Larose Guyon is officially launching its second collection of high-end and innovative lighting fixture, pursuing what they originally started last May with their La Belle Époque collection. This new line is called Le Royer.

The two designers behind Larose Guyon have certainly managed to create their own world haloed in poetry, romance, elegance and beauty. Since their first lighting collection was made, they have been expanding their creative approach and are now introducing 7 whole new sculptural lighting fixtures.

For Larose Guyon, to create a luminaire is not just about style but about the light itself. The magic and warmth that creates the light and the shadows are, for them, as important as the object itself during the creative process. The Larose Guyon’s lighting fixtures are as attractive as the atmosphere that they create.

Attending the 2016 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York gave them the opportunity to showcase their new line of products and successfully strike a deal with London-based CTO Lighting for future distribution and representation throughout Europe, scheduled to be starting by early 2017. Until then, New Yorkers will also have a chance to admire their unique artwork at the prestigious Blackman boutique on 5th Avenue. A strong start for such a young business.

The Royer Collection

For this second collection, the designers wished to create a product as elegant and distinctive as their La Belle Époque luminaires, but more on the versatile side; products which would adapt both to a wider range of purses and to customized projects.

One could say that the designers are trying to carry us away in history, and that their Le Royer collection is simply the next chapter. Le Royer was inspired by the same time period as La Belle Époque — the Gilded Age, that is —, but in a whole different location. We now find ourselves in New France with coureurs des bois in the likes of notorious Pierre Le Royer, who is still to this day an legendary figure in French Canadian folklore.

While Caroline Otero was dancing at the Folies Bergères, Pierre Le Royer was tracking game in the wilderness of his home frontier so that European nobility could dress in the finest furs.

Although this new collection is a declension of their first, its features are as streamlined and raw as life in New France could be, with a pride in straightforwardness and sheer strength that can still be seen in the French Canadian lifestyle. All frills have given way to the purity and elegance of a stripped-down structure, leaving its essence bare for all eyes to see.

There is a poignant contrast in eras, in shapes but also in depiction. With Le Royer, we wind up in a cabin in the woods, a place where austerity reigns supreme but contrasts through its rusticity with this new collection’s elegance and straight lines. While in Europe man was eager to subjugate nature, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean people were still living under the yoke of its unforgiving forces.

These luminaires both complement aesthetically the first collection and glorifies the wild, harsh True North, with its long winter nights lit by the soft, reassuring moon gazing down at New France denizens. Their design is set up to emulate lunar phases, granting them a charm and a poetry of their own — distinctive features of any Larose Guyon creation.

Versatility

“Our utmost desire is to expand our inventory with a collection that’s more and more customizable and versatile!” the designers told us. With their 7 new products, it is now possible to make use of their creations on walls, above a kitchen island or a dining table, as a great hall chandelier, around a bathroom mirror, above a bedside table, a bathtub or a reading armchair, etc.

You can even create your own fixture by adding or removing elements; you only need to contact Larose Guyon. This collection’s endless possibilities is what makes it a choice reference for projects big and small. Besides being available in different standard finishes such as matte black or white and satin copper or brass, these high-end luminaires can also be made to cater to the client’s specific needs.

A Seductive Design

Based in Verchères, on the outskirts of Montreal, Larose Guyon matches the use of choice materials with a great formal purity to create high-end, original, distinctive items; meticulously crafted down to its finest detail.
In 2014, Audrée L. Larose and Félix Guyon’s paths finally crossed. After progressing for many years on the parallel fields of environmental design and industrial design, today they are two designers in love.

By combining both complementary visions, Larose Guyon provides simple, elegant, functional objects. Through a romantic aesthetics of items of blatant luxury, haloed in warmth and humility, they infect daily life with poetry and beauty. As their approach is imbued with refinement and distinction, they get their inspiration from nature, art, past aeons and traditions. Branded with their love, Larose Guyon products are created, drawn and crafted objects cast in their image with the help of local artisans and their know-how.

History

“I think we had been looking for each other for a long time. What’s funny is, we actually met at a design event and we clicked at the very moment. We must have been made for each other in our common passion for creation, because since then we never stopped evolving, and it gets better and better. Design is the seed, Larose Guyon becomes our roots and our first collection La Belle Époque is the first bud of a tree that’s merely sprouting.”

Both designers tell us about their personal stories, which led to the birth of Larose Guyon through their chance encounter.

Designer Audrée L. Larose: ”I majored in environmental design at Université du Québec à Montréal in 2013. The first steps I took gave me the opportunity to dabble in architecture and urban design to finally end up specializing in integrated objects and spaces. Through La Firme design, I could consolidate all my knowledge in high-end residential and commercial design.”

In 2014 Félix and Audrée’s paths finally cross and to this day it still propels them with the same excitement and creativeness. Félix Guyon, Les Ateliers Guyon’s president and founder, tells us:  “… I graduated in 2006 with an industrial design degree from University of Montréal. My creation is marked by my journey in the world of design and art, which led me to work from New York to London and study in France. In 2012, I founded in Verchères, right on Montreal’s doorstep, my own design studio Les Ateliers Guyon. I specialized in custom furniture design and turnkey design and it was through this company that I had the good fortune and privilege to win many awards in several design contests. But I must admit that this project is our baby, it is made of us and by us. We must now learn to be good to it, so that it be good to others.” Félix and Audrée confessed that they never found a better fit than each other. As much as their methods and outlook on design differ, they strangely converge in the most unique way, allowing both to merge edges and flaws and thus drag each other forward.

Made in Québec

For the two designers, staying local is very important. Chiefly in a will to give work to local craftsmen, but also in the hope of being able to offer a design that people from here can be proud of, all production and assembly is 100% made in Quebec. Félix eloquently explains his vision: “We are extremely lucky to begin this adventure in an increasingly design-oriented Quebec. We can sense that people can relate more and more to design, that it’s rapidly entering everyone’s living room, year after year. Here we are working with outstanding creatives and artisans. I believe in the next decades we will be watching those specialities of ours as they sharpen and crystallize in a more accessible world. The richness we have here has to be brought to a better exploitation if we want its economy to become a spearhead for our culture on the global stage.”

Prices

For this new collection, prices vary from 770$ USD to 6 500$ USD.