Antiques dealer and decorator, Madeleine Castaing (1894-1992), named the «Magician» has invented a style which legacy continues to be seen in today’s design and decoration. Ignoring fashions and assuming her extravagance, she did not hesitate to mix the decorative styles of the 19th century: the Leopard patterns inspired by the Empire period, the diamonds and palmettes coming from Directoire, the Biedermeier curves,... with poetry, lightness and exuberance she dares to ally colors and patterns and trace her own path, a mysterious driveway in an English garden.
A virtuoso colourist, she shapes a palette of blues, turquoises but also greens and redsthat she marries freely with off-white and black, in counterpoint. These harmonies can be found in all her creations, from carpets to fabrics and her wallpapers match her tones perfectly.
She conceives her shop on Jacob Street as a jewel box in pastel colours of powder blue, almond green and dredged pink, in which her bamboo furniture, bayadere fabrics, objects loaded with history, exotic wallpapers and leopard prints could respond to each other in a poetic dialogue.
Françoise Sagan, Yves Saint Laurent, André Malraux, Jean Cocteau, Francine Weisweiller, Jacques Grange... countless are her emulations and her influence is everywhere.