Philippe Starck : the most famous French glam designer

Philippe Patrick Starck (born January 18, 1949, Paris) is a French product designer and probably the best known designer in the New Design style. His designs range from interior designs to mass produced consumer goods such as toothbrushes, chairs, and even houses.

He was educated in Paris at the École Camondo and in 1968, he founded his first design firm, which specialized in inflatable objects. In 1969, he became art director of his firm along with Pierre Cardin.

Starck's career started to climb in earnest in 1982 when he designed the interior for the private apartments of the French President François Mitterrand.

In 1986 he joined Domus Academy Department of Design as an associate lecturer.

Starck has worked both independently as an interior designer and as a product designer since 1975. In 2002, he created a number of what are considered relatively inexpensive product designs for the large American retailer Target Stores.

His most recent notable designs include an optical mouse for Microsoft, several yachts including the $300 million  and even new packaging for a beer company. He was commissioned to design the Virgin Galactic "spaceport" in New Mexico (Foster and Partners are its architects).

He made the exhibit Democratic Ecology with Pramac.

In autumn 2009 Starck appeared in a BBC Two programme Design for Life in which 12 aspiring design students competed to gain a six month placement with Starck's Paris based company.

Unlike most other New Design artists, Starck's work does not concentrate on the creation of provocative and expensive single pieces. 

Instead, his product designs are of usable household items which Starck himself helps to market for mass production. 

His products and furnishings are often stylized, streamlined and organic in their look and are also constructed using unusual combinations of materials (such as glass and stone, plastic and aluminum, plush fabric and chrome, etc.).

Restaurant interiors

Among his interior designs for restaurants, Starck designed the Felix restaurant-bar at The Peninsula Hong Kong, a classic hotel facing the Hong Kong harbour on the Kowloon side. 

This design, located on the 28th floor, is known for several design features including the men's washroom, which features urinals facing glass, and a spectacular view of the Hong Kong cityscape.

An earlier design by Starck, now world famous, was for the Café Costes in Paris (1984).

His design presence is heavily noted in Los Angeles, where his work is evident in numerous trendy restaurants, lounges and nightclubs including Katsuya, XIV by Michael Mina, The Bazaar at SLS Beverly HIlls, and s-bar Hollywood.

Hotel interiors

In 1988, Starck was commissioned by famed nightclub impresario Ian Schrager, former co-owner of Studio 54, to refit the Royalton Hotel on New York's West 44th Street. It was a design moment that has since changed the hotel industry; boutique hotels, where hotel design is an important factor, became the industry buzz. However the Schrager hotels are also known for their celebrity and publicity orientations that attract attention to the hotels.

The Starck-Schrager design hotel partnerships continued in New York at the Paramount hotel, and then spread to Miami with the opening of the Delano Hotel in South Beach in 1995, to Los Angeles with the Mondrian Hotel in December 1996, to London with both the St. Martins Lane hotel in 1999 and the Sanderson hotel in 2000, to San Francisco and the Clift hotel, and finally back to New York with the Hudson hotel, with what is described as "Cheap Chic".

The look and feel of Starck-Schrager hotels has been highly influential, including the approaches at Starwood's W hotels.

Starck also designed Jia, the first Philippe Starck-designed boutique hotel in Asia.

From 2007 until 2022, Starck is under an exclusive contract with nightclub mogul Sam Nazarian to design Nazarian's new hotel brand, SLS Hotels. The first property, SLS Los Angeles at Beverly Hills (a massive renovation of the former Le Méridien At Beverly Hills), was opened on October 28, 2008, and was entirely designed by Starck. The hotel lobby features unique Starck-designed display cases presenting rotating design items curated by gallerist Murray Moss.

From December 2007, Philippe Starck and his daughter Ara were involved in the redecoration of public areas at Le Meurice, Paris.

Hotel Le Meurice

info source wikipedia