B. Magazine Issue No. 85 - Astier de Villatte

Publisher Suyong Joh.

This issue is about Astier de Villatte, a French ceramics brand that values the essence of beauty and focuses on making beautiful products at all costs. Simply put, this brand is faithful to the idea that beauty itself can be utility. In regard to the brand’s aesthetics, people who love Astier de Villatte products say, “It’s satisfying to leave an Astier de Villatte item somewhere and just look at it,” and “It’s a beauty that feels like meditation.” What’s interesting is that the beauty they seek comes from imperfection. Astier de Villatte items are all handmade by craftspeople using techniques from the Middle Ages, so the surfaces feature curves instead of being smooth edges. The brand’s ceramics look thinner, lighter in weight, and somewhat weaker than ordinary porcelain. The brand’s signature white colour of the ceramics is not consistent either, and the spots of earthen colour that show through create an appearance of a delicate piece used by someone long ago.

B. Magazine is an adless publication.

Amid all the products that show off their “coolness,” the rather understated Astier de Villatte product ironically stands out. Instead of luring in consumers with a lot of fanfare, The brand’s items are designed to forge an emotional bond between the user and the product. Similar is how Astier chooses locations and decorates their shops. The Astier de Villatte shop in Saint-Honoré, Paris looks like an attic or a study of a manic collector, who collects miscellaneous objects that are strewn about here and there. Storage boxes with jewelry-shaped decorations, candle lids featuring Snoopy, and scented erasers all harmonize because they are created and displayed such that beautiful things naturally attract other beautiful things.
“The most personal is the most creative,” said Joonho Bong, quoting Martin Scorsese when he won the Oscar for Best Director. I think beauty follows the same logic in that the most personal is the most beautiful. You don’t need a cohesive style or help from an algorithm. Whether it’s harmonious or discordant, beauty becomes complete inside each individual person’s world. Eunsung Park Content & Editorial Director