealth of cinematic proportions. “I grew up in Montreal in a lovely house but my parents were not into design. It was nice but nothing like what I do. I always changed everything and moved everything around. My mom was a good hostess and I would set the table with the silver that they got for their wedding. It was instinctive, I was very curious. For a long time I was lost though, because everything was limited in an environment like Montreal. And I had a passion that was really an obsession. There were the grandparents of a friend of mine though, who were very chic, stylish and powerful people. They had designers from Paris which was very rare. I also have an uncle, who was a big inspiration and who lived in Hong Kong until I was 14. He then got an apartment in Montreal. He has great taste and is very stylish and handsome.” Brûlé later moved to New York and signed up to study fashion at Parsons but was “not very engaged.” He became very close friends with the Parisian antique dealer Jean-Paul Beaujard, who back then lived in New York. Mr. Beaujard introduced him to stylist Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, former fashion director at Vogue US, for whom he started working as an assistant. He says that he thinks of Mr. Beaujard and Ms. Cerf de Dudzeele as his “artistic parents.” “Carlyne and I became very close. Just by being around her I learned a lot. She is a force of nature in a very instinctive way. She is a zero-compromising person. It’s very raw and I now have a similar approach to my work.” Read the full profile of cover star Martin Brûlé by @heike_bluemner with photography by @matthieulavanchy in print in our Issue Ten.

The world of Saman Amel revolves around the atelier. Today, the process of visiting a physical space and having a garment custom made for you is at odds with the shopping habits or indeed even culture in the larger sense. In a world of speed, digitization and experiences steered by algorithms, the atelier experience emphasizes the personal encounter, physical touch and craftsmanship which is inherently slow. In the atelier experience, the fitting is the most intimate shared by client and maker. The Stockholm atelier is eclectic in terms of design and features a wider variety of references; Finnish classics from Saarinen and Aalto, Italian elusiveness from Giordani and some cheeky elements of Scandinavian arts and craft. Objects of great character and history that sit side by side artworks of equal greatness yet more recent history. Claes Nordenhake (founder of Galerie Nordenhake) once said that the work of the gallerist is equal parts travelling salesman and elementary school teacher. The experience of art starts as a feeling and the work exists only in its own right. Yet, the work is an entry point into a conversation that gives the experience body and context. The more time you spend with the works, the more they become of the flesh and you sense the effect they have on you. We are surrounded by images – most of them digital – that only exist in front of you for a short time. It is all very ephemeral while living with art is the exact opposite. If you see something every day and you still cannot stop looking at it – much like your favorite jacket you want to wear almost every day – you know if is truly great. Slide 1: A 1920’s lamp by Simon Gate by Orrefors hangs above an Alvar Andersson for Hyresgästernas Möbelaffär 1930’s table and a set of “Tulip” chairs by Eero Saarinen (circa 1965). Slide 2: A set of 1917 chairs designed by Eliel Saarinen for the Munksnäs Hotel compliment custom woodwork. Step into the Swedish tailored world of @samanamel and their Stockholm atelier with words from co-founder @daggranath and photography by @henriklundell in print in our Issue Ten.

Culture, with a capital C, is at the heart of the conversation Saint Laurent wants to have with the world today. On top of recent design ventures in partnership with the estates of Donald Judd or Man Ray, the House has opened Babylone, a bookstore and gallery on the Rue de Grenelle carrying and editing books on fashion, art and photography as well as hosting exhibitions and gatherings. There is also Saint Laurent Productions, which as its name suggests is a full-fledged film production providing funding and costumes for cinematic endeavours by the likes of Pedro Almódovar and Jim Jarmusch. The end goal? Anchoring Saint Laurent in the cultural heritage of France. This approach culminates in the recently opened brand flagship on the French capital’s Avenue Montaigne. Located in the former Canadian embassy, the newly renovated four story emporium embodies the first iteration of what will be the brand’s new retail vocabulary. Pursuing their cultural development, the Maison has acquired a treasure trove of objects, artworks and pieces of furniture inspired by the hunter-gatherer instincts of Mr. Saint Laurent. From the apartment on Rue de Babylone to the sun kissed retreats in Tangier or Marrakech, the Saint Laurent-Bergé couple amassed hundreds, if not thousands, of works ranging from Dutch Masters, paintings by Fernand Léger (who Bergé dated before meeting Yves), Eileen Gray folding screens, royal Russian candelabra and ancient Roman statues. When entering the Montaigne flagship, one is struck by the quality and contrast of objects on display. Personally curated by Anthony Vaccarello, the store was conceived to resemble the home of a collector with ceramics by Georges Jouve or Jean Dunand displayed on a side table by Jean-Michel Frank or a Lalanne “Oiseau d’Argent”. The curated list was created by working with the finest Parisian galleries including Galerie Vallois, Galerie Jacques Lacoste and Galerie Marcilhac. Pictured: A pair of armchairs by Jacques Adnet (circa 1940) and side table by Fritz Henningsen (circa 1940). Step into @ysl ’s Montaigne flagship with photography by @jesperdlund and words by @williamsdaytona in print in our Issue Ten.

