French, 1903–1999

Charlotte was a prolific designer and architect of her time. She studied design at the École de l'Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, France, from 1920 to 1925. Then in 1927, she started directing her own interior design firm in Paris, which she continued for 10 years. She went on to eventually work for Le Corbusier, though he was reluctant to bring on on to the team. It was at his studio where she was really showed her promise as a forward thinking futurist and she ushered in a new machinist aesthetic which was very ahead of it’s time. She experimented with steel tubing, class and chrome, which were very expensive to manufacture at the time. Many of her works during that period are generally misattributed to Corbusier since they were produced by his studio. Then in the 1940s during the second World War she escaped occupied France  and fled to Japan where she immersed herself in the culture . It was doing this time she discovered the materials of the region such as wood and rattan, which sparked a new direction for her later creations. It was during this time she learned to rely on local materials, artisans and craft traditions of the regions where she worked. After the war, during the boom of the 1950s  mid century design boom, she had successful collaboration with French retailer Steph Simon which was open from to 1974 where some of her most well known productions were produced. Then in the 1960s, her last and final project was the grand Les Arc Ski Resort in Savoie, France, where she collaborated with a team of architects to design the the massive facility, layout of the rooms and most of the the furniture throughout the resort.