DS x Métiers d’Art 2: Winner Lyse Drouaine Lights up DS 3 E Tense’s Grille

  • Winner of the second DS x Métiers d’Art competition, Lyse Drouaine demonstrates her expertise by lighting up the grille of DS 3 E Tense

  • Charlotte Winné and Ludovic Buron (Noue Atelier) and Justine Durand were also honoured

  • Introduced by DS Automobiles, DS x Métiers d’Art is a design contest open to creative craftspeople based in France

  • The increasing number of applications and involvement of participants demonstrates the confidence and commitment of French craftspeople together with DS #Automobiles. The DS x Métiers d’Art competition is now an unmissable event

Part of DS Design Studio #Paris, the CMF (Colours, Materials and Finish) department epitomises the meeting between design, luxury and expertise. A team with diverse creative horizons, these designers are constantly striving for the most appropriate lines, textures and shades. This quest is supported by the incredible expertise of the upholstery and paint workshops, the quality of partner suppliers, but also the craftspeople who DS Automobiles collaborates with from the outset to enhance its concept cars and works closely with on the development of future materials using high quality and exclusive processes.

Driven by this research into creativity and quality, the DS Automobiles teams launched a design competition focusing on the best French craftspeople, in partnership with the Studio Métiers Rares. Seeking the strength of innovation from crafts through a technical and aesthetic challenge enables a deepening of the creative and innovative bond between DS Automobiles and these established or emerging professionals from the creative crafts scene. The design competition was launched in 2021. The second was announced at the end of last year.

This new design competition entitled DS Lumen was devoted to light. The creativity and expertise of each had to be communicated around an essential identifying element in the automotive world: the grille.

DS 3 E Tense serves as a muse. The front of this 100 percent #electric version allows a new surface for expression to be established for craftspeople who were able to express themselves freely on the grille and therefore completely reinterpret the front of the car.

To begin with, the candidates registered. An internal committee nominated nine entrants who had to produce samples within an allotted budget.

Picked by a jury consisting of DS Automobiles teams and influential figures in the brand’s areas of expression (fashion, culture and gastronomy), three finalists were then asked to design a grille for DS 3 E Tense, still within a fixed budget, to show as part of the Révélations exhibition, an international biennial of Craft and Design which took place in June 2023.

The DS x Métiers d’Art 2 jury

  • Hervé Lemoine, President of the Mobilier National, Chairman of the jury

  • Anne Lopez, Anne Lopez, Concept creator, winner of the first DS x Métiers d’Art

  • Cécile Feilchenfeldt, textile designer specialising in mesh and founder of Knitwearstudio Paris

  • Arnaud Vaillant & Sébastien Meyer, Coperni cofounders

  • Julien Dumas, star chef from the Bellefeuille Restaurant at the Hotel Saint James Paris and DS Automobiles gastronomy ambassador

  • Béatrice Foucher, ex CEO of DS Automobiles

  • Thierry Metroz, DS Automobiles Design Director

  • Jean Phillipe Vanhulle, Head of the DS Automobiles Upholstery Studio

The public, who could vote online

The jury then picked Lyse Drouaine as winner of the second DS x Métiers d’Art competition, with DS Automobiles giving her a budget for making a unique DS 3 E Tense grille (called DS 3 E Tense Lumen).

“For the second of our design competitions, we wanted to tackle the theme of light. In the automotive world, it’s a key element. On the outside, it uncovers the sculptural surfaces of the bodywork, highlights the curves and edges, enhances the visual identity of the car through the lights and headlights. Inside, it emphasises the atmosphere of the cockpit, brings the trim to life, engages with the passengers based on their needs. Lyse Drouaine’s work is a subtle blend of classical and modern. She used the loom which is a very old tool for working while bringing a great modernity through the materials used, especially technical ones such as fibre optics and natural ones like fabric. This undertaking is part of our SustaiNobility projects that combine sustainability and nobility”, Thierry Metroz, DS Automobiles Design Director.

Founder of the Luxdawn design house which offers innovative luminous materials for architects and decorators to enhance incredible spaces, Lyse Drouaine combines her passion for light and architecture with her weaving expertise. In her studio located in the Cité Internationale de la tapisserie in Aubusson, she questions the passage of light, from material to space, inspired by emotions from the first light of dawn. After Anne Lopez in 2022, she becomes the second winner of DS x Métiers d’Art.

“I create, I design and I manufacture hand woven luminous materials from optical and diffusing fibres into which I link naturally occuring fibres such as linen, silk, cotton and hemp. I work between Aubusson, a city reknowned for its tapestries, and Lyon, the city of lights. The distinctiveness of my work is linking the crafts of weaving and lighting. When DS Automobiles launched this design competition on the theme of light, it was obvious to take part in it. I called my project ‘Impact’. The technical constraints led me to define a new light aesthetic, by the principle of transparency, the effects of depth and the sensation of vibration. The shape and volume specific to the grille’s design led me to work with a flexible and shape memory material. For its manufacture, I used a mixed technique of weaving and tapestry, adapted tools and a new technique”, Lyse Drouaine, DS x Métiers d’Art 2 winner.

DS 3 E Tense Lumen features a grille consisting of a weave of optical fibres, diffusing fibres and enamelled copper wires, as well as a printed adaptable adhesive, the proposal is backlit. A unique model, DS 3 E Tense Lumen will soon be exhibited in DS #Stores.

On this occasion, a ninth member of the jury was invited. The public at the Révélations show—where all the work was on display—were asked to take part in choosing the winners. Several hundred votes were cast. Second prize and recipient of the “People’s Choice” award, Noue Atelier, represented by Charlotte Winné and Ludovic Buron, was commended for its rhythmic polished brass frame.

Third place went to Justine Durand.