Travel

Jacques Garcia’s Most Lavish Hotel Designs

How the French designer's penchant for romance and opulence started a style revolution

Summer 2016

Ornate hotel lobby with people at a reception desk, featuring rich red velvet furnishings and intricate gold and green decor. — The Oriental-style lobby at Paris’ Maison Souquet is furnished with velvet settees and tasseled floor lamps. Photo: Photograph by Eric Antoine

There are only a few designers whose names are known all over the world—Jacques Garcia is one of them. Growing up in France in the 1950s, Garcia showed an interest in and talent for interior design and architecture. After working in Paris for decades, Garcia earned international recognition with his renovation of the Hotel Costes, which sparked a desire for his voluptuous designs that started a style revolution in hotels, restaurants, and private homes.

Luxurious library with a lit fireplace, elegant green sofas, and shelves filled with books. — In the library of the luxurious Paris hotel, La Reserve, the elegant space is embellished with an engraved marble fireplace, Corinthian columns, damask-upholstered chairs, and geometric molding on the coffered ceiling. Grégoire Gardette/Aleksandre Pinel/D.R

The grandeur of Garcia’s style honors and continues the Belle Époque style, but also explores Bohemian opulence and Oriental elegance. His ability to design such traditionally elaborate interiors, that can also accommodate the modern needs that a hotel or private residence requires is a key to his success. Other notable projects include Hotel Vagabond Singapore, the Peninsula Paris, and the Hotel Odéon Saint-Germain in Paris. Everything is romantic, everything is gilded, everything is lavish, and it is all utterly Garcia.