A chat with Florian Masse, founder of The Cool Republic

L'Exception and The Cool Republic collaborate for your greatest happiness.





This concept store is the meeting place for lifestyle, design, decoration and tableware with more than 400 brands. Everything you need to feel good at home. The opportunity to discover articles from great designers but also those of new creators.


Today, we are going to meet Florian Masse, founder of The Cool Republic who tells us about his love for design and how the pure player got started.

Florian : My name is Florian Masse and I'm the founder of the website The Cool Republic, a concept store with more than 400 design brands.

My background hasn't been totally linear. I started my career as a lawyer for a few years only to finally realize that this job wasn't really for me.

I also had the opportunity during my law studies, to study business and imagine boxes to create with fellow students. And it's precisely with a former university exchange buddy that we wanted to make design and decoration accessible online through The Cool Republic.

Florian : First of all, a taste for beautiful things; curiosity about the world of designers and architecture. They shape the world in which we live and determine modernity. It was a universe that attracted me a lot.

Last but not least, the opportunity to turn it into a business creation project with the idea that I didn't find myself in the offer proposed by e-commerce sites at the time. I found the representation of design and decoration on the internet not at all in line with the times: on the one hand, design websites were elitist, expensive and too cold, and on the other hand, decoration websites were too far away from current trends in my opinion.

Florian : I don't think a particular encounter has changed the way I see design today. On the other hand, there are many designers and brands that inspire me: Charlotte Perriand for her modernity, the Bouroullec brothers for their aestheticism and creativity and the brands Muuto and Hay for their ability to offer an innovative and accessible design.

Florian : The search for quality, aesthetics and durability of the products offered is at the centre of our selection. At The Cool, we've always chosen products that we like the most. The emotion that a product arouses is often the trigger for us to go further. Even if we are sensitive to sustainable development, our sourcing has no borders and we select mainly European brands. We have a particular focus on Scandinavian brands that have a historical know-how in design and in the concept of well-being, the famous Hygge.

Florian : There are many! We are developing our international platform with a reinforced presence in our neighbouring countries. And develop our BtoB activity to meet the growing demand of our professional partners (architects etc..) who are more and more numerous with constraints and requirements specific to their activities, in particular: the opening of a showroom in Paris and a dedicated platform to complete the offer of our shop

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