“You know why Terence cannot cross his legs?” whoops Philippe Starck as he
pointedly stares at Sir Terence Conran’s trousers. “Because he is too big in
some parts... Perhaps he is nearly as big as me, eh?”
Theoretically, bringing two of the world’s greatest designers into the same
room should be intellectually enlightening: a meeting of the Englishman who
democratised intelligent design in Britain (from Habitat furniture in the
Sixties to Conran food in the Eighties) and the Frenchman whose vision
revolutionised not only hotel spaces (think St Martins Lane and the
Royalton), but also the design of thousands of products, from orange
squeezers to scooters. But what Brent Hoberman didn’t count on when he
invited Conran and Starck to their first joint meeting as board members of
mydeco.com – his new online furniture and interior design site – was the
size of their personalities.
Watching the three self-made multimillionaires – Hoberman, let us not forget,
was co-founder of lastminute.com – having a group
portrait taken is pure theatre. The more Conran acts the dignified, refined
English furniture-maker, the more Starck hams up his role as the madcap
French artist, leaping on to a low wall to impersonate the statue of Eros,
loudly whistling Ennio Morricone tunes and blowing theatrical kisses to his
most recent wife (and PR), Jasmine. And the more bemused Hoberman becomes:
like a host who’s invited the Queen and Ali G to a party and isn’t sure how
to introduce them.
Ever polite and charming, though, Hoberman soon guides them into a discussion
about design, and then they’re off, enthusing about Hoberman’s vision and
why mydeco.com will be the ultimate tool in the democratisation of design.
For those who have missed the launch of what Conran describes as “something
that is going to have a major effect on the design world”, mydeco.com is a
website through which any furniture retailer, from Starck to a St Martins
graduate, can sell their wares. Moreover, with the aid of 3-D technology,
pictures of these products can be downloaded on to a plan of your house – or
a room in your house – and viewed on screen before they are bought. Anyone
can design a room and post it on the website for the world to see. The
design process is being demystified.
“Today I am very sad for people who need a good designer,” Starck says, with a
straight face, “because there is no choice – there is Starck, or Starck or
Starck. Or there is Citterio or Citterio. If you want something serious in
the world today, you have four big star designers, which is crazy. But from
now, a guy from nowhere, in his bedroom in Liverpool, can make a nice
decoration, and he puts that on his computer and a guy in Australia will
say, ‘I love this style’, and do it in his home. And suddenly the guy in
Liverpool is a designer. That’s democracy. Perfect!”
Surprisingly, although both men’s names have become synonymous with specific
styles (Conran with sleek, sophisticated urban looks and Starck with
theatrical, witty products), the future of interiors, both agree, is freedom
– freedom to mix, to experiment, and to express individuality. “I think
anybody intelligent will want their personality to shine in a room,” Conran
says, describing how his own house is full of “mini-museums” of things he’s
collected over the years: fossils, paintings, small sculptures, books,
mementoes. “I don’t want to go into a room that is furnished entirely by
Conran or Habitat. And I don’t think most other people want to either.
People want to go into a room and gauge the owner’s personality.”
Starck’s opinion is more extreme. His own homes – he has 21 or 22, he says,
not counting his private plane, in which he spends more time than anywhere
else – are fairly full of his own designs “because I am sorry to say – no,
actually, proud to say – my
products are better”. But to have an entire house created by one interior
designer, or in the style of someone else, he says, is crazy. “If you hire
an interior designer, you will live a prefab life, and I am sure it is not
good for your mental health. That is why I refuse to do it. What’s the
reason to do it anyway? There are so many good products on the market that
it is difficult to make a big mistake. And so what if you do? OK, you have a
stupid home. But it’s you. At least it reflects who you are.”
Perhaps surprisingly, comfort rates high in Starck’s domestic sphere. “When I
was young, comfort wasn’t so important. Now it is. Especially the mattress.
We have one which has a memory foam – and gives you the best sleep you will
ever have. Of course, you must have good pillows and excellent linen – from
the island of Burano in Venice, where we have a home. And then practical
things: things to cook with. A fire. An iPod. And a table for six people to
sit at.” But not a sofa. Sofas, he believes (although he’s designed dozens
of them), are a waste of space, “an old bourgeois idea of a process which
will now disappear. Like me, many people go straight from their table to
their bed”.
Both men agree that the home is becoming not so much a place to show off, but
a space in which to relax and live. Conran says: “It is a place where you
feel easy, when you come through the door you can take off your jacket and
take off your tie and shoes, and feel relaxed and happy. Ideally it should
have a blazing log fire, and somebody who puts a drink in your hand fairly
quickly!”
As important is having someone in the home that you love. “If you have the
most beautiful castle with nobody you love inside, it is shit,” affirms
Starck. “That is why you must spend less money on decoration and more money
on finding the person you love. And then, once you’ve found that, you must
have a good bed: for making love. And a good kitchen table – also for making
love, and for eating.”
While Hoberman clearly hopes that people develop a habit for buying furniture
online, neither Starck nor Conran believe that mydeco.com will encourage
pointless impulse buying or create a world of identikit homes. How the
public uses the site, they say, will depend on intelligence: to browse
through the more than 1,000 room-sets on show, to be inspired by looks
created by designers such as themselves (and other mydeco.com design board
members such as Kelly Hoppen, Marc Newson, Kirsty Allsopp and Tara Bernard),
and then to adapt ideas to suit their own spaces.
As Conran puts it: “No matter how many new things people buy, everybody surely
wants to get into their room the things they love: the things they have
inherited, they have found at markets, or galleries. No one will have just
one entire look, surely?”
Starck’s not so sure. “There are always stupid people. People who think that a
sofa can represent themselves like a flag. The ones who go, ‘Oh my God, I
want a Starck sofa because it’s so chic, and if I have a Starck sofa then I
will be chic like Starck… Pleeease!’ These sorts of design victims are so
stupid we hope they will die. This ‘total look’ is more than a mistake. It’s
a sickness.”
And after that diatribe, he’s off – for another photograph and to start
heckling Conran again about the lump in his trousers. “For goodness’ sake,
Philippe, it’s a handkerchief!” the Englishman retorts irritably, pulling an
enormous white piece of crumpled cloth from his pocket. “Fantastique!” the
Frenchman exclaims, grinning at his leggy new wife in glee. “That’s proof I
am the biggest designer after all, non?”
