MEET THE DESIGNER

LUXURY KNOWS NO BOUNDS FOR THIS PARIS-BORN DESIGNER

What was your big break as an interior designer? Being hired by Adam Tihany while I was still studying [at the École Camondo in Paris] and working for Sir James Goldsmith. Are there any trends you wish would disappear? I wish the fashion for interiors looking like expensive hotel rooms would go away. What's your design philosophy? Making the people I work for totally happy with the interiors I give them. With time becoming more and more demanding, I do not like to work with anything fake, or with reproductions and bad art. Who is a designer from the past you admire? Henri Samuel, Emilio Terry and Jean-Michel Frank. How about someone still working today? Jacques Grange. Do you have a style icon? Bess of Hardwick, Madame de Pompadour and the Vicomtesse de Noailles, to name a few. What's your guilty design pleasure? Embroidered fabrics by [Jean François] Lesage. They are incredibly expensive but so beautiful. Describe your home in Connecticut: It's three houses on 16 acres on a lake in South Kent. Two are 18th-century American, full of 18th-century American furniture, and the third, where we live, is a fairly classic structure reminiscent of English as well as French 18th-century architecture. I always cringe when I see: Reproduction furniture and fake anything. Name a source of inspiration: One is not enough! Anything and everything. I strongly believe: My strong beliefs have nothing to do with architecture or decorating! I am inclined, though, to believe that money spent on quality is money you seldom regret having spent. Describe your clients: Indescribable! They are so varied. I do work in France, England, St. Barth, Caracas and all over the U.S. for all different types of people from different backgrounds. What's your favorite place to shop? I have no expectations, so I always get wonderfully surprised. I can be in Paris or Woodbury and it is always the same pleasure! What is something you can't live without? Good furniture and the old masters. And I can't stay too long away from my house in Connecticut. What is something your clients should not live without? Good art and furniture. Who is your dream client? The next client!