Hospitality Design - August 2011 - 56

perspectives

interview: christian lacroix

kind of interior: If you have something very contemporary with very simple lines with beige, it’s suitable to use just one piece, like a jewel. And if you are in Turkey, China, Russia, or in a palazzo in Italy with loud decoration, you could use the whole collection. HD: Where more is more? CL: I believe too much is never enough! The project was a dream come true. All my sketches from my childhood were covered with these kind of baroque and crazy things. HD: Why are the furniture collections named after different people, like the Empress Theodora? CL: There is a poetic thinking behind each of the pieces. Empress Theodora was a kind of prostitute and a dancer from Middle Asia who married the Roman Emperor Justinian and was like a divinity, and her image is in the San Vitale Church in Ravenna. Growing up in the 1950s, I was totally fascinated by history, especially by costume history, and as a child, I was given a book on Byzantine costumes, which featured this Ravenna mosaic mural of her that stuck with me. I never stopped drawing her. So when we decided to do this line, I dedicated it to Ravenna and Theodora. I tried to imagine what kind of house she would have today, and the furniture collection came out of that. HD: And are the other pieces you designed also connected to the Empress? CL: Yes, in a way, they are suitable for a palazzo or for Marie Antoinette or any kind of queen or empress. Being a designer in haute couture, I always thought that these women ordering their special garments were like heroines, and it’s why I’m not frustrated anymore to have to design haute couture fashion. When I’m doing costumes for the stage—whether it’s for the soprano Renée Fleming or for any character in an Italian or German opera—they are all like Theodora to me. I’m interested in designing objects for everyday life for people who are interesting, who are very strong, daring, and audacious. This furniture is for people who are not shy—not beige and gray. HD: Can you talk about your process for the project? CL: I work on my computer with a tablet pen and do a lot of different shapes and experiment with a lot of fabrics that have been scanned into my computer. Then I try to order the same fabric from these old fabric houses, the same ones that supplied the palace of Versailles. Next came the furniture, and then I had the idea to do the SICIS booth in Milan to have the brightest most colorful furniture in one corner and little by little transition to the more subdued pieces. HD: In other words, you’re always trying to please everybody. There’s a little something for everyone, no? CL: Me, ﬁrst! Because if I have no pleasure, then I’m unable to provide pleasure for others. HD: You’re now working on a new hotel? CL: We just ﬁnished a new hotel in front of the Notre Dame in Paris and are looking for a fourth hotel in the city. But I just signed an agreement with Soﬁtel, which was looking to elevate the brand that it started in Mauritius, called So Mauritius. I’m in charge of the So Bangkok hotel, which opens next year. The idea is that the different ﬂoors are based on the ﬁve elements—wood, ﬁre, earth, metal, and water. I’m trying to ﬁnd some kind of emblem and I’ll sketch out different objects [for the design]. The rooms will all be very different: some are made by artisans, for example. HD: Your hotel projects have garnered successful reviews. What’s your secret? CL: For the ﬁrst hotel in Paris—the Hôtel du Petit Moulin—the owner had a very nice idea to have everything the same with a Louis XVII look. But the hotel was in a very old and complicated building, where every surface was never the same, so I said, ‘Why not do the hotel like a patchwork?’ We had 17 rooms, so why not have the rooms be like 17 different movie sets? A lot of people have this idea that I am very ‘out of this world,’ that I’m not really very grounded, which isn’t true. My idea was to satisfy all the kinds of people visiting Paris in this very special area Le Marais, where I also live, with wonderful vintage clothes stores for young Japanese girls and very important contemporary art galleries. It’s also the gay area, and the museum area with the Carnavalet and Picasso Museums, so I tried to have different moods suitable for all these kinds of people. I was very proud of the project, because after it opened, it had the best return on investment for hotels. It was a very weird time for me. I was still with the French luxury brand LVMH, and I remember telling Mr. Arnault, the chairman and CEO of the company: ‘Bernard, you’re always teasing me that I’m out of this world.’ And I wasn’t! I need to have chemistry with the people I work with because my way of designing is not the typical way.

Above: Bold prints define a bedroom at the Hôtel Le Notre Dame in Paris.

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