Marie-Anne Derville and Pierre Yovanovitch feel cut from the same cloth. After working under Yovanovitch for seven years in his Paris interior design atelier, Derville had found a mentor with whom she created her own distinctive outlook. As a collection curator and interior designer, she combines pieces of furniture and works of art from different periods in an eclectic but timeless style in her Parisian apartment. Their conversation reveals an intimate bond and a shared intuition. They laugh and reminisce casually, but speak of the quest for this intangible feeling of comfort in a space as a faith, and a passion. It is flirtatious and effortlessly chic.

MAD: Today I realised that it's been almost, to-the-day, 10 years since I met you. I started working at the studio in March 2014. It's an anniversary! Without you, my life wouldn't have become what it is. But remember it took us a little while to understand each other?

PY: Yes, it wasn't easy at first. I'm difficult. You are rather extravagant, and I always have trouble getting involved with these kinds of people – it scares me. I'm shy, so I tend to distance myself a bit from very extroverted people. And since you're not afraid of anything, you take up space; you talk a lot. At the beginning I distanced myself from you. I thought, “What kind of character is this?”, and then, little by little, of course, I fell under your spell...[Both laugh.]

MAD: After a while, beyond a shared vision of taste, I guess we finally found each other around laughter and mischievousness – a kind of common spirit.

PY: Yes, that's right; around humour, being offbeat, making fun of ourselves.

MAD: For me, humour is the highest and finest degree of understanding of a person. It’s the extra-thin interstice where two minds meet, it shows a common perception of things, of life.

PY: In fact, it's your diva side that's always captivated me. [Laughs.] I love women who seem confident like that, but who may not be at all. It's a way of being that's attractive, and I like to embrace these ambivalences between anxiety and self-assurance. There are a lot of us in the studio these days, but you've always stood out. In your way of being, your way of expressing yourself, your interests, which are different from everyone else's. I don't know if it's because you've always been different, or if it's because of me. In any case, you have a very assertive singularity of taste. And you're really so Parisian, very chic. I've always tried to have a taste of my own. Sometimes people don't understand me so easily, but when you and I worked together it was quite immediate. Together we had this penchant for objects that are somewhat unclassifiable, that have a certain kind of spirit; things that others could say “What a horror”. In fact, that's what's so chic. The imperfection of objects, something that's completely unexpected in form, and in this regard, you and I had a very good dialogue.

MAD: Yes, and that's what's always animated me in our relationship. In fact, during the years I worked alongside you, I was delighted because I had the intimate conviction of understanding your deepest taste – the one that's a little hidden, that others didn't really see. Like a gap that's hard to grasp, but that I could grasp. And the fact that I understood also informed me. As non-academics, that's also the basis of our understanding: a common vision, an unformatted language.

PY: Yes. What I also liked was that you didn't arrive with a conventional background. You came from elsewhere, and there was a kind of freedom about you that I loved. Because I too had a different career path, which had absolutely nothing to do with what I did in my first life – fashion – or with interior design, which is what I did in my second. I like this freedom, not being confined within a framework. Often, the people who work in agencies like mine are either architects or interior designers, they've been to specific schools. It's your character that made me think that maybe there was something interesting in your personality. Today, I miss that touch of madness.

MAD: I think we shared a very singular sensibility. A shared perception that relates to the infinitely small and nuanced. The imperceptible, yet perceived. This notion comes from Marcel Duchamp.

PY: Yes, it's most of all a matter of curiosity. We share a more intuitive language, and that's what I like. I think it's very important in our profession, intuition with our customers, with people, with what they feel. Intuition when you arrive in a space, intuition when you touch a material. And it's not given to everyone. That's what I'm developing: this strong intuition I have about people. You have it too. It's quite rare.

MAD: You've given me an incredible amount of freedom, because I'm a bit feisty. I don’t like to sit still, as you know, and it's quite extraordinary for me to have managed to spend seven years by your side. We were constantly on the move, both physically and mentally. I'd never have been able to develop in that way if you hadn't let me have that capacity for movement, literally and figuratively.

PY: Between us, there's a kind of connection, an ambiguity between the professional and the friendly bond. Which isn't always easy when you're a company director, because you still need some kind of hierarchical link. But when it does
exist, this bond, it's great because it takes things further.

MAD: Also, you know how to arouse desire. It's the secret of who you are. There's always been this will of being able to unravel the mystery that is you. That's what kept me going over the years of working with you – this desire I had to be absolutely involved, for you, for the projects. Our bond pulled me up.

PY: I think we share the same qualities. We're both ultra-sensitive. That pushes us towards very particular things. We're attached to what people think of us, so we always want to do better, and we have this ambition, because I imagine you're as ambitious as I was and still am, and I find that excessive ambition, it can be a flaw, a dissatisfaction that we have in common; we're looking for something different, something better, like steps that we climb. I started out on my own, and then I began to surround myself with more and more customers, more and more sophistication. And that allowed me to develop a freedom of expression more easily. And I hope you succeed in making your way like that. Andrée Putman started her agency at 53. You're much younger. I always admire young people who want to do this job. Because it's such a priesthood. You have to have faith and passion.

MAD: With my “out of the box” character, as you described it, I think I'd rather go it like a lone rider, not a studio with 130 people like you. Perhaps I'd rather pursue my path on a smaller scale, through one-off collaborations, curation of special projects, arranging art and design private collections, scenography and staging cultural projects; you know I dream of making films.

PY: My company bears my name, yours too, so it's very difficult because you can't multiply yourself, and you mustn't go mad!

MAD: Oh God, how many laughs we’ve had, on building sites, during travels.

PY: Do you remember we had this client with who you didn't quite agree with? She had a rather peculiar taste, that wasn’t of your sophistication. And you were so sure of yourself. I'd laugh myself sick because I could see what you were thinking. In fact, it's a strength, because you also have to know how to stand up to your clients.

MAD: [Laughs.] That's my hot-headed side. I still got the runaround from the studio, but you saw it with such malice. And it's precisely this anecdote that I wanted to remind you of too, it's so funny.

PY: It was hilarious, because I saw you with your aplomb and your look, standing up to the client. You'd say "No, no, not like that!” and the client would be stunned. She was never used to being spoken to like that. It was risky, but I also saw it as a great quality.

MAD: We call our story “Beyondism”. [Laughs.]

PY: [Laughs.] Yes, that neologism we coined while waiting for the Americans to exclaim “It's beyond! Beyond!”. It started out as a joke, but in the end it's our own little movement. “Beyondism” is about pushing aesthetics to a high level of singularity, not formatted. In any case it's 'our' taste. I remember a slightly weird lamp we wanted to buy at auction in Sweden. It was “Beyondism”...

MAD: Yes, with big lion paws. Swedish Grace, with Renaissance accents. Edgy.

PY: We showed it to some people at the studio and they found it ugly, so I let it go. I let myself be taken in by people's opinions, which is quite rare. This object was powerful, off-beat. A mix of styles. Edgy, full of spirit. That's what's important. God I miss that lamp all the time!

MAD: Yes, you doubted “Beyondism”! [Laughs.] I saw recently some ‘beyond’ objects at our antique dealer friend Antoine Broccardo. A pair of English sconces – divine.

PY: I know we both love Antoine Broccardo. He's got a lot of spirit, which is rare. He mixes objects – Italian, Viennese, English – because nowadays it's very formatted in the world of antique dealers. It's clean, neat, magnificent. But Antoine Broccardo remains very authentic. He's full of surprises, and it's important to keep that in mind, to be full of surprises ourselves. We have customers, and we have to surprise them. If we recommend Prouvé and Perriand, it doesn't do any good; customers can go straight to the galleries.

MAD: Yes, we cherish this search for a singular taste; this desire to find taste along parallel paths. That's what drives me, otherwise I wouldn't be interested in this job. Do you remember our trip to Ljubljana, on the road to Jože Plečnik? What a highlight that weekend was for both of us.

PY: We went on this little study trip together and it was fabulous. I remember his house, the churches. The library, the bridges, even the lampposts he had designed.

MAD: And the cemetery! Remember, it was closed, we climbed over the fences? It was irresistible. We were afraid of the cameras. [Laughs.]

PY: Then we repeated the experience with Mackintosh in Glasgow, but the city was a bit disappointing, as you recall.

MAD: Now we thought we'd go to Italy, see Genova together, and take a tour of the Palladian villas.

PY: First we have our June ritual in Fabrègues, to celebrate summer together, with the crew.

MAD: That's right! It was enchanted – a deep dive into the beauty of your world.