Master the Art of Layering

“It’s about bringing beauty to the table,” says Cordelia De Castellane of her role as artistic director of Dior Maison, the homeware division at Christian Dior. For the past three years, De Castellane has been creating decorative tableware that both aligns with Mr. Dior’s classical, 18th-century aesthetic and quietly rebels against it. “I respect the DNA of the house,” she says. “But I like to bring my own freshness and craziness, too.” When it comes to composing a supper, De Castellane’s starting point is the setting. “I’m always inspired by the place. I’ll see what I can find in the garden, or what’s around and in season, and build my scheme around that.” Sticking to natural materials, such as wicker and rattan, she’ll turn her attention to the plates, napkins and tablecloths, building layers of pattern and print, or contrasting dark shades with bright block colors — for instance, Indian pinks on a navy base. “I don’t like to take things too seriously,” she says of the mix.

Perhaps her most memorable table to date was the one she created for Dior’s masquerade ball in Venice last May. Inside the baroque interior of Palazzo Labia, against a backdrop of frescoes by the 18th-century Italian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, De Castellane staged a series of 11 extravagant dining scenes. A homage to the global inspirations of Dior’s original 1951 Le Bal Oriental, the legendarily lavish costume ball thrown by the Mexican mining heir Carlos de Beistegui, each scheme had its own custom-made plates, menus and Rubelli and Fortuny textiles. In the Murano room, flowers and citrus fruits played off lavish gilt and yellow Murano glass candelabras. The table was covered with lemons, some loose, some tumbling from bowls and some hanging from verdant citrus trees. For De Castellane, bringing fruits to the table — be they lemons, oranges or green apples — adds a wonderfully fresh feel. Though there’s no room for half-measures: “It’s not simply about adding a couple of lemons,” she says. “You have to do it boldly. Going halfway just won’t work.”