Logophilia: Maxime Jacquet Designs His Life

 

Belgian-born interior designer Maxine Jacquet threw a party to celebrate the design completion of the penthouse he shares with bowtie designer Ludo Barras and their French bulldogs, Hermès and Simba. The dogs weren’t there, but there certainly were a lot of people: friends, clients, and media.

Jacquet, who calls himself a

designer of lifestyles

is big on Louis Vuitton (bags and blankets were placed about); Gucci (the entrance has a huge swatch of ruched and folded Gucci logo fabric as a wall piece, plus there Gucci blanket lay  folded on white leather chair); Prada (there’s a poster!); Hermès (over half a dozen Birkin bags, mainly in neon colors on standing on shelves, window ledges, and on the floor in the guestroom; a metal studded Hermès logo blanket was folded over the life-sized paint splattered resin horse which doubles as a light–there’s  lampshade on its head); and Lagerfeld, whose image reoccurs throughout the penthouse.

Hardback books on design (some in duplicate) are stacked perfectly as decorations; one column of books, topped with a rhinestone encrusted shoe rests on giant green apple. There’s neon, there’s animal skin (on the floors and a bed), there are designer tennis shoes as as objects d’art, there’s Hello Kitty (dozens stuffed on top of books shelves); there’s a bicycle hanging from the ceiling,  framed posters on the dark walls, and logos, logos, logos everywhere!  Waiters in giant mouse masks passed around trays of mini cupcakes, cones of popcorn, and glasses of champagne with strawberries.

The stand out piece was the crystal chandelier wired into a three-foot high metal rolling tripod and fitted with an extra long bright green cord. The piece sat on what ostensibly was the dining table, though the lighting fixture is so large there’s no place for plates (Jacquet’s china is Hermès according to press photos, in case you were wondering). I asked Jacquet about the chandelier centerpiece, and he said that it could be lifted off the table and rolled anywhere that light is needed.  He also admitted to me that neither he nor Ludo cook, and when they dine–usually on delivery or take out–they use the the tall island between the kitchen and the penthouse’s main room, sitting on high chairs covered with fabric Maxime designed, featuring Karl Lagerfeld, skulls, and DC comic book figures.

Cartoons figure in master suite’s hallway (the penthouse has a large central room that includes the kitchen area and at each end a bedroom with an en suite bath; there is also a guest bathroom, and the cabinetry from the kitchen is carried out into the bathrooms). The hallway between leading to the master bath is completely papered with images from Jose Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros, many from his 2012 “Disasterland” series at La Luz de Jesus.

As I waited for my car at the valet, a woman pulled up, tipsily pointed and said she was was going

the French guy’s party. Up there.

Since Jacquet is Belgian, I doubt if she made it past security in the lobby, even if she did have a Prada purse.