Not everyone is comfortable on a photoshoot, but landscape designer Grace Fuller Marroquin has the kind of warmth that immediately puts people at ease. On a frigid day in January, she greeted us with pastries and proved to be a natural in front of the camera. That ease can likely be attributed not only to her obvious natural beauty, but also to her mother, an artist and photographer who took pictures of her every morning before school. “Until I left for college!” she tells us laughing. Her intimacy with the photographic medium may well have led her to a career in magazines, first at Vogue and later at W. Lately, Marroquin has literally been exploring greener pastures. In 2018, she left the editorial world to explore the world of landscape design, studying at the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Horticulture. Soon after she started her company, Grace Fuller Design. She has since created a relaxed garden for The Row’s store in Amagansett and, in collaboration with the architect José de Yturbe, outdoor rooms for a private residence in Mexico. Her wild and whimsical approach to design embraces the quirks and inclinations of nature - avoiding the overly pruned or polished. In 2026, she is opening her new office on the Upper East Side, a neighborhood she already knows intimately. How would she describe the feeling of New York to someone who’s never been? “Everything, everywhere, all at once! I likely wouldn’t describe much because the thrill of going to a new place as exciting as New York shouldn’t need much introduction. I would likely tell them: just go!” Discover our full ‘New York Now’ portfolio featuring the makers and shakers bringing magic to New York in print in our Issue Ten. @gracefuller wears @poloralphlauren shot by @cobeyarner and styled by @christina_holevas .

Galerie Wittmann Antiquités opened its doors in October 2024, but its proprietors are not exactly new kids on the block. Third-generation dealers Charles and Marie Wittmann have their father Patrick to thank for their entry into the elusive and beautiful world of rare art and antiques. The gallery may be a family affair, but their impeccable taste is their own. Located at 6bis rue des Saints-Pères, right in the thick of the Left Bank’s interior design showrooms and art dealers (and around the corner from Musée Gainsbourg), this specific space was coveted for more than its tall ceilings and large front windows. “Our father used to come here a lot because it was owned by another dealer before us. He always said that if he ever had a gallery, it would be at this place or nowhere,” Charles said. “When the other dealer retired and went off to make wine with his son, the stars aligned and we bought this exact space. We were so excited, but it was a mess,” Marie added. “We decided to clear everything out and make something more visible and more readable. Sometimes it’s just destiny.” Though Galerie Wittmann Antiquités is a new addition to rue des Saints-Pères, the Wittmanns are no stranger to the business of dealing in fine antiques. Their grandfather Jean-Jacques Wittmann began collecting in Cannes in the 1960s, while their father Patrick brought the business to Paris in 1984. Considering Patrick’s 40 years of running the business from the family apartment, launching a gallery space open to the public is a deliberate shift. “We’re moving from the shadows into the light,” Marie explained. “Dealers know us through our dad, but for clients who are passing by? We’re brand new to them.” Pictured here, a rare small six-legged commode with gilt-bronze mounts, in Asian lacquer and vernis Martin (circa 1725–1730) attributed to Étienne Doirat stands in front of an Italian sculpture of Venus from the second half of the 16th century, a Regency era folding screen and a Louis XIV ormolu six-lights chandelier attributed to André-Charles Boulle. Discover @wittmann.antiquites with writer @lasarazen and photographer @jacoblillis in print in our Issue Ten.

In the months after he acquired Palazzo Pisani Moretta last year, Dries Van Noten spent a long time alone, stretched out on the terrazzo floor of the great reception hall, lost in Jacopo Guarana’s 1772 “View of the Portego” ceiling fresco with its passage of darkness into light. Before him was an obstacle course of his own design, but as usual, Van Noten has been taking everything in stride. Transforming one of Venice’s crown jewels into a foundation for celebrating artistic craft is his long- nurtured idea of a second act after 38 years spent building his eponymous fashion brand. Opened in April, just in time for the 61st Venice Biennale, the Dries Van Noten Foundation is something of an ovni, a year-round, multi-site platform for exhibition-style presentations, short shows, talks, mentorships, residencies, workshops and a shop. But for Van Noten, it’s also a playground where his always hungry eye can make nonstop connections, juxtapositions, identifications and prophecies from all the finest things made by man, be it art, design, music or a scrumptious chocolate cake from Venice’s Rosa Salva. Before the play comes the planning. A visit to the Fondazione in early February finds Van Noten, Patrick Vangheluwe his husband and, design partner and Jürgen Sailer who headed DVNs menswear for many years with a pocket full of assistants quietly sorting through the endless details for ‘The Only True Protest is Beauty,’ the foundation’s first major show. Read the full story about the newly opened @fondazionedriesvannoten with photography by @adrienchenel and words by @rebeccavoight in print in our Issue Ten.

