As I munched on yet another chocolate Easter egg and leafed through today’s Corriere della Sera, I stumbled upon an exclusive interview with a contemporary icon of the design world: Philippe Starck. His iconic ‘Juicy’ orange squeezer and ‘Ploof’ chair grace living spaces everywhere from Miami to Tokyo and are exemplary of his signature design that embraces everything from sunglasses to bottles.

The ever-restless Starck is already creating a buzz in anticipation of the upcoming Salone del Mobile to be held in Milan next month, where he will be revealing his newest Starck-shower and will be busy celebrating his 30-year collaboration with Kartell (for which he has created the Attila and Napoleon garden gnomes). 

The ‘Starck-touch’ has graced lavish hotels worldwide, including the Paramount (New York), the Peninsula (Hong Kong) and the Mondrian(LA), but Starck reveals that he still has plenty of surprises up his sleeve. “I am collaborating with the Trigano family for the inexpensive Mama Shelter chain of hotels, reaching out to those young creatives that will one day make it big. The common areas will be proper laboratories of creativity, great big lofts where the young will be able to live, eat, work or simply talk.” The first such hotel is set to open later this year in the 20th arrondissement in Paris.

Starck makes it a point to say that he doesn’t see himself “as a designer for pleasure, rather, I seek to create social structures and to do so in an ecologically friendly way. After all, being environmentally aware doesn’t necessarily have to be drab.”

He doesn’t seem to have many role models from the design world, but states: “I would rather have been Tolomeo or Einstein, they certainly were great men.”

From his Parisian studio located above the ultra-trendy Favela Chic club, he sips his glass of strawberry-flavoured mineral water and says, “My creations have enjoyed success because they have managed to transform people’s lives into something beautiful. My design is democratic, I am against creating objects for the few because everyone is entitled to beauty.” 

As I finish reading the final paragraphs of this fascinating interview, one phrase of Starck’s caught my eye: “Oui, je suis le meilleur.” We can’t help but agree.