The xO design house was founded 1984 by Gérard Mialet, who quickly associated with Philippe Starck, the new star of design at that moment. Starck had gained a renown by refurbishing the private rooms of Danielle Mitterand in the Elysée Palast. Besides, anyone in Paris had the possibility to pay a visit to the Café Costes in the fashionnable Les Halles district that Starck had decorated. From the start, Mialet wanted to promote avant-garde design and since then he never stopped collaborating with star designers. Today, xO produces designs by top designers like Karim Rashid, Marcel Wanders, Christian Ghion or Philippe Starck who teams up with Eugeni Quitllet.
The objects that are edited by xO design show an excellent command of the most various techniques as well as a pionneering spirit. After offering objects from wood, ceramics or metal, xO took a bold step and started industrial mass-production Bubu 1 stool in 1996. The versatile stool and container shaped like an upside-down crown from injection moulded polypropylene had an enormous success. The chair BiteMe or unusual Z Stool, both also injection moulded, followed soon. On the eve of the 21.th century, xO design developped a global commercial strategy to ensure a presence on the Asian and American markets. Numerous products by xO design have reached the status of design icones. Among them the Royalton Bar Stool, the Dole Melipone table or the Dr. Sonderbar seat. The chairs Cheap Chip or Slick Slick are meant to make daily life more beautiful simply through their stunning simplicity while stool Baby Bite or the surrealistic Ceci n'est pas une brouette chair add a humoristic note to the high quality collections edited by the French design house.