inspiration//
agnes
Being with Agnes is feeling the tantilizing clarity of truth wrapped in contageous joy.
The Mobilier National—the prestigious French statutory corporation founded in 1604 by King Henry IV to manage royal furnishings—represents the pinnacle of French design heritage. Last year, Agnes Bitton’s inimitable lighting collection, aptly named Métèque, earned her admission into this esteemed collective.
To call Agnes a Renaissance woman is an understatement. She is an accomplished lawyer specializing in copyright law and renowned for her persuasive brilliance in the courtroom. Her insight shines equally bright in the world of art. In addition to her lighting collection, she is the celebrated author of the hilarious play La conscience est dans l'escalier (After-the-Fact Morality), which sketches with laser-beam accuracy and comic finesse the life of a 50-year-old divorcée. But she always does this, even over a casual dinner. The way she speaks, the way she writes, the way she uses materials for her art are a rare blend of finely chiseled human insights paired with a dose of devastatingly tender humor—a quality that has earned her comparisons to a female Woody Allen.
But for me, she is much bigger than that. For me, Agnes is the definition of an incandescent métèque, possessing a light that is sharpened by her experience as the knowing outsider, the one whose perspective is always unbound. In every sense, Agnes reflects a rich tapestry of backgrounds and the experience of living life outside a fixed place. She is the dreamer. She is free, like a ribbon in the sky.
From forging our professional and personal lives over packs of cigarettes at her parents' dining table—where I first saw her as my role model, the woman in red lipstick and impossibly high heels and a formidable storyteller, to today: Agnes the mother, the friend, the advisor, and the artist shines a bright light on life’s experience with a vision that is down-to-earth and practical, yet never devoid of irresistible playfulness.