On the Sundays Melanie Courbet spent in the French countryside while growing up, she and her mother would visit the shop of a local glassblower. “The women in my family are keen on the arts, and the men are merchants,” explains Courbet, a descendant of the 19th-century painter Gustave Courbet. “My mother recently reminded me of a time I said, ‘Wouldn't it be nice to open a shop in Gérard's glassblowing studio? People could see how beautiful it is when he makes the glass and they would appreciate their own glasses a lot more.’ ” Some three decades later, her idea has become reality. In Les Ateliers Courbet, her Nolita shop-gallery hybrid (which will move to Chelsea in September), she has hosted Japanese master craftspeople, held indigo-dyeing workshops, showcased new and old designs from Sèvres porcelain, and nourished the careers of young talents like Anna Karlin, whose chess piece–shaped barstools were snapped up by John Legend and Chrissy Teigen the day before the space opened in 2013.
“I would rather pass on coffee than walk or rush with a to go plastic cup,” says Courbet, who sips hers every morning from a porcelain cup. This high-end riff on hygge encapsulates the ethos of her brand. “It’s about quality of material, craftsmanship, and the appreciation of time.”
Judging by her upcoming schedule, it’s one that resonates. In addition to the new Manhattan location, a Miami outpost in the recently revamped Surf Club will also open in September. Between the two, Courbet will unveil a collaboration with the Webster’s Laure Heriard Dubreuil inspired by the paintings of Henri Rousseau. “It’s happy, it’s lush,” she says of the collection, which includes flora-covered glassware from Lobmeyr and jungle-themed plates from Laboratorio Paravicini. “We asked ourselves, What would Les Ateliers Courbet be if it was on holiday at the Surf Club? We didn’t want to take ourselves too seriously.”
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