Moaroom a Shining Presence in Parisian Furniture Market

New Zealand design “has a shining presence in the Parisian furniture market” with Roderick Fry’s  Moaroom, a store instrumental in the successful promotion of designers such as David Trubridge.

Fry launched Moaroom in 2005 with his French wife Laurence Varga. “Moa” stands for Meubles et Objets de Aotearoa, and it’s a name the couple came up with while whizzing past the Red Fox Tavern in Maramarua on one of their road trips home.

“Does today’s pared-back, natural New Zealand aesthetic really fit in with the Parisian style?” New Zealand Herald writer Claire McCall asks.

“It didn’t when we launched Moaroom nine years ago. But tastes have changed and we have been part of that,” Fry explains. “France has been a little stuck in the rich, elaborate nature of its 19th-century architecture and design.

“For our designers to be taken seriously we showed their work next to [New Zealand’s] incredibly creative architecture of houses in breath-taking settings. We send weekly press releases, have spent a small fortune doing tradeshows and also get the work in front of trend-setting architects.”

Moa has collaborated with Printemps Department Store and with Topshop in London, at the launch of the Kate Moss collection. The store was also commissioned to place lights in luxury shops in Charles de Gaulle airport, and have had three presentations in the lobby of the Pompidou Centre.

Original article by Claire McCall, The New Zealand Herald, May 28, 2014.