For some time now, interior designer Daphné Desjeux and Paris Society, the group specializing in exceptional places, have been turning around.
“Paris Society had seen my work for the hotel industry, specifies the professional and I felt that the teams were sensitive to it.
For my part, I wanted to explore even more this creation of very successful sets, especially for the world of the night.
The collaboration materializes with Mondaine (2), this address where luxury intersects with a spirit of regression and celebration.
Guided and private visit with Daphné Desjeux (1).
Daphné Desjeux, who notably designed the sets for La Marine and Babel, played the card of opulence for Mondaine.
Benoit Linero
The starting point
"Paris Society wanted to reinvent the universe of the cabaret with a festive place inspired by the life of a socialite of the 1970s. I thus created the corresponding setting by developing the idea of a left bank apartment hosting great parties and where emblematic personalities of the time such as Serge Gainsbourg and Yves Saint Laurent would meet.
I worked on the codes of this worldliness, of excess, of a chic on the edge of bad taste but which never falls into it.
It had to be done with the existing space – it used to be the Roxie – two floors with a central staircase with two scrolls.
I did not touch this structure.
On the other hand, I reviewed everything from floor to ceiling.
Carpets, benches, lamps, stools… This is a total creation.
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From the ground to the ceiling
Every detail of the decoration has been the subject of extreme attention.
The goal?
Bordering on kitsch but never diving into it.
Benoit Linero
“As a starting point for the project, I opted for carpets.
Our two icons being Gainsbourg and Saint Laurent, I chose that of the bathroom of Gainsbourg, rue de Verneuil, and that of the living room of the Parisian apartment of Saint Laurent.
These biases served as the basis for the designs of the furniture, the patterns, the selection of colors…”
Very couture benches
Daphné Desjeux has created eight types of banquettes, most of which are inspired by Yves Saint Laurent dresses.
Benoit Linero
“I designed eight types of benches!
Their silhouettes mostly revolve around Saint Laurent dresses.
One of them, for example, is inspired by a long dress close to the body, flared at the bottom, with in the middle of the belly a large oval tightened by pleats.
Another ruffled model also served as a food for thought.
I was really carried away by this apartment spirit where references mix: clothes, family heirlooms, others salvaged, hunted down... an accumulation of objects and furniture that don't always go together and that makes it possible to bring back to this place of the "domestic".
It is a chic mess punctuated by unexpected creations such as a bench evoking a four-poster bed which makes it possible to create a more intimate box in this vast space.
I started from the principle that we needed places to meet, like in an apartment.
We have all seen that, during a party, there is a crowd in the kitchen while people dance in the living room.
This bench seat is a bit like the kitchen: a corner where you feel safe.”
A colorful place
In the smoking room, Daphné Desjeux dared to go 100% green.
Benoit Linero
“The walls have been great playgrounds!
For example, the smoking room is totally green: the walls are lacquered in green, the library is green like all of its contents!
I also proposed to Paris Society a step aside with wallpapers from another time, a bit like those discovered under paint and tapestry when you scratch the walls of a house.
I find that the idea of a horse chestnut flower pattern helps to show that we don't take ourselves seriously.
I also used this idea for the fabric of the lampshades which has nothing to do with the rest!
Leopard creation from Lelièvre, Paon fabric from Nobilis, plum and red tone-on-tone velvet from Dedar, which is also the iconic fabric of the place… There are also, in terms of textiles, an abundance of references!”
The spirit of accumulation
Everywhere, objects bring a domestic dimension into the place.
Benoit Linero
“For me, the accumulation symbolizes the 1970s, the carefree opulence of the glorious Thirties.
In my imagination, the socialite of this period has too much jewellery, clothes… This “too much”, we find it in the paintings, photos, engravings displayed on the walls… There are a total of 180 of them which mainly represent women!
Above the bar, books and objects mix generously.
Abundance of textiles, fringes… everywhere you look, there is something that illustrates this “overflowing” side.
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The bar, central room
A bar to drink but also to see and be seen.
Benoit Linero
“The bar, of course, had to live up to the place!
It is backlit, in classic two-tone mirrors and more brown.
I wanted this bar to imply the idea of being seen here but also being able to observe others.
In addition, thanks to the reflections, it gives depth to the place.
Careful lighting
The warm light varies according to the time of the evening.
Benoit Linero
“There was a very big job on the light.
We wanted it to be very warm.
Paris Society and I are very keen on the importance of lighting.
We agreed on three luminous scenarios, depending on the moment of the evening, which involved many thoughts and creations.
For example, we blew amber-colored seeded glass globes to give the impression of candlelight that crescendos through the evening.”
Praise of the curve
To bring softness, Daphné Desjeux favored curves and rounding.
Benoit Linero
“At Mondaine, everything is curved, there is roundness everywhere.
It's a nod to drunkenness, at that moment when you lose control a little.
The whole space is designed like this.
I even added curved balconies in the staircase, which was very straightforward and whose line was too rigid.
I even dared, at the heart of this staircase, to draw a pattern of mouths, breasts, buttocks that intertwine.
It brings a slightly sulphurous side, evoking the somewhat out of place ideas that one can have in mind at the end of an evening.
But it also helps to install a very soft feeling.
(1) Atelier Daphné Desjeux: daphnedesjeux.com
(2) Mondaine, 23, rue de Ponthieu, 75008
Paris.
mondaine-depariso.com.