“When I opened the little shop at the flea market, I mostly looked for Art Nouveau and pieces from the 1930s to 1950s: buy for nothing, sell for nothing” recalls gallerist Jacques Lacoste of opening a small stand at the Marché Paul Bert Serpette at just twenty three years old. “All week I drove all over Paris, Belgium and the Netherlands in search of things. At the time I was especially interested in Amsterdam School furniture. My father supported me. It was not his taste at all, though. But he told me: ‘work a lot and be the best.’” “Today, we are very lucky there is no speculation in our field. It is really difficult to invest today because there are many fakes around. To buy furniture you must have a very strong expertise. Worldwide there are less than five collectors with a warehouse, I would say. Most people buy it to live with it. From 1900 to 1990 or even 2000, 18th century furniture was so popular and distinguished. You had thousands of armchairs worth incredible money. Then it dropped quite suddenly. Today it’s mostly 20th-century, so again: all the people want the same things at the same time. We work well thanks to that. I do buy things that are not fashionable, we introduce other objects to clients. Sometimes I put them on the side, for example I am really into Czech Cubism and I have acquired several pieces over the years. The time will come where I will introduce them, it could also be in an exhibition”. Pictured here: A 1925 armchair by André Groult in front of a 1938 folding screen by Filippo de Pisis. Discover the full story of Parisian gallerist @jacqueslacoste photography by @jesperdlund and words by @heike_bluemner in print in our Issue Ten. Pre-order now through the link in bio.

Who is Jacques Garcia? Without question one of the greatest decorators of our time, a realm over which he has presided for more than forty years. Like all larger-than-life figures, he divides opinion. Some reproach him for his megalomania. Others accuse him of favoring the aesthetics of a piece of furniture or an object over its quality, even of exaggerating its provenance. He himself, when speaking about his life and career, only half answers the question, slaloming between facts, neglecting a date, omitting an event. Anyone attempting to write his precise biography will do so at their own expense. There are, however, a few indisputable moments. Places, above all: Penninghen first, where he entered as a scholarship student, then the École des Arts Décoratifs, a diploma in 1968, while the youth took to the streets. Was he sensitive to it? “Of course,” he smiles. “When you are twenty, you want everything to change. Besides, I have always embraced change.” Alongside his studies, the young man opened a costume jewelry boutique at Les Halles. Then a modeling agency. “Not for very long, because very quickly, I had other ideas. At the time, my concern was to earn a living. When you have nothing, when you come from the background I came from, that is your only concern. But let’s not talk about it, it is of no interest,” he dismisses with a wave of his hand. And yet, there is already an indication of his temperament. “When I finished my studies, I foolishly wanted to work in my field, and I earned fifty times less as a draftsman in an agency,” he laughs. The rest, as we know, is history. Picture here: In the library of his Paris home, a Louis XV period Tillard sofa in gilded wood sits beneath a ceiling light fixture designed by Jacques Garcia. The fireplace is surrounded by Louis XIV period tapestry-covered folding screens. In front of it stands a rare XVIII period fire screen made for the Duc de Penthièvre. Discover the full profile of French interior designer @jacquesgarciaofficiel by @elsacau with photography by @matteoverzini in print in our Issue Ten. Pre-order now through the link in bio.

When gallerist Angela Westwater and her husband David Meitus came upon the 11th floor unit overlooking Central Park, it belonged to a Venetian count who had just broken off an engagement. Renovations had been abandoned; there were wires coming out of the walls. As for who would decorate the apartment? “There was no question that Jed was the guy”. Jed Johnson was a soft-spoken force with an unerring eye, a onetime Warhol companion who went on to create carefully attuned spaces for Pierre Bergé, Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger. Johnson had already worked with Westwater on the gallery and a previous apartment, and the designer’s wide-ranging interest in antiques and art suited their sprawling collection: Bugatti chairs with ancient marble relics, Cy Twombly drawings with an 18th-century Neapolitan desk. “Jed always had a restraint to him” says Meitus. “I remember asking him, ‘How about gold-leafing the ceiling in here?’” The designer demurred. The project would be Johnson’s last. In July 1996, he was onboard TWA Flight 800 that went down over the Atlantic Ocean. Wanzenberg, his longtime partner and frequent collaborator, saw the apartment to completion. A feature on the home published the following year shows how much remains in place after three decades—from Johnson’s living room seating design, with nods to midcentury modernism and Louis XVI, to the custom dining table and Swedish chairs. The seismic shifts are in the art, understandably. In lieu of the paintings by Mimmo Palladino and Francesco Clemente that once framed the fireplace, two of Warhol’s Reigning Queen silk screens hold court. On an adjacent wall, an eight-foot-tall Julian Schnabel painting barely made it onto the wall. “I said to Julian, ‘There’s a light switch—I can’t get it in.’’ Schnabel’s reply: “Move the switch.” (The artist later agreed to remove the frame.) Pictured: a pair of Warhol ‘Reigning Queen’ silk screens (1985) flank the fireplace above which hangs Francis Picabia’s ‘Le Mirage’ (1929). The chairs are 19th-century Austrian. Read the full profile of New York gallerist @angela_westwater with photography by @cobeyarner and words by @lauraregensdorf in print in our Issue Ten.

Introducing The Icons Issue cover 6 of 6: The Oxford dictionary defines an icon as ‘a person or thing that people admire and see as a symbol of a particular idea or way of life’. At Neptune, we chose to look at it in the idea of a person leading life with a singular point of view. Since launching in the early aughts, the sophisticated ease and luxurious minimalism of The Row has served as a silent calling card for those in the know. Introduced in the 2018, the brand’s menswear collection is rapidly growing to become a pilar in the ever expanding world created by Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen in which rich chocolates, deep slates and midnight navy blues meet in collections designed for everyday living. Jesse wears a full look by @therow while laying on a Maurice Dufrène sofa from @augustindeleuze . Pre-order our Issue Ten through the link in bio. Editor-in-chief and stylist: Daytona Williams @williamsdaytona Photographer: Cobey Arner @cobeyarner Talent: Jesse at @bananasmodels Grooming: Bénédicte Cazau-Beyret @benedictecazaubeyret

Introducing The Icons Issue cover 5 of 6: The Oxford dictionary defines an icon as ‘a person or thing that people admire and see as a symbol of a particular idea or way of life’. At Neptune, we chose to look at it in the idea of a person leading life with a singular point of view. In an episode that has since (along with so many others concerning Donald Judd) entered art-world legend, the future sculptor, theorist, and all-around form-giver made his first visit to the West Texas desert at the tender age of eighteen, marking the occasion by sending a telegram back home to Westwood, New Jersey. “DEAR MOM,” it read. “BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY MOUNTAINS LOVE=DON.” Years later, during a 1973 interview, he explained his enthusiasm for the vast expanses of the Trans-Pecos in somewhat (though not much) greater detail. “There’s room to think out there,” he said. By then, the artist had already set up a large establishment in and around Marfa, a tiny railroad town about two hours’ drive from the Mexican border and a fair distance from just about anything else. Comprising a former military encampment, a ranch in the mountains, and several buildings on the main drag, Judd’s Marfa operations were many things at once: a production facility, giving him more and better space to fabricate his highly-refined installations; a platform for storage and exhibitions, both of his own work and that of friends like Dan Flavin and John Wesley; and a kind of running conceptual experiment in real estate, the flat, unpeopled land (and Judd’s progressive acquisition of it) becoming a massive artwork in itself. And then there was the architecture. Step into the Donald Judd Architecture Studio ahead of its multi-year closure for a much-needed touch-up of its own, giving a refresh to the warren of cubicle-like spaces on the upper floor as well as the impressive double-height lobby at street level. Pre-order our Issue Ten through the link in bio. Editor-in-chief and creative director: Daytona Williams @williamsdaytona Location: The Donald Judd Architecture Studio @juddfoundation Photographer: Phoenix Johnson @phojoh Writer: Ian Volner @ianvolner

Introducing The Icons Issue cover 4 of 6: The Oxford dictionary defines an icon as ‘a person or thing that people admire and see as a symbol of a particular idea or way of life’. At Neptune, we chose to look at it in the idea of a person leading life with a singular point of view. Model Malgosia Bela embodies the Parisian ease of Michael Rider’s spring collection for Celine. At the helm of the house since late 2024, Rider has quickly become a fashion crowd favorite through his designs that seek cue in that certain "je-ne-sais-quoi" French attitude and androgynous allure. The Celine woman lives in perpetual movement from the banks of the river Seine to the streets of the world, one well-heeled step at a time. Malgosia wears a white cotton poplin and Disc sunglasses in acetate by @celine . Pre-order our Issue Ten through the link in bio. Editor-in-chief and creative director: Daytona Williams @williamsdaytona Talent: Malgosia Bela at @vivamodel Photographer and stylist: Thistle Brown @thistlebrown at @totalworld Hair: Pawel Solis @pawel_solis at @artlistparisnewyork Make-up: Adrien Pinault @adrienpinault at @bryantartists