Yesterday the Paris hotel La Maison Champs Elysées was re-opened, after being re-decorated by Maison Martin Margiela. Margiela has imagined 17 rooms and suites as well as the reception, restaurant, bar and cigar room, in what is a powerful statement bot, conceptually and geographically (the hotel is at the centre of a district featuring the world’s most prestigious couture houses).
Cerebrally satisfying since its foundation in 1988, it’s clear why Maison Martin Margiela were approached – the house has such a strong handwriting you could theorise it, bind it, and sit it on a bookshelf as a sexy, very contemporary branch of philosophy. White paint, deconstruction, trompe l’oeil, reappropriation, the artisanal and, last but not least, pure, dry wit are key characteristics. Another particularly romantic convention is seen when MMM fêtes – think of the red wine served in cheap, white disposable cups that become hedonistically stained.
La Maison Champs Elysées consists of two buildings, one of which dates from the Second Empire under Napoleon III. It was in 1864 that the Duchess of Rivoli, Princess d’Essling, Grand Mistress of the Empress Eugénie’s Household, had this private mansion built, penned by French architect Jules Pellechet. The property was designed in the (now iconic) Haussmann style and finished in 1866.
Decorated within the brand’s artistic lineage, expect a huge diamond prism alluding to infinite space (reception), white linen and cotton-covered sofas (the Essling bar), bottle lamps, wool runners printed with English-style parquet and suites with unfinished mouldings.
Via AnOther
