The other day, we got a tip from a reader who let us know that there was a new hotel on the scene in Paris called Mama Shelter and it's from Philippe Starck!
Here's what this covert tipster wrote us:
designed by philippe Starck and run by the Trigano family (founders of Club Med). just opened a couple of weeks ago
Screeeech. Club Med and Philippe Starck together? Cannot be. But it is!
Last week we showed you le bike that Le Meurice in Paris keeps on hand for its guests (and maybe its employees too). Today, we show you the work of Philippe Starck from inside the hotel's lobby. Starck was in charge of renovating the swanky hotel and he gave the place an updated new look at the end of December 2007.
There's no old fugly carpeting here! Just unusual furniture done in the Starck way, which is something that we happen to like.
A reader sent in this snapshot of the old Ritz Plaza in Miami Beach saying that this is supposed to be the site of the new SLS Miami.
The first SLS Hotel is set to open in Beverly Hills sometime later this fall and Andrew Calvo reported on Passions of a Zealot that Miami is to be the next location.
But even as far back as 2004, Hotel Online reported that Sam Nazarian and Philippe Starck would take over the Ritz Plaza on Collins Avenue for a new SLS hotel.
Yet as this photo clearly demonstrates not much is happening with SLS Miami. Que paso? Anyone who knows, send us a hint.
The demolition party that went down at the The Hotel Royal Monceau in Paris wasn't just any old party. This is Paris after all and the hotel managed to make their demolition artistic by inviting 25 contemporary artists and celebs to "artistically ruin" the hotel rooms on the third floor.
On hand for the crazy/beautiful destruction were Kanye West, Jude Law, and 18-year-old internet celebrity Cory Kennedy.
"I'm gonna smash everything," yelled Cory Kennedy, rushing into Andre and Olympia Scarry's all-black room, fitted out with battered couches and a giant disco ball. Kanye West, who roamed the corridors with a bemused-looking Yves Carcelle, said that trashing hotel rooms was old hat. "Yeah, you know, the usual throwing the telly out of the window type of thing," he said.
The AFP has a more detailed report of the party, including the fun fact that Madonna's "Justify My Love" video was shot here in the hotel.
The Hotel Royal Monceau in Paris has had some issues, to say the least, over the past few years. From booting out guests to playing hot potato with luxury brands, the historic hotel has seen far too many ups and downs.
But all that is in the past now as the hotel readies for a complete overhaul and a new look from Philippe Starck. As a way to clean house, the hotel held an auction of its furniture and now they are letting guests demolish whatever is left behind.
A tipster let us know that the International Herald Tribune had a round up of things from the Milan Furniture Fair and this rendering of Philippe Starck's lobby for the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles was one of them.
From IHT:
The plans for a new luxury hotel, the SLS at Beverly Hills, are to be unveiled during the Salone. The hotel is to be designed by the ageing enfant terrible of French design, Philippe Starck, with furniture and fittings made by Cassina, a subsidiary of the Poltrona Frau Group. It is to be managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts with a shop run by the New York design impresario Murray Moss.
We are kinda liking this. There are those chandeliers we had seen before on the hotel's website and in promo materials (sans monkeys) and Starck has a thing for chairs so titanium/silver-dipped (?) bar chairs are not surprising.
We just hope those white curtain things can partition off your seating section. Not like we would have anything to hide when sitting in a hotel lobby but it would be cool to be like "this is my section." You know, like the cafeteria in high school.
But we are curious: are those antlers on the back wall?
Even though Las Vegas' Sahara has super-cheap blackjack, don't expect the planned clubs to match. Sam Nazarian hopes to lure a latter-day Rat Pack with not one but four clubs by Brent Bolthouse. (You know, the guy who Heidi works for on The Hills.)
Besides the sure-to-be-bottle-service venues, Nazarian wants to turn his new trophy into a boutique hotel to rival the Viceroy in Santa Monica and the SLS Hotel in West Hollywood. And, yep, Philippe Starck is rumored to be involved on this redo, too.
As usual, we'll qualify all this under the Hotel Hype heading and wait for your insider tips.
The former Le Meridien Beverly Hills hotel shuttered down a few months ago to make way for a new hotel chain from nightclub king Sam Nazarian and his SBE group, called SLS Hotels. (Alphabet soup much?)
We still aren't sure what to expect from this new hotel except Philippe Starck's soul and possibly some drunken goblet-holding monkeys. However, as with all new hotels a fancy schmancy hotel restaurant is a must.
SBE tapped Jose Andres to run all the food and bev for their first LA hotel (the former Le Meredien), including a restaurant, lounge and catering. Andres worked with Ferran Adria in Spain, and his ThinkFoodGroup operates Jaleo, Oyamel, Zaytinya and Café Atlántico in Washington D.C. The hotel and restaurants will probably debut in June '08.
Meanwhile, we drove by the hotel building just yesterday and absolutely no new work has been done on the building. We're not saying that June 2008 isn't do-able but well, we've been burned by hotel hype lots of times before.