LE FIGARO
THREE QUESTIONS FOR...
Philippe Vaurs: ‘Making the dream accessible’
Already owner of two three-star hotels, Philippe Vaurs has just opened a third in Paris: the Five Hotel, a tribute to the five senses.
LE FIGARO. – How was this concept born?
Philippe VAURS. – I wanted to open an urban designer hotel that was accessible and that appealed to the emotions. But I didn’t have the means of the Costes brothers, who have always brought great designers to their projects like Philippe Starck. Despite everything, I am happy to have obtained the assistance of Vincent Bastie, architect of numerous urban hotels like the Murano and the Hotel du Petit Moulin in Paris.
What are the ways in which you appeal to the senses?
First through fragrance – and we all know how evocative that can be. When making a reservation, the client can choose one of five different indoor scents by Dyptique. Once in their room, they are free to start the diffuser as and when they like.
Then, the Five has embedded fiber optics in bedroom walls and bathroom tiling. The ceilings of the suites are beset with them, making it feel like sleeping out under the stars. This kind of lighting radiates light very poetically.
Are you satisfied with the result?
Our twenty-four rooms are small but highly personalized. Each possesses an original piece of art by Isabelle Emmerique, the first woman to have won the first prize for lacquer work from China to Japan. We have managed to manipulate spaces, volumes, colors and materials with fabrics from the Designers Guild, Lelièvre, Missoni, Kenzo, Elitis and Jab. A young woman spent her wedding night here, and she thought she was in a four-star hotel. That’s one of the highest compliments I’ve received. Want I want is to democratize luxury design and make the dream accessible. Content compiled by M. L.
Philippe Vaurs opens a new, beautifully poetic hotel. DR.The Five Hotel, 3 Rue Flatters, 75005 Paris, Tel.: +33 (0)1 43 31 74 21, www.theflvehotel-paris.com, room from €150 to €320, breakfast for €15.
Culture
Masters of Art, living treasure-troves of heritage.
CRAFTS
The Minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, has awarded the title of Master of Art to 11 exceptional professionals.
‘Artistic professions are the laboratories of the future. In their workshops, some 30,000 French artistc craftsmen strive to restore, reproduce, repair and create works of art.’ A few well-deserved words of praise from the Minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, at the presentation ceremony awarding 11 new Masters of Art, bringing the total number up to 74 since the creation of the award in 1994.
The 2006 awards went to seven traditional artistic craft specialists: Yves Benoît, velvet maker, gofferer and printer, Christopher Clarke, builder of antique keyboard instruments, Bernard Dejonghe, glass and ceramic sculptor, Gérard Desquand, engraver and heraldry expert, Isabelle Emmerique, lacquerer and creator of lacquer artwork, Pietro Seminelli, maker of fabrics and textiles and specialist in the art of the fold, and René Tazé, copper-plate engraver.
But for the first time, four master craftsmen, members of major French luxury and elegance companies of international renown, and part of the Colbert Committee, have also been nominated, though for purely honorary titles. And they are Jean-Marie Delhoume, tanner for Louis Vuitton, Martine Houdet, haute-couture designer for Chanel, Arnaud Philippe, tanner for Hermès and Serge Vaneson, crystal engraver for Baccarat.
A.-M. R.
‘Thirty years ago, I entered the lacquer workshop and there I had a revelation. I never left again,’ says Isabelle Emmerique. Lascaux, the four-panel folding screen with red wax background. Sébastien Soriano/Le Figaro.Isabelle Emmerique, the sensuality of lacquer
She established her sanctuary at the end of a little herb and vegetable garden in the suburbs of Paris, behind wilting roses, climbing ivy and vivacious bamboo.
A minute sanctuary-slash-workshop consisting of two small rooms with low ceilings, virtually empty apart from a stack of pigments in multicolored jars, brushes, and a few artworks hung on the walls. To practice the profession of lacquerer, it isn’t a ton of equipment you need as much as imagination, patience, and sensitivity. Three qualities that Isabelle Emmerique, a tall, beautiful woman with cobalt-blue eyes and a smile as flamboyant as her hair, has in spades.
‘I was born in a family of academics and I wanted to be a painter,’ she explains. ‘And so I jointed the School of Applied Arts as a tapestry maker at the age of 19. Then, one day, 30 years ago, I entered the lacquer workshop and there I had a revelation. I never left again.’
What seduced her was the solitary nature of lacquer work, slow and sensual, and the sumptuous, rich materials. ‘The smell too, a little like curdled milk from babies.’ But lacquer work is as old as the world: ‘the oldest lacquered object is a Chinese woman’s comb dating back to seven thousand years ago. It had been lacquered in black and red, primarily to reinforce the teeth, but soon the Chinese understood the decorative potential of lacquer.’
Like all artists, Isabelle Emmerique had ‘one’ first master: Paul Cressent, ‘who taught me spirituality’, and a second: Robert Simoneau, ‘who taught me restoration’. And after five years of study, of absorbing all the details of this complex Far Eastern art – eight rabbit-glue coatings for the base, several layers of pigmented varnish and oil of turpentine for the background, hours of waiting for it to dry before finally beginning the painting stage – she ventured out to practice her art on her own.
Pure creation
Together with a colleague, she spent seven years practicing both aspects of her profession. ‘I would spend ten months of the year doing restoration work, and during the other two I would set out and travel in search of inspiration.’ After seven years, Isabelle Emmerique decided to quit restoration work and devote herself entirely to her passion: pure creation for connoisseurs and collectors. ‘When I travel, I look around and fill myself with impressions and images. I love people and the world of plants. One day, in Vietnam, I was drawing, totally absorbed in my subject. Suddenly, I noticed that there was a crowd around me and that they were all discussing my drawing. I felt an immense sense of joy.’
She does not produce objects. What interests her is the decorative dynamism of producing large-scale works – like that wonderful four-panel folding screen which she named Lascaux: red-wax background, decorated with a large black cow and little gold horses that look like they’re flying. Or in terms of plants, yellow flowers on a background of layered greens. ‘Here, I first painted the flowers, then painted over them in green and sanded them down. The flowers reappeared but newly: more vibrant and streaked with green. When I create, I take risks and am always aware of the danger.’
Now a French Master of Art, she will take on an apprentice from among the students of the Olivier-de-Serres School, where she teaches. That’s the purpose of the three-year grant of €16,000 a year that she will receive. This recognition has filled her with joy, because, says she, ‘even better than being famous is been appreciated’.
ANNE-MARIE ROMERO