Grégoire’s forecast was evident across Maison, which also celebrated Copenhagen-based Cecile Manz as Designer of the Year, and Rising Talent Award winners like Marco Lavit Nicora of Atelier Lavit in Paris. The best booths played with form in a lighthearted way, with attention to craft, function, and material honesty. Pulpo, a German online boutique retailer, displayed Heron by Hermann August Weizenegger, a birdlike floor lamp made of two bent hollow-steel tubes.

Italian bath companies Cielo and ex.t exhibited products that spoke to tight urban living. Cielo’s Narciso Mini features a ceramic sink, in a range of earthy matte glazes, that sits on a steel frame with drawers below. Nudo, by ex.t, is a lithe modular storage system in brass or black metal, with a kit of parts including mirrors, trays, and leather pockets.

Though minimalist style was scarce, geometric shapes and patterns were not, as seen at CVL Luminaire, a French lighting manufacturer. Its Cercle & Trait pendant by Paris-based POOL is a balletic composition that balances a straight, LED-edged metal tube in a circle.

This trend toward things circular, square, and triangular recalls the architectonic shapes and vibrant colors of Ettore Sottsass’s 1980’s Memphis movement. CC-Tapis presents a similarly bold aesthetic with its Signature Collection, a series of abstract, hand-knotted rugs, made in Nepal and designed by Patricia Urquiola, among others.

Throughout the halls, there was a sense that designers were paying attention to their online communities. Whether or not Maison ever invites e-commerce website Etsy to create a booth, as Grégoire suggested it should, remains to be seen, but the scent of ironic fun was in the air at this year’s show.