At Maison&Objet, the inaugural Women&Design Innovation Awards celebrated two visionaries transforming craft into entrepreneurial success stories.
Paris, September 6, 2025 — In the ornate halls of Maison&Objet Paris, a new tradition was born. The Women&Design Innovation Awards, dedicated to spotlighting female talent in global design, crowned its first winners: textile innovator Hélène Ng, founder of The Fabrick Lab in Hong Kong, and art historian turned entrepreneur Sophie Salager, CEO of Manufacture de Couleuvre, an 18th-century porcelain factory in central France.
The ceremony marked more than recognition. It was a statement that in a male-dominated industry, women entrepreneurs are no longer exceptions, but leaders shaping the future of design. As architect and jury member, Julien Sebban said on stage:
“Without companies like yours, architects couldn’t turn imagination into reality.”
From Weaving to Porcelain: Two Unlikely Journeys
The award winners’ paths to design leadership could not have been more different, yet both reveal how curiosity and risk can carve new futures. Hélène Ng began her career as a traditional weaver at London’s Central Saint Martins, believing she would simply remain a craft maker. But weaving quickly revealed itself as a technical puzzle.
“I discovered there’s a lot of engineering and math involved to be a weaver — things I had never really encountered,” Hélène Ng explained.
That realization led her to her first job as a concept car color and material designer, an unusual but formative experience that showed her textiles could be about lifestyle and technology, not only clothing or interiors.
For Salager, the journey started in the world of history and fine art. She worked at Château de Versailles and Christie’s before founding a photography gallery. But her long-standing love for ceramics resurfaced when she heard of a porcelain factory in central France up for sale.
“At first I wasn’t really interested, but then I called the mayor of the town,” Sophie Salager recalled with a smile. “His first answer was, ‘Sorry, I’m hunting, can you call me tomorrow?’ That was so French. But then he told me about the factory’s 18th-century history and I thought, okay, I need to see it.”
When she visited, the encounter was transformative.
“It was love at first sight. You have to imagine a massive fabric with more than 300,000 molds — one of the largest collections in France. There was so much to do, and I was just crazy enough to try.”
Both women broke away from linear careers — Ng from corporate design, Salager from the comfort of the art world — to pursue projects that combined heritage with bold reinvention.
Entrepreneurship as an Act of Defiance
Starting a business in design is never simple, but for these two women, entrepreneurship has been as much an act of defiance as of vision. Ng describes her studio’s beginnings as almost naïve.
“You never start a studio if you know too much. I was young and didn’t know how much trouble I could get into,” Ng said. Frustrated by the waste of industrial textile sampling, she decided to chart her own course. “Factories would only let you sample a minimum of 100 meters, and 99% of it went to waste. I found that so disappointing.”
Inspired by traditional village weavers in China and the Philippines, she imagined a way to make textiles more accessible, sustainable, and innovative.
That imagination became The Fabrick Lab, a hybrid workspace where craft and technology coexist. It now houses hand looms, digital looms, 3D printers, and prototyping machines.
“Every year I invest in a new machine,” Ng said. “The range allows us to speak both the language of the factories and the craft makers.” Her refusal to conform to industry limits established her reputation as a designer who could bridge old and new.
Salager’s entrepreneurial leap was equally bold. When she decided to buy Manufacture de Couleuvre at age 40, friends and colleagues thought she was reckless.
“Everybody told me I was crazy, too young, not experienced enough. But I had loved ceramics since I was ten years old,” Salager said.
Reviving the porcelain factory required persuading skeptical craftsmen and reimagining what a centuries-old institution could be.
“At the beginning, they would tell me, ‘It’s not possible.’ And I would answer, ‘I know it might not be possible, but can you try?’ That was the starting point of everything.”
Both women also faced gender bias. Salager recalls being asked if she worked in communication or marketing, rather than being recognized as CEO. Ng, meanwhile, noted how cultural expectations shifted once she became a mother, with clients asking after her son rather than her work. Their persistence in the face of doubt underscores why the awards felt like more than recognition — they were a validation of resilience against industry barriers.
Turning Passion into a Viable Business
If passion propelled them forward, perseverance made their ventures sustainable. For Ng, the turning point was transforming years of research into something factories could produce at scale. Her current collection features textiles knitted from paper, a breakthrough that took nearly seven years of trial and error.
“At the beginning, those papers could not be machine-made,” Ng explained. “It took years of experiments, testing coatings, changing programs, persuading factories. I’m trained as a weaver, but my new collection is launched in knit.”
The process was grueling, but the reward was a material that architects and designers could finally adopt in real projects.
“The key was translating research so it could be commercialized, adaptable, and scalable.”
Salager faced a similar balancing act at Couleuvre. Her challenge was to respect history while ensuring the factory could survive the 21st century.
“It took me a year to decide what direction to take. I wanted to respect the manufacturer’s history but also transform it and bring it to the future,” Salager said.
Each of her porcelain collections begins with a fragment from the archives before being reimagined for modern lifestyles. This approach has not only revitalized the brand but positioned it as a laboratory of heritage innovation.
Both women see their companies as collaborative hubs. Ng describes The Fabrick Lab as “a place where architects’ and product developers’ imagination becomes reality.”
Salager envisions Couleuvre as “a manufacturer where artists, designers, and craftsmen can come together, find objects with history in the making, and create their own expression.”
Their gratitude upon receiving the Women&Design Innovation Award underscored how hard-won these achievements were.
“There were so many wonderful women there — I couldn’t believe it,” said Ng.
Salager echoed her:
“It’s a beautiful work, but also a very hard one. Awards like this remind us it’s worth it.”
