Moucharabieh Sideboard by Garouste & Bonetti for Christian Lacroix, 1987

Design duo Garouste and Bonetti is best known for concocting Surrealist, avant-garde, romantic furniture and lighting that merge whimsy and wonder with luxury and sophistication.

Born in Paris in 1946, Élizabeth Garouste studied interior design at the École Camondo and worked as a theater set designer before meeting Mattia Bonetti in the late 1970s. Bonetti, born in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1952, attended Lugano’s Centro Scolastico per L’Industria Artistica, where he studied textile design and got into photography.

Their first collaboration came in 1981, after Garouste’s husband, interior designer Gérard Garouste, asked them both to produce designs for the Paris restaurant Le Privilège. They devised a collection of Art Brut–inspired furniture called Barbare, which debuted at the Jansen House of Interior Design, earning them the nickname Les Nouveaux Barbares (the New Barbarians).

Garouste and Bonetti achieved international acclaim in 1987 when French couturier Christian Lacroix hired them to design for his maisons de couture in Paris and London. Instead of the staid decor used by other haute couture houses, Garouste and Bonetti’s furnishings were rebellious and daring. As described in Architectural Digest, “rooms and carpets were acrid ochers, edged with black baroque swirls Louis XVI-inspired chairs upholstered in fruit tones. Tree stump stools topped with ivory tufted cushions. White curtains were trimmed with black polka dots the size of pancakes.” 

Following their success with Lacroix, Garouste and Bonetti designed interiors for illustrious clients such as German socialite Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis and Bernard Picasso, a French art collector and grandson of Pablo Picasso.

Throughout the late 1980s and ’90s, Garouste and Bonetti designed several modern pieces such as rainbow-colored console tables, the wavy, high-backed Koala sofa, ceramic tableware, table lamps and decorative objects. In 2002, the duo parted ways. 

Bonetti continues to create furniture, finding inspiration in everything from ancient Greece to children’s toys to UFOs. His works have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. 

Garouste also continues to design and is inspired by the natural world for her “quirky pieces,” Élisabeth Delacarte, owner of the Paris gallery Avant-Scène, says of her designs: “You feel like you’re in a dream rather than in reality. She very much has her own universe.”

On 1stDibs, find a range of vintage Garouste and Bonetti tables, seating and serveware.

At a time when sharp padded shoulders and crisp lines were trending, Christian Lacroix created venturesome clothing that was bubbly, flirtatious and exuberant.

The iconic French fashion designer, whose body of work includes handbags and purses, evening dresses, jackets and lots more, has always favored theater over fashion. He has long integrated corsets and bustles into his work, drawing on diverse cultures and citing epic historical dramas as inspirations. Today he is creating opera costumes, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his colorful and voluminous garments captured the excesses and defined the extravagant frivolity of the 1980s as well as the sensuality and boldness of the 1990s.

Lacroix studied art history at the University of Montpellier and museum studies at École du Louvre and the Sorbonne in Paris. He aspired to become a museum curator or costume designer but instead entered the world of fashion, specifically haute couture, with the support of his now-wife Françoise Rosenthiel, who helped get his sketches to Hermès. Lacroix was offered an assistant job at the legendary luxury brand and later worked as a designer at the House of Patou in 1981.

Lacroix’s career flourished and his profile soared from then on, as he established his own label in 1987, using layers of fabric and consistently clashing prints in his designs for opulent pouf skirts, vibrant floral maxi day dresses as well as jewelry and watches that commanded attention. He created a ready-to-wear line for Italian manufacturer Genny and dressed dancers at the American Ballet Theatre company.

Lacroix became the artistic director of Italian fashion house Emilio Pucci in 2002, and, over time, he continued to secure work in the fields of theater, opera and other performance art, designing costumes for a range of stage productions. Alongside designs by Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld and others, Madonna wore a corset during her 2004 “Re-Invention World Tour” that was created for her by Lacroix.

Today, the maison founded by the designer in 1987 is owned by the Falic Fashion Group, but Lacroix continues to design womenswear for brands such as Desigual as well as for the stage. His larger-than-life aesthetic has also been translated into a range of accessories and fragrances as well as various interior furnishings such as tableware and household linens. Lacroix has completed interior design projects at a number of hotels and has partnered with the likes of Christofle and other firms over the years. In whatever form it takes, the sumptuousness and glamour of a Lacroix design is unmistakable.

Find a range of vintage Christian Lacroix clothing, jewelry and accessories on 1stDibs.