photo www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr
Ladies and gentleman, I have found my dream apartment.
Well, okay, it’s not just any apartment, but the show-stopping private apartments of super stylish French couturier Jeanne Lanvin.
It was designed for her at the height of the Art Deco period in 1924-25 by French designer & architect Armand-Albert Rateau, and presently sits lock, stock and magnificent barrel in the Musée de les Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
It all happened quite by accident (or not, depending on your philosophical view of the world) one sunny winter’s day in Paris.
photo the style bar 2012
I had just taken in the delightful ‘Les Histoires de Babar’ (the super cute elephant) exhibition at the Museum (on until Sept 2012!), and had some time to kill before meeting a friend for lunch.
I decided to use the time to peruse some of the other floors where the permanent exhibitions are housed – after all, it’s the fine arts museum and well known for its Art Deco and Art Nouveau furniture and homewares – as it happens, my favourite design periods.
photo www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr
Little did I know the wonderful surprise in store for me until I arrived at the level where the rooms are currently ‘housed’.
photo www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr
And there they were, in all their glory. The colour palette is breathtakingly simple: gold, white and black with touches of white and sand, all underpinned by the famous shade of ‘Lanvin Blue’, chosen by the designer after being inspired by the ‘quattrocento’ blue of Italian art and nature.
photo www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr
Everything has been chosen and executed with exquisite, spare but incredibly complex detail – the bird, animal and marine life motifs that finish off the black lamps, mirrors and bathroom fittings; the silk drapes that fall silently but sumptuously to the floor; the tiles and rolling screens that speak volumes about the sheer decadence – but at the same time spectacular simplicity – of the Art Deco period.
photo www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr
The rooms used to reside in all their glory in Lanvin’s hotel particulier on the Rue de Barbet-de Jouy. When the building was sold by her descendants they were donated to the Museum and moved to the Art Deco floor where they remain today, testament to the talent and vision of both the designer and the couturier.
photo www.victorianweb.org
I can honestly say that for me it was one of those rare occasions that changes you forever, blowing your mind and leaving you with a fresh perspective on all the creative possibilities out there, just waiting to be unleashed and experienced.
I don’t know how long I spent peering through the glass windows, going from one room to the next and back again, each time picking up some new gorgeous detail I had not spotted before, a grin from ear to ear at the thought that I had found such joy by chance in a yet another small but fabulous corner of the world.
photo www.coletterie.com
Needless to say I came away totally inspired to learn how to create spaces like that myself as soon as possible, and almost ended up being late for lunch! But well worth the excited rush that followed (and I made it on time 
)
Happy (interior) styling!!
Rubi
