Recently, Christian Lacroix and Kenzo Takada both put their Parisian apartments up for sale, giving everyone a glimpse of their fantastic homes. This got us at Flat Hunter thinking, who else from the world of fashion lives or has lived in Paris? We take a look at 10 designer apartments in Paris both past and present.
Lacroix’s apartment has been decorated with the kind of eclectic style one would expect from this top fashion designer, always willing to experiment with colours, patterns and styles in his work. The apartment, on sale for around €2 million, covers around 200 m2, including 4 bedrooms, a mezzanine-level library and a 19 m2 courtyard. It’s a 17th century building in the heart of the Marais, and as you can see from the photos is fantastically lit, spacious and full of the colourful eccentric charm that has made him famous.
Kenzo Takada’s apartment for sale maybe in near Place de la Bastille, in Paris’ 11th arrondissment, but the designer has created a Japanese home, and garden in a space that is all his own. He took an undeveloped industrial building, which gave him both the space and the ‘blank canvas’ to create the home that he wanted. With the help of a Japanese architect and master gardener, he transformed it into one of the most extraordinary residences in Paris. To just briefly touch upon some of the outstanding features of this property, there is a waterfall and koi pond built on the 1st floor, a swimming pool under a glass roof and a Japanese teahouse. The property is a staggering 1,360m2 of living space, not including the garden and terraces. The asking price? A cool €12 million...
Perhaps more fascinating than the apartment itself, is the collection of objects that it contains. As you can see from the photos, it isn’t as extravagant as the apartments of Kenzo or Lacroix, but the collection of Yves Saint Laurent’s possessions, a number of which were recently auctioned off in February. Turning our attention simply to works of art, there are paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Edvard Munch and Cezanne! Saint Laurent’s duplex is situated on Rue de Babylone, and is light and airy, but retains a feel of the period in which he had such great success, the late 70s and early 80s.
Although it is well-known that Coco Chanel ‘lived at the Ritz’, she also owned a whole building nearly on Rue Cambon; the ground floor was the shop, the second floor was the haute couture dressing room, the third floor was her apartment and the fourth floor was her workshop. The apartment has been left untouched since her death, and is full her of personal touches (such as designs featuring the Camelia her favourite flower, and lions, as she was a Leo.) There are many modern fairy tales about this apartment; such as that when she was to stay there, some of her staff would spray Chanel No. 5 perfume in advance of her arrival so that she could come home to the smell of her fragrance, and that the mirrored staircase she designed allows her to see what is happening on every floor of the house at the same time.
This apartment is slightly different; it does not in fact belong to the Belgian designer, but this 220m2 apartment was redecorated by him as part of the ELLE Décoration exhibition at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, at Place de Trocadero. It features all of the hallmarks of Margiela’s style; insane asylum-style padded walls, drop clothes, white-washed surfaces, and there’s a salon decorated to look like a party was abandoned right in full swing. It is open to the public until the 1st of October, the nearest metro is Trocadero and entry costs €3. Last year, the apartment was decorated by Christian Lacroix.
The popular designer of shoes could perhaps be left to talk about his own apartment, some of the quotations he gives about it are certainly memorable. But it is as stylish and meticulously designed as the high heels that bear his name. Simple, yet luxurious and opulent, his use of exotic fabrics and contrasts gives the apartment an individual appeal. He sees himself as a collector, and this space is one in which he gathers all the objects he finds interesting. Of the similarities between interior design and designing shoes, he said, “There is the same idea of the importance of details. A detail can change how you see a place. A shoe is a shape, first and foremost: If its structure is good, it can be enriched with all manner of details, a house is the same.”
Roitfeld is famous for wearing black, but yet her apartment is light, calm and spacious. It is clean and uncluttered, without being too minimalist. It was entirely designed for Roitfeld by Chipperfield, the English architect, based around the ideas of order and ‘freedom of mind’. It escapes being too bare or minimalist because of the beauty of the traditional design and classical elegance of the building itself.
Vanessa Bruno’s apartment is everything you would expect; chic, stylish, elegant and an exciting blend of modern, vintage and antiques. The colours used are particularly inspired; the widespread use of white makes the apartment clean and airy, while the use of pastel highlights such as pale lavender give colour without weighing everything down. It is full of thoughtful and individual touches.
Jacobs’ Paris apartment was decorated with the help LA-based English decorator, Paul Fortune. And between them they tried to stay true to the apartments’ traditional French formalism, while at the same time making it a space in which Jacobs could keep his modern and new art, and 20th Century furnishings. Despite making his fortune as a designer for Louis Vitton and then for his own brand, he claims to have no idea about interior design; “I have no sense of proportion for rooms,” he says. “Paul has that ability to come in and just move a vase or something, and the space looks instantly good.”
Not strictly a designer, but in fitting with the theme. In 2007, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s childhood home in Montmartre was put up for sale, initially at €4.5 million. It’s known as the Chateau des Brouillards ‘The Chateau of Mists’, and was also the home of his son, film director Jean Renoir. It measures 300m2 and has a front garden, and an interior one.
Photo Credits : stylebyme.net, apartmenttherapy.com, The Times, Vanity Fair, Daily Mail, gogoparis.com, Cite de l’Architecture, mirrormirror, realestatejournal.com, W magazine, hookedonhouses.net
