A Love Letter to Paris, Between the Sheets

In the heart of Paris, where charm radiates from cobblestone alleys and every arrondissement holds a secret rendezvous, two of the city’s most charismatic brands—Merci and Carne Bollente—have teamed up to transform bedrooms into sanctuaries of style, sensuality, and storytelling.

Their new capsule collection, aptly named Paris Under the Covers, is a poetic ode to intimacy. It unites Merci’s minimalist elegance with Carne Bollente’s cheeky eroticism, delivering a suite of home and fashion essentials that feel both mischievous and tender. This isn’t just about bedding or apparel—it’s about crafting an atmosphere, a mood, and perhaps, a memory.

The Genesis of the Connection

The idea sparked during a casual conversation between Merci’s creative director and Carne Bollente’s founding trio over coffee on Boulevard Beaumarchais. What began as shared admiration soon turned into a creative proposition: could they translate the intimate ethos of Parisian love into tactile objects that people could bring home?

Merci, known for its curated selection of lifestyle goods with a bohemian French soul, found an irresistible partner in Carne Bollente, whose mission since 2015 has been to normalize sex-positivity through inclusive, humorous, and stylish illustration-led clothing. Together, they envisioned a universe that begins with laughter, ends in love, and always starts between the sheets.

What’s in the Capsule?

The Paris Under the Covers collection is small, deliberate, and incredibly charming. It includes:

• Two bedding sets, in ivory and soft blue, adorned with embroidered and printed illustrations of nude lovers nestled in various intimate poses—flirtatious but never vulgar.
• A graphic T-shirt, available in unisex sizing, featuring one of Carne Bollente’s most beloved characters lounging with a baguette in bed, rendered in fine-line embroidery over the chest.
• A canvas tote bag, perfect for a morning market run or carrying your favorite paperback, printed with the phrase “Je t’aime jusqu’aux draps” (“I love you all the way to the sheets”).

Each piece is intentionally designed to be more than just a product—it’s a vignette of a Parisian love story. There’s wit in every thread and warmth in every fold.

Between Eroticism and Everyday Life

Carne Bollente has always danced on the border of provocation and poetry. While their signature aesthetic includes suggestive drawings of bodies entwined, it’s never about shock. Rather, it’s about celebration. The kind of love that happens when no one’s looking, the glances shared over coffee, the slow afternoons wrapped in a comforter.

Merci’s design language provides the perfect foil. Their base palette is neutral, almost calming, allowing Carne Bollente’s whimsical sketches to shine like hidden graffiti on a whitewashed wall. The result is a collision of naughty and nice—where the bedroom becomes a gallery of affection, cheekiness, and vulnerability.

Paris as a Sensual Mood Board

Though the items are few, the collection captures multitudes. The choice of natural cottons, unbleached canvas, and embroidery over screen printing creates an almost heirloom-like quality. It feels lived-in, like something inherited from a friend who always had great taste and even better stories.

The color palette pulls from the Paris morning sky and soft-lit apartments: ivory, pale slate, biscuit tan. The designs play off clichés—the Eiffel Tower as a suggestive silhouette, café chairs turned lovers’ embrace—but with the cleverness that Carne Bollente is known for.

There’s no doubt that this collection is rooted in Paris—but not the postcard Paris. This is the under-the-covers Paris, the whispered confessions, the Sunday morning croissants eaten naked in bed, the rustle of sheets as laughter breaks a silence.

A Limited Affair: Only at Merci & Carne Bollente

True to the spirit of exclusivity, Paris Under the Covers will be available only at Merci’s flagship store in the Marais, their official webstore, and Carne Bollente’s e-shop. The brands have emphasized that there will be no restocks, no pop-ups, and certainly no third-party retailers. This capsule is for the in-the-know lovers and collectors.

Launching April 18, 2025, the drop coincides with the blooming of spring—a metaphor not lost on the collaborators. As cherry blossoms fall along Canal Saint-Martin and cafés overflow with lovers, Merci and Carne Bollente offer the perfect backdrop for tender mornings and playful nights.

The Philosophy Behind the Sheets

Underpinning this capsule is a shared philosophy between the two brands: that pleasure, intimacy, and design should be accessible, joyful, and free of shame. Both Merci and Carne Bollente believe that what happens in private deserves the same level of aesthetic intention as what happens in public.

In interviews ahead of the launch, Carne Bollente’s co-founder Agoston Palinko noted, “We’re not trying to be erotic. We’re trying to be honest. Sex is human. Love is universal. We just dress it with humor.” Merci’s team echoed this sentiment, describing the collection as “homewear for lovers who know the value of subtle details.”

This collaboration doesn’t scream. It flirts. It doesn’t seduce through spectacle, but through warmth. And in doing so, it makes intimacy feel like the most stylish thing one can wear—or sleep in.

Reception & Anticipation: A Cult Drop in the Making

Ahead of the official release, teasers on social media sparked a wave of excitement among design-savvy consumers and lifestyle media alike. Posts showcasing the bedding sets on sunlit balconies, or models wearing the tee while tangled in white sheets, quickly gained traction with fans of both brands.

Influencers in the fashion-meets-homewear space, including Jeanne Damas and Nico Hiraga, have been spotted teasing pieces on their Instagram Stories. There’s a sense that this collaboration hits a sweet spot—luxury meets levity, lifestyle meets love life.

Pre-orders opened quietly through Merci’s subscriber newsletter, and early access shoppers reported checkout times under five minutes before certain SKUs sold out. If that’s any indication, the full launch will be a rush of heartbeats and mouse clicks.

The Broader Impression: Fashion and Home Are Merging

Paris Under the Covers also exemplifies a growing movement in lifestyle fashion where homewear and fashion intersect more deeply than ever. The idea that your bedsheets are as expressive as your jacket, or your tote bag speaks as loudly as your sneakers, is no longer fringe. It’s culture.

Brands like Tekla, Dusen Dusen, and Jacquemus Maison have blurred this line for years. Merci and Carne Bollente now enter the chat with a distinctively French lens—one that pairs silliness with elegance, love with design, and self-expression with domestic life.

It’s also a commentary on how intimacy is being redefined in design culture. No longer confined to perfume ads or luxury lingerie, intimacy is now embroidered into sheets and printed onto shopping totes. It’s not about selling sex—it’s about celebrating connection.

Closing Thoughts: Love, Light, and Linen

Paris Under the Covers is more than a clever name—it’s an invitation. An invitation to slow down. To savor the little things. To laugh in bed. To let your space reflect your sense of humor as much as your taste. And most importantly, to bring romance into the everyday, not just the special occasion.

Merci and Carne Bollente didn’t just launch a capsule—they reminded us that design, like love, is best when it’s fun, personal, and tucked between soft sheets.

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