“To not dare is to have already lost. We should seek out ambitious, 
even unrealistic projects, 
because things only happen when we dream.”

From the Romanesque architecture of the Fontenay Abbey, where she spent her childhood, Andrée Aynard retained core values like light, minimalism, and silence that shaped her practice. Her curiosity shaped her future, confirming her distinct mind and personality.

Her experiences are like fragments, discoveries leading to revelations, all tracing her path. She wrote for the magazine L’Œil, discovering the world of art through her husband Jacques Putman, and meeting artists such as Bram van Velde, Pierre Alechinsky, and Niki de Saint Phalle.

She analyzed the trends of the time through the sharp gaze of Maïmé Arnodin and Denise Fayolle, whom she joined in 1968 at the Mafia agency. In 1971, she joined Didier Grumbach for a committed, interdisciplinary approach to fashion and design with the company “Créateurs et Industriels,” where she became the artistic director. The goal was to promote young creators like Marc Held, Thierry Mugler, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Michel Klein, and Emmanuelle Kahn.

“I realised by 1982–83 that 
I was making famous the names 
I had been angrily spelling out two years earlier.”

Her silhouette and voice became her signature, a testament to her presence and influence. In 1978, she founded ECART International. Through this publishing house, she filled a gap in the history of design by reintroducing furniture designed by forgotten Art Deco period decorators from the 1920s and 1930s: Robert Mallet-Stevens, Jean-Michel Frank, Pierre Chareau, Mariano Fortuny, and Eileen Gray. She presented her first furniture and objects, which became iconic, in a warehouse showroom in the Marais, Paris.

Not exactly a designer, nor fully an architect, Andrée Putman had a remarkable talent for styling interior architecture. Assisted by architect Jean-François Bodin, she developed her own interior architecture agency. Her spirit and culture shaped spaces with values of elegance, sobriety, and attention to detail. She established a timeless and enduring color palette: black, white, gray, and beige. Creators became her first clients: Thierry Mugler, Azzedine Alaïa, Karl Lagerfeld.

From 1980, working with Bruno Moinard, her narrative in design continued, her style becoming recognizable. Her most significant achievement was the Morgans Hotel in New York (1984). Tireless in her work and demanding in her standards, she accomplished numerous projects: offices, hotels, restaurants, galleries in France and abroad. In 1991, Andrée Putman handed over ECART International. She passed away in 2013