Alix D. Reynis

Alix D. Reynis did not train as a designer. She studied law, worked for several years in a notary's office, then spent a year as a construction site manager before changing direction entirely. At 35, after the birth of her fourth child, she began working with clay in her home basement, first with earthenware and stoneware before discovering porcelain, drawn to what she describes as its lightness, fineness and quiet density. She launched her eponymous brand in 2011 with a first tableware collection, followed by scented candles, lighting, and more recently jewelry. Her working method has stayed consistent since: she hand-shapes and models each piece herself in her workshop on the rue Jacob in Paris, and those hand-built models and molds are then sent to a family-run porcelain manufacture in Limoges for production, rather than the pieces being produced from the outset in Limoges. The visual signature that runs through the collections, matte white glazes, clean lines, softened classical forms reduced to essentials, comes directly from that hand-modeling process, and from her stated preference for restraint over ornament in reworking traditional porcelain shapes.