Vincent Darrée, Parisian decorator, author of fantasy projects and surreal furniture. He worked for Yves Saint Laurent, in Prada, in 1995 he met Karl Lagerfeld and went to Chloé, and then to Fendi, was the chief designer of Moschino and art director Emanuel Ungaro. The fashion world has not spoiled, but only developed his beliefs and taste.
Vincent Darre with Dmitry and Lena Lensky at the Wonderful Store, Krsanodar. A connoisseur of French artistic life of the twentieth century, a brilliant set designer and collector Vincent Darré perfectly knows the history of the subject and how to create this subject. In the fall of 2017, he made his first appearance in Russia, in Krasnodar, as part of the Wonderful Design Week, at the initiative of the Wonderful store.
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ABOUT MODERN FRENCH DECOR The French are very controversial. They want everything new, then they themselves reject this new. Our self-critical approach is the engine of progress, it generates ideas, we are always both for and against. Today, decor in France is in great demand. It becomes more important than fashion. Now there are 12 of the most influential designers in France, who thunder throughout the world. This proves the interest of Americans and foreigners in general to the French taste, which, of course, is special. Today fashion is determined by designers with strong individual manners. Bismuth, Joseph Diran, in America amazing projects are made by Pierre Jovanovic, Charles Zahn has a more oriental taste, and he now works more in Los Angeles than in Paris. Of course, everyone on the lips of Tristan Oher. If I were asked to choose a designer to make my home, I would give each of the living French stars around the room. The Bismut brothers - the dining room, the bathroom - Joseph Diran, the living room I would have made Pierre Jovanovic. I would entrust my bedroom to Louis Laplace. Boudoir would take up Shahan Minassian. India Madavi designs the entrance hall as she loves color. A room for friends would be assigned to Rudolf Parant.
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Speaking seriously, compared with fashion designers, decorators feel more confident. We gather together at exhibitions to jointly present to the public what art de vivre is today - “the art of living in French”. I like the fact that at these exhibitions I stand side by side with designers who have a completely different taste. I am unable to do either minimalistic objects or minimalistic interiors. Just as they are unable to do what I do.
MY HOUSE A typical Parisian apartment is located on Rue Royale, in a symbolic place for French decorative art. With this interior I would be pleased to make history. Each room is designed as a journey. The dining room is called Jardin Carnivore (“Carnivorous Garden”), the bedroom is Ciel d'Orage (“Stormy Sky”). I like to mix old and new. The house mixes subscriptions of famous artisans and artists with my own. Of course, I am pleased to put in a row my opuses with the works of the best. The walls of the dining room are covered with frescoes, hand-crafted by skilled craftsmen, mirrors are the works of Manuela Paul Cavalier, who work with gold foil. Straw marquetries on the tabletop are made by Lison de Cohn, the heiress of the famous Art Deco era Andre Gru. The idea is that people do not come here as a gallery, but in a living apartment in Paris, where everything can be bought.
A mirror of my friend Mathias Kisa hangs over the old curios cabinet. Oak parquet is laid in my office, there is a Maison Jansen table (in the 1960s, Jacqueline Kennedy asked Stephan Boudin (Maison Jansen) to decorate the White House. It was the same table she had) and plexiglass chairs - authentic Italian objects of the 60s yo Shutters, consoles, and all finishes are aluminum sheets. Bath - Boffi, but the plumbing is given in contrast with the authentic wallpaper of the 1930s. I myself invented the painting of the corridor: the facades with distorted proportions and lights, typical of Rue Royale.
MY IDOLS I admire the many characters whose glory flourished in the pre-war years. Elsa Schiaparelli is my muse, I knew her daughter well. Schiaparelli's style attracted such heroes as Jean Cocteau, Jean-Michel Franck (it was he who designed the Schiaparelli boutique on Place Vendome). Dali drew a lobster dress for her, based on which I made a wardrobe. I was interested in the Duke and Duchess of Noay, famous patrons of art, patrons of surrealists - artists, poets, directors. Last summer, at the Yeré Festival at my disposal was the hall of the Museum of Modern Art of the city of Toulon, and I wanted to pay tribute to the memory of Marie-Laure and Charles of Noai. I wanted to convey the atmosphere of a deserted palace, an abandoned house ... At first they bought art from the 18th – 19th centuries, and then went to avant-garde artists, I showed this mix on the walls of the hall, and also added my own furniture.
I'm interested in Jacques Doucet. The famous fashion designer was a brilliant collector of the XIX century at the beginning of his journey. Then he got ready to marry a girl from a good society and furnished his house with the best works of the era: works of Picasso, De Chirico, Rousseau, Jean Lyursy carpets, tables, chairs, screens of Eileen Gray, furniture from the Martine workshop (Paul Puarre interior enterprise) hung on its walls. named after his daughter). Pierre Berger and Yves Saint Laurent picked up the idea of Jacques Douceet and also began to collect art. Moreover, in their collection were many things by Jacques Doucet. Later, after the death of Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Berger organized an auction where they could buy their collection, including many works of art that once belonged to Jacques Doucet.
CHANGE OF DECORATION My home is my laboratory. I do not compare myself with either Jacques Doucet or Yves Saint Laurent, but some parallel can still be drawn. Redesigning the interiors, I think that every time the housing has a new face. I worked for a long time with Karl Lagerfeld, he regularly “cleaned” his collection in order to get rid of what he was tired of and start buying something else. At the time when I was working with Karl, shebbi-chic reigned in my house. All the rooms had furniture of the 18th century with obvious traces of time. At some point, I, inspired by the films of Godar and other directors of the “new wave”, sold everything out and bought things in bright finishes. Then I decided to make the furniture myself, all to the measure of my house. It was an exercise in style. Later, I put everything up for auction in the Piasa auction house. The most talented Pierre Le Tan drew me the cover of the catalog.
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Hotel Montana. The designer wanted to make the hotel room look like a Paris apartment, but owned by Pablo Picasso or Serge Ginzburu. EPATA AND UNPREDICTABILITY I love the style of work in which you have to strain your friends and make them work with me. For example, Hotel Montana is made in collaboration with architect Elizabeth Lemercier. The black facade of the hotel was a surprise for Parisians and even caused some scandal, because in Paris there are no black facades. It was located popular in the 1940s, the club "Montana", it was visited by existentialists, surrealists. Sometime my mother went to dance here. She was amazed to learn that I was engaged in the decor of this particular building, remembering that I had done many pirouettes in these walls. My idea was to give foreigners the keys to their apartments. Each room is an apartment of eccentric Parisians who love color, textures, memories, non-trivial things. Artist, poet, illustrator, surrealist Christian Berar could live in such rooms. Each floor on each floor has a unique layout. Each room has its own form, there is no repetition. I wanted to break modernist architecture, let baroque in interiors. The walls are solved as if Picasso was locked here and he was having fun with the walls.
HOW IS THE PROCESS I only draw - I have an assistant who makes a three-dimensional model, and, of course, I look at the prototypes. I work very closely with artisans, I have a lot of very diverse connections in this world. I think that the future of design is that the furniture will be made by hand. The future of the French suite is for sure - in fine handmade work. For example, I have a collection of "Revival". The golden table "Apollo", very heavy, hand-carved from stone, inspired by the Renaissance labyrinth gardens.
Vincent Darre. Maison Darré. Apollon table, call. Renaissance. The table is made by Stone Art. Here is the mirror "Unicorn", artisans prompted me to the idea of ancient Chinese technology of smoked wood. The vase “Metaphor” of colored enamels, made by Emaux de Longwy, has existed since 1789. The form has been known since the 1920s. I repeated it and made a decor with a mythological bias. Sofa A la francaise. It is named so because the back is made in the form of gables, taken in French parks. Or the Gorgon lamp is made of bronze and coated with 25-carat gold. I have Metropolis stained glass windows on which Vance glassmakers worked. They can choose such glasses that no longer exist in nature: each glass fragment is absolutely unique. I have a lamp "Spider" - with a large ball inside and legs made of brass and lamp "Dragonfly". Both things are made with the use of technology, when marble crumb is blown into the glass. Of course, such work with materials and technicians requires detailed knowledge of the capabilities of modern craft workshops.
Vladin Darra. House Darré. Ширма Exquisite corpses. RELATED INDUSTRIES: CINEMA AND LUSTER I am always busy with everything a bit and once made an artist of the film Opium dedicated to Jean Cocteau. As director, he was shot by Ariel Dombal, Marisa Berenson (the daughter of Elsa Schiaparelli) played the role of the Marquise Casati, Philip Catherine of Nijinsky, Cocteau himself - Gregoire Colen. And after that I was invited to act as art director of the special issue of L’Officiel magazine. What we just did not come up with for this release! There were many illustrations in it. When I was making the cover, I asked Lagerfeld to put all my characters in Chanel outfits. It was a kind of time offering when Jean Cocteau and Chanel worked together. Both in the film and in the magazine, sculptures made by another friend of mine, Charles Seruya, were shot. The whole magazine was inspired by the work of Cocteau. And it was a terrific, unforgettable experience.
MY RESOURCE I am convinced that in the past you can find inspiration and energy for the future. Since I came from the world of fashion, the parallels between fashion and art are my theme. In 1910–1930s France was in its heyday: artists, poets, writers, and patrons of art created a unique artistic culture. An example would be the film-adaptation of the play "Inhuman" by Marcel L'Erbier (1923). The decorations of Robert Malle-Stevens and Fernand Leger, furniture made by Jean Lürs, Pierre Chareau, costumes by Paul Poiret, decorations by Rene Lalique, Raymond Tamplie, an unprecedented collection of people who represented the color of the intelligentsia of their time. Artists have joined together to create a completely modern work of art. Even the poster of this film was created by Fernand Leger in a cubist style. In France it almost does not happen that so many outstanding artists come together to work on one project. It's a pity. I do not know if there is such a thing in Russia, but each such case becomes a source of inspiration for many generations.
SECRETS OF TRANSFORMATION Always think of the project as a script for a new film. For example, when I was offered to work on the Montana Hotel, I imagined myself an American guest in Paris. When I was making Iness Sastr's apartment, Spaniard, fashion models, and actresses, I painted, imagining that this was housing the movie star Ava Gardner. The more obstacles and contradictions, the more power and fantasy I have. And in general, it turns out that mostly people come to me with some extravagant ideas. Whimsical objects, like a lobster cabinet, appear when I imagine that the billionaire has asked me to do something for a luxurious bathroom. And here I am drawing furniture with the forms of the underwater world. I also took “automatic writing” from the surrealists, I often draw, cutting off my head. My hand is leading me.
Boutique Thierry Lasry in Paris. The theme of the human eye, light refraction and perspectives is repeated many times in the interiors of Vincent Darré. MAMINO EDUCATION I was lucky to grow in an intelligent environment. My mother was very avant-garde, led me to all the hottest exhibitions and sensational premieres in the theater. I have seen both old and new films. Well knew all the cinema of the "new wave". My older brother was a passionate cinephile and took me with him to films in which I understood almost nothing and just watched the pictures. But my brain fixed them, instinctively accumulating hundreds of images. Until now, I see life in techno-color or as frames of black and white film. I have, how to say it, a very “repulsive” vision. What does it mean? I love all my friends to be beautiful, talented and that they have a wonderful imagination. Cocteau's famous phrase “surprise me!” Sounds all the time in my head. All my friends are actors who play first roles. I rarely take life seriously, but I work seriously. I love a holiday, I love artists, writers, actors. In such an environment, I have the impression that I live the life I dreamed of. I love to dance (sometimes it's nice to feel like Fred Astaire)!
ABOUT MONEY I think this is not a matter of decor, it is a matter of character. Most can have their own style, individual and recognizable. Someone captured by ambitions. Sometimes money can destroy the style, make people lose their heads. I am not interested in money. I am interested in doing my job, and I happily enjoy this situation. But my case is special and very rare. Usually argue otherwise.
