His husband Félix Farrington, a former student of the Paris academies of fine art and decorative arts, worked for Marc Bohan at Dior from the age of 21. In 1994 he joined the creative team at the Printemps department store where he designed the collections for 14 years. It is to his husband’s exceptional boldness and energy that Didier Ludot owes two of his career highlights: the first vintage fashion show in 1990 and the magnificent Dior exhibition that filled all the windows of the Palais Royal in 2005, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Christian Dior’s birth and the 30th anniversary of the opening of Ludot’s boutique. From the beginning of their relationship, Didier and Félix have regularly visited auctions and antique shops in search of rare and beautiful finds.

Their Paris flat, breath-taking dacha on the island of Mézy and farmhouse in Provence are brimming with magnificent acquisitions: a Coromandel lacquer writing desk sits alongside a totem by Ettore Sottsass, while a Jacob ‘voyeuse’ chair is placed next to a table by Meret Oppenheim. An imitation bamboo bonheur du jour desk by Madeleine Castaing faces drawings by Christian Bérard and a portrait of a sublime Maria Callas.

Therein lies the magic of Didier Ludot and Felix Farrington’s lifestyle and approach to entertaining as they wow their friends at every dinner party, serving exquisite dishes on tableware specially designed for the wedding of Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor at the Château de Candé in 1936, or on a handsome Louis XVI Locré porcelain dinner service.

Didier and Félix are collectors who value only quality, beauty, emotion and the desire sparked by a coveted object.

They have a gift for incorporating rare and fragile objects into their daily lives that are filled with friends with whom they generously share the joy of their collection. Now Didier Ludot and Félix Farrington are entrusting Artcurial and Christie’s with the auction of 1,200 pieces they have acquired and loved. They are embarking on a new chapter in their lives, but we can rest assured that a new treasure hunt will begin very soon.