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P oiret was trained as a fashion designer and championed a "total-look lifestyle" with clothes and interiors speaking the same language. For the influential 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, he moored three barges on the Seine — floating showrooms for his maison — and clad the sides of one in straw marquetry; he later specified the material for the dining room of the ocean liner Chantilly. Those high-profile stages recast what had previously been seen as convent and prison handiwork into a luxurious surface for modern life. André Groult carried the technique into furniture, and Jean-Michel Frank refined it across both furniture and interiors. By the 1950s, Jean Royère was among the last in Paris to practice the craft professionally. Groult's granddaughter, Lison de Caunes, took up her grandfather's mantle in the 1970s and remains one of the most sought-after and celebrated straw marquetry artisans. Through Ateliers Lison de Caunes, she has collaborated with Peter Marino on many projects, including a suite at the Cheval Blanc hotel in Paris, and Alberto Pinto, and her extraordinary straw marquetry panther designs adorn the walls of Cartier boutiques worldwide. Awarded the Chevalière de la Légion d'Honneur, de Caunes has even brought straw marquetry into the orbit of the Élysée palace: President Emmanuel Macron's new official car, unveiled this spring, features her sea-green and midnight- blue rye-straw fan motif across the dashboard and door trims. While still coveted, the once rarefied technique is edging into broader use. Even so, straw marquetry remains a luxury art form, practiced by an aristocratic league of artisans. Among them is David Linley — King Charles' cousin, master cabinetmaker, and honorary chairman at Christie's UK — whose company has incorporated straw marquetry into select bespoke pieces. In Paris, Ecart — which was founded in 1978 by Andrée Putman to reissue early-20th- century designs — has kept interest in Jean-Michel Frank and straw marquetry alive, notably with reissues of his 1930 Soleil table with straw marquetry by de Caunes. Alexander Lamont's Le Mur ready-to-install wall panels bring straw marquetry into attainable architectural scale. Known for experimenting with uncommon materials such as mica, feathers, and mother-of-pearl, Koket has added straw marquetry to its furniture for the first time. The 2025 collection includes a mesmerizing screen of radiating sunbursts and waves, where black lacquer and sand-toned straw collide with jagged seams of gold leaf — a fresh jolt for a very old art. From top: Jean-Michel Frank's Paris apartment on rue de Verneuil in 1930, with walls and ceiling covered in straw marquetry. Another view of Princess Winnaretta de Polignac's Paris music room includes musical notes in straw marquetry, designed by Jean-Michel Frank, exhibited at TEFAF NY last spring. Alexander Lamont's Le Mur wall panels in straw marquetry, Escarpa I, to the trade through George Cameron Nash. FROM THE BOOK JEAN-MICHEL FRANK, EDITIONS DU REGARD, 1997.