Philippe Starck, the design icon unveils the 9Confidentiel, a Parisian hotel

9confidentiel hotel by

Philippe Starck

Hotels & restaurants

15 January 2021

Philippe Starck needs no introduction. The inventor of design as it emerged in France in the 1980s is the author of some insane projects. The man who became famous with the first Costes café, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, is now coming back just a stone’s throw away to imagine a new place: the 9Confidentiel. Nestled in the rue du Roi de Sicile, this establishment of the French group 9Hotel Collection is an ode to his mother’s beauty and to the women of a sophisticated era. It is transcribed like a photo, as « blurred » as it is contemporary… Six floors designed like a jewellery box, with the artistic intervention of his daughter Ara. Starck reveals his inspirations like whispered confidences.

PHILLIPE STARCK

Palette and materials: pastels, brushed metal, draped silk

AN INTIMATE AND ROMANTIC SETTING IN THE HEART OF THE MARAIS

Here, the star is the architecture of the building, which originally served as hat factory, and its late Art Deco facade. « This period is marked by a very sophisticated design; a rejection of the avant-garde of the 1920s and a prefiguration of a new classicism, » explains Starck. This paradoxical state of upheaval, this almost surrealist vagueness, defines this hotel in the manner of a jazz song by Anne Sylvestre.

« IN THOSE DAYS, WE DRANK CHAMPAGNE TO FORGET THAT THE WORLD WAS TURNING UPSIDE DOWN… IT’S VERY ROMANTIC! »

Anne Sylvestre - "Flou"

« In order to baptise each room, we picked out the most common women’s names at that time. » Names of heroines from a novel by Patrick Modiano, which the designer cites as inspiration for the decoration of this setting « where elegant women disguise their worries and get dizzy with faded romanticism… »

« THIS HOTEL IS A LITERARY ALLEGORY. »

Drawing by Cassandra Montoriol

The couturier Paul Poiret, who liberated women from the corset, and the designer Jacques Adnet, also constitute the references of the 9Confidentiel. Each room is designed like the boudoir of a well-dressed woman, who would wear the « kissing red » lipstick.

Starck interpreted the delicately opulent style of 1945: drawn arcades, Art Deco-inspired motifs embroidered on armchairs and carpets, drapery and pleated lampshades, pink and bevelled mirrors…

A HOTEL TO LIVE LIKE A DAYDREAM

The artist and daughter of Starck Ara designed motifs for 9Confidential as « living frescoes ». Flamboyant, or even « ardent », they enliven the spaces of the hotel, such as the entrance corridor, and come to life alongside the sculptures of Yann Masseyeff.

Drawing by Cassandra Montoriol

The eclecticism of 9Confidentiel is also displayed in the tea room, enlivened by Yann Couvreur’s pastries. A cocoon that echoes Carlo Mollino’s bachelor flat in Turin, whose fireplace is « greatly inspired », Starck assumes.

Sketch by Cassandra Montoriol

For celebrations, the bar run by the mixologist Nico de Soto serves cocktails named in homage to the women who live here in an imaginary way: Jeanne, Viviane, Aurore, Coco… « A place forgotten by time where you can feel protected from the outside world and be stunned in a poetic blur. »