Luxury is reinventing itself.
Gone are the flashy logos, making way for refined sobriety,
personal immersion, artisanal excellence, and conscious sustainability.
Every month, WeAreKollectors magazine takes a leisurely look at beauty, timelessness, and the right thing to do.
Portraits, stories, and images to discover upon registration.
This first issue takes you behind the scenes of Maison Mère, a Parisian hotel redefining hospitality. You’ll discover the world of Alexandre Danan, interior architect and master of light, and explore the Quiet Luxury trend, where beauty expresses itself through restraint. Through intimate interviews, on-site reporting, and in-depth analysis, WeAreKollectors magazine offers a thoughtful perspective on the places, objects, and people that give meaning to the present moment.
The alchemist of discreet hospitality
There is something moving in the way Aziz Temimi recalls his first steps in hospitality. “I grew up here. My first site meeting, I attended when I was twelve. Here, I used to run between my parents’ legs.”
Two decades later, when his father handed him the keys to Maison Mère with these words—“Now it’s your turn to play your part”—he had no idea he was about to revolutionize Parisian hospitality.
For nothing in his background seemed to predestine this trained engineer to become a hotelier. Mathematics, physics, market finance in the United States, an e-commerce start-up: Aziz Temimi’s path mirrors that of a generation unwilling to follow the beaten track. “I realize today that it was my destiny,” he admits. “Hospitality brings together so many things I am passionate about: welcoming people, scenography, staging, crafting customer experiences…”
This unconventional background has become his strength. Free from the codes of the hotel establishment, he arrived “with a child’s vision,” much like Peter Pan—the adult who refuses to grow up. “I kept telling myself: how amazing would it be to open a hotel that doesn’t feel like a business, but where guests are welcomed like friends.”
Stepping into Aziz Temimi’s creative universe means discovering a genius tinkerer. His method? First, to dream—“big enough”—then to work “like a watchmaker, building this hotel down to the smallest detail.”
But the most subtle part is yet to come: never completing the project 100%. “The most important thing is to take your job finished at 80% and put it into your team’s hands. Otherwise, it’s just your toy… and no one wants to play with someone else’s toy!”
“Dream big enough, then work like a watchmaker to build this hotel down to the smallest details—and then leave the job unfinished.”
This philosophy of letting go flows through every corner of Maison Mère. Instead of rigid procedures, Aziz relies on what he calls the elegance of the heart. During recruitment, the question is simple: “Would I trust you with the keys to my home?” Skills can be taught, but humanity is something you feel.
The collaboration with Alexandre Danan, architect at the European Design Office, reflects this unique approach. “We’re not going to talk about architecture, we’re not going to talk about décor. We’re going to talk about people,” Aziz explains. Together, they invented a new spatial language. “I told him: Alex, I want it to overflow, I want it to slide, I want a joyful mess.”
This aesthetic of calculated imperfection has become Maison Mère’s signature: spaces that flow into one another, with that “little touch of bad taste that stands out” against the coldness of hotels that are all too perfect.
Au cœur de cette alchimie, une obsession : la lumière. « Beaucoup de gens voient la lumière pour éclairer. Moi je vois la lumière pour mettre en valeur, comme une femme utiliserait du maquillage ». Grâce à la domotique, Maison Mère devient trois lieux en un : énergisant le matin, tamisé le soir, propice au travail l’après-midi. « À 19h, vous allez voir, toute la pièce change », promet-il avec la fierté de l’inventeur.
Pause. Open your eyes. Observe. Contemplate.
WeAreKollectors is an independent magazine dedicated to beauty, design, craftsmanship, and timelessness.
Each month, we take you on a journey to discover chosen objects, singular places, rare gestures, and the women and men who think and create with intention.
Through stories, encounters, portraits, and images, we shine a light on what endures—what has been conceived, shaped, and passed on with care.
Far from noise and fleeting trends, WeAreKollectors offers another way of seeing.
A slow, precise gaze—respectful, attentive to what is transmitted, shaped, and told. A sensitive exploration of beauty and timelessness in all their dimensions.
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