Viewing Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life, The Design Museum

A pioneer of modernist design, Charlotte Perriand worked across buildings, interiors and furniture — perhaps most notably chairs — and championed the idea that better design could create a better society.

Like many women creatives of the 20th century, however, she was overshadowed by her more famous male collaborators, including Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvé.

Perriand’s reputation is on the rise again now, though. Her auction prices are soaring, and high-profile museums are showing keen interest in her work. (A hugely popular solo show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2019 drew praise from critics around the world.)

Now she’s the subject of a new retrospective at the Design Museum, her first significant presentation in London for 25 years, which seeks to re-establish her as one of the most important designers of the 20th century.

Featuring sketches, photographs, scrapbooks, prototypes, final pieces and faithful reconstructions of some of her most famous interiors, it sheds light on Perriand’s creative process across a career that spanned most of a century. It also explores her life as a fiercely independent woman, designer, sportswoman and global traveller. In doing so, it puts her legacy under the spotlight once more.