British Vogue - 09.2019

Beau

monde

Inside Farida Khelfa’s

19th-century

Parisian townhouse

is an esoteric mix

of international

modernism, French

old masters and

African sculptures. Kate

Finnigan takes notes.

Photographs by

Matthieu Salvaing

U

ntil two and a half years ago, Farida Khelfa had never

lived in a house. For the 59-year-old French-Algerian

model, actor and filmmaker, who found fame in the

1980s as a muse to designers Jean Paul Gaultier and

Azzedine Alaïa, it had been apartments all the way. So when

she moved into a late-19th-century four-storey building in

Paris’s affluent 16th arrondissement, she was freaked.

“I know it’s crazy, but it took me two years to get used to it,”

she says. “Of course you say, ‘I love my house!’ But the reality

was, ‘Oh my God! I’m by myself in a house!’ Now, I do love it

and don’t know if I could go back to an apartment. So, voilˆ!”

Luckily, Khelfa and her husband, Henri Seydoux, had

someone to help them through: their good friend Philippe

Starck, no less, transