Sep 25, 2012

From haute couture to haute homes

 
 




OUTER BEAUTY
One of haute coutures most beloved designers is Valentino, creator of magical evening dresses one can mostly only dream of. (Tip! Discover his gorgeous and much less expensive underline "RED Valentino"). With Valentinos beautiful fashion in mind he simply must have beautiful homes as well. The designer owns luxurious places in London, Rome, New York and pittoresque Gstaad in Switzerland, but spends much of his time in his home outside Paris, the Château de Wideville, a magisterial 17th-century residence built by Louis XIII’s finance minister and later home to one of Louis XIV’s mistresses. Valentino acquired the eight-bedroom château in 1995 and commissioned the interior decorator Henri Samuel to make it "comfortable yet regal". “We did every room together,” Valentino says of their work, to Architechtural Digest October edition. “I am quite particular and love to put my nose everywhere. Even if I admire the decorator, I have to say my opinion.” Well, 
the man clearly has good taste, and although this unique home definitely doesn´t feel right for a family with lively children, it does inspire as maximalism rather than minimalism and that many different colours actually do work well together. Read the full story and see many  more photos in latest print edition of Architechtural Digest.



{Images with permission from Architechtural Digest. Photography by Simon Watson}