How to be more Philippe Starck
Ever loved a hotel so much you wanted to live in it? We ask the iconic French designer for tips on how to replicate a life in the sky
01/02/2023
You only have to ask Philippe Starck “How are you?” to get a glimpse of one the world’s zaniest creative minds. “I am absolutely perfect,” says the legendary designer when we speak from his latest Paris endeavour, TOO Hôtel. “I am a sort of angel with invisible wings. I am on the top of a mountain, far away from stupid conversations, boring dinners, ridiculous exhibitions.”
There are no mountains in the French capital (though we’d wager there are plenty of definitely-not-boring dinners and exhibitions). But on the 27th floor of the skyrise TOO, jutting upwards from the industrial, 13th arrondissement, you’re certainly up in the clouds. Opened above a modern office block in October 2022, this hotel occupies the top ten floors of the third-tallest skyscraper in Paris (after the Eiffel and Montparnasse towers). The concrete structure also lays claim to the city’s highest rooftop bar, a novelty in the sea of ornate, cream-coloured Haussmann low-rises. Sipping a Starck-recommended boulevardier (a negroni mixed with Scotch rather than gin) and gazing across the glittering urban nightscape and nearby warehouses, you could be in Brooklyn or Tokyo.
But, if you’re anything like Starck, your focus will be on what’s inside rather than outside of the floor-to-ceiling windows. “It’s more interesting to speak with other humans than to watch the view,” he insists. “You know the view is there, but you have to forget it. Don’t you have anybody to seduce?”
TOO Hôtel’s whimsical interior design certainly sets the scene for seduction. Here’s how to recreate the look, with a little inspiration from the creative master himself.
