The quirky fashion and design house Maison Martin Margiela has been engaged to reconceptualize the Maison Champs-Elysées hotel in Paris.
The team behind the bag jacket, the fur halterneck and the cowboy jumpsuit are to make their mark on the entire groundfloor, seven suites and ten guest rooms at the former house of the Duchess of Rivoli.
Bernadette Chevallier, president of Exclusive Hotels for Maison Champs-Elysées explained:
“For our clientele constantly looking for new lifestyle experiences, we wish to redefine what you may expect from being a hotel guest today.
“Together with Maison Martin Margiela, we are aiming at a luxurious yet relaxed place where purity of forms is matched with amazing detailing, in a corner of Paris which gathers all the most prestigious French couture houses.”
The origin of the building at number 8, rue Jean Goujon lies with the aristocracy. In 1864, the Duchess of Rivoli, Princess of Essling, Great Mistress of the House of Empress Eugenie, purchased land for a house to be designed by French architect Jules Pellechet.
The building was completed in 1866 in the purest classical Parisian style, haussmannien. The property was later bought by the Association of the Centraliens in 1919 for the use of the alumni association of the Paris’ Ecole Centrale. In 1989 it was enlarged to accommodate a modern hotel.
Maison Martin Margiela has previous experience in luxury hotel design at the Suite ‘Elle Décoration’ at Paris’ Palais de Chaillot and the redesign of the l’Ile aux Oiseaux suite in the Caudalie hotel-spa in Bordeaux. The collaboration with Maison Champs-Elysées marks MMM’s largest and most demanding interior design project to date.
Maison Champs-Elysées is located at Maison des Centraliens, Paris 8e and re-opens in April 2011.