The Monocle Minute

The French take pride in what they make, whether it’s baguettes, corvettes or fighter jets. So it won’t come as a surprise that, according to a recent poll by Opinionway, the country’s favourite brands are mostly home-grown ventures. At the top of the list is Bic, the Clichy-based manufacturer of ball-point pens and lighters. In second place, however, is a foreign firm: South Korean electronics giant Samsung. In recent years it has rapidly risen from the middle of the pack to consolidate its position as a French consumer favourite, associating it with reliability and innovation. The company’s placing on the list reflects the nation’s growing affection for all things South Korean.

While South Korean culture has enjoyed considerable popularity in the West over the past two decades, Parisians seem especially keen. Perhaps the most spectacular example of this was the huge game of “un, deux, trois, soleil” – the French equivalent of Squid Game’s “red light, green light” – organised in December on the Champs-Élysées to celebrate the launch of the South Korean series’ second season. More than 10,000 spectators gathered to watch the hundreds of contestants taking part who were clad in the show’s iconic green tracksuits.

Meanwhile, shops specialising in South Korean cosmetics have been popping up across the capital and restaurants serving up the country’s cuisine have quintupled in number over the past two decades. In spite of the political turmoil in Seoul, South Korean soft power is growing here. The number of tourists travelling to the country in 2024 was up 48 per cent compared to 2023 and it’s expected to rise again.

In France and across the world, South Korea has successfully generated goodwill by following the recipe that the US once used so successfully, especially in the 20th century: star-driven entertainment, intuitive technology, tasty food and innovative brands. At a time of US-imposed tariffs and wariness about brand US, South Korea is the new soft-power sheriff in town.

Bouvier is Monocle’s Paris bureau chief. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Though best known as a filmmaker, Agnès Varda was also a prolific photographer. A new exhibition at Musée Carnavalet in Paris offers a snapshot of her life in the city, centred around her Rue Daguerre home and courtyard studio where she lived for almost 70 years. Her daughter, Rosalie Varda, tells Monocle about discovering her mother’s extensive archive and how she is keeping her legacy alive.

Where did the material for this exhibition come from?
Though she travelled and lived for a short while in Los Angeles, my mother was basically based in the same house from 1951 until 2019. The archive stayed in the same place and it’s a treasure trove. This exhibition takes you on a trip through her photography practice. After her death we discovered more than 27,000 negatives. The show marks the first step towards helping her to be remembered as a photographer.

What are some of the highlights?
There’s a series of portraits of women that she made for her 1977 film, One Sings, the Other Doesn’t. It’s very touching. When she took photos of women’s bodies, she looked at flesh as though it were architecture, focusing on its structure. It’s very contemporary, even though it’s from the early 1950s.

What do you hope that people will take from this show?
I hope that it gives people the desire to see her films and recognise her as an important photographer. She never really showed her photos so it makes sense that she wasn’t recognised for this. I’ve been working with the estate and my brother, Mathieu Demy, to shine a light on this incredible woman – my mother.
carnavalet.paris.fr

The Chiefs, Monocle’s annual leadership conference, hosted by our editorial director and chairman, Tyler Brûlé, lands in Jakarta later this month. Ahead of the event we’ll be introducing a few of the speakers who will be sharing their insights and business acumen with our audience.

Najwa Shihab left television in 2017 to pursue a career in journalism without the constraints of traditional media. Eight years later, her news platform, Narasi, employs 170 people and secures exclusives with everyone from the manager of Indonesia’s national football team to the president of Turkey. In a fast-changing media landscape, Shibab’s company has managed to cut through the noise with thoughtful, considered journalism that chimes with a younger audience. “The definition of mainstream media has shifted in Indonesia,” Shibab tells Monocle from Narasi’s HQ inside Intiland Tower, a brutalist building in central Jakarta. “If I could turn back the clock, I wish I would have started [Narasi] sooner.”

You can buy your ticket to The Chiefs here – or reach out to our head of events, Hannah Grundy, at hg@monocle.com for more information.

Sometimes the best things come in small packages (writes Mary Holland). New York-based designer Giancarlo Valle, whose studio is crammed full of doll-sized maquettes, certainly seems to think so. For Valle, who trained as an architect, these small-scale buildings and furnishings are integral to his practice, which encompasses architecture, interiors and the decorative arts for residential and commercial projects.

His studio has designed lofts in New York, villas in St Barts and residences in Mexico City. “We work on a lot of interior architecture, so using models is important,” he says. “They help you to understand the proportions or height of something – both essential when it comes to composition.” At the studio’s crafting worktable, Valle explains that the process is a remedy for internet algorithms. “Everyone sees the same things [online],” he says. “There’s no way to break out of that cycle unless you create your own analogue algorithm. A generation of work is being created that is just referential. You have to invent your own world.”

For more design-world insights and to read the full story, pick up a copy of Monocle’s April issue.

We speak with Simon Freeman, editor in chief of running title Like The Wind, about his plans for 2025 and partnerships ahead of the Boston Marathon. Then: fashion designer Bianca Saunders on her new zine, 38 Love Lane, which explores her Jamaican heritage. Plus: Monocle’s associate editor, Grace Charlton, on our annual Salone del Mobile newspaper.