When I see an amazingly well-dressed person on the street, my first thought is, "I wonder what their house looks like?" My second thought is, "I'm sure their life is infinitely more glamorous than mine." These famous French designers confirm my suspicions that what people wear is often indicative of the way they live.
Jean Paul Gaultier: Jean Paul's love of stripes does not end on the catwalk. This apartment is literally swathed in his signature look. Alas, this is not Jean Paul's real apartment. It is an experimental design project in a Decoration suite in the Cité de l’architecture & du Patrimoineon. If you want to check out more of Jean Paul's interior design, he did a collection for Roche Bobois about a year ago.
Christian Lacroix: Christian Lacroix's elegant apartment is in a 16th century building in the Marais area of Paris. His mixture of antique and contemporary furniture proves he is not one to play by the rules. As the former designer for Emilio Pucci’s fashion house, a love of bright colors is apparently a job requirement he did not mind taking home with him.
Christian Dior: Pictures of Chritian Dior's apartment can be found in the discontinued book Les Reussites de la Decoration Francaise 1950-1960. He hired two friends to decorate his timeless Parisian apartment. Georges Geffroy decorated the “public” rooms and Victor H. Grandpierre decorated his private rooms.
Yves Saint Laurent: YSL's Rue de Babylone apartment was lavish and filled with the same sumptuous leather used to make his famous purses that many of us have coveted throughout the years. Good taste is evident in his art collection, which is reportedly worth more than $50 million.
Coco Chanel: Coco Chanel lived in the Ritz Carlton and her Rue Cambon apartment for many years, even though they were in walking distance from one another. Her person touches are everywhere from chandeliers with interlocking C's and the subtle placement of her favorite flower, the Camellia, in every room.
Images: 1. Trendland: Jean Paul Gaultier 2. Apartment Therapy: Christian Lacroix 3. The Devine Life: Christian Dior 4. Vanity Fair: Yves Saint Laurent 5. 2. Apartment Therapy: Coco Chanel
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Comments (12)
I honestly don't like Coco chanel's apt at all!
FYI the chair pictured in YSL's apartment is the dragons chair by Eileen Gray. It's considered one of the most expensive chairs in the world when it sold for $27.8 Million USD.
Wow, I'm surprised by how I'm not impressed....all the money in the world to buy the coolest stuff ever doesnt make "a home"....I do love Christian Lacroix tho'!!!
GAH! It's all so over done and cluttered. I KNOW it's fine this and fine that, but I would not want to live in those spaces.
Jean Paul Gaultier's place is just odd.
I would enjoy being in the Christian Lacroix room.
Agree, I don't think fashion designer necessarily translates to interior designer . . . .
Gotta be honest... I wanted to LOVE these homes and I don't. Most are overdone, busy, and would give me anxiety being in them.
There is something "trying to hard" about them that just isn't translating well.
It's funny how my FAVOURITE resources these days for home and personal fashion are coming from everyday people and not designers. I am MUCH more inspired with streetwear sites (like chictopia or lookbook) than the traditional runways... and the same with home design. The AT community is much more innovative and exciting to me than the well known interior designers and decorators. Hmmm...
"trying too* hard" --oops, my own grammatical errors drive me crazy
A lot of you are saying that the homes are overdone. But take a look at the runway collections. They are very rarely understated and often elevated above reality. These people do not come home to escape from their work. They breathe and live it. Creating is their obsession. So it is just natural that their homes are reflections of their personality, visions and passions.
I bet their work schedule and spotlight lives would give you an axiety also. Most either have really shady beginings or meet bad ends. To be a ground breaking artist, sadly and in 95% of cases, you do need to be off your rocker. Furthermore, that is why many creative types who find it hard to stay in the zone and the feel of the moment, find themselves turning to drugs and alcohol.
hehe, I totally called the first photo as JPGaultier. And it's pretty much confirmed that I love YSL. His early collections were fantastic and he always looked so classic.
We AT readers have seen a great number of homes filled, sometimes to the brim, with personal collections in all price ranges. And ditto on what mariyaodessa said.
Christian Lacroix's place is only one that's good
Ohh! They're furniture is just SO fashionable. I wish I had some like that. Although... i really like the streetwear type of look if you know what I mean? It just shouts, "Comfortable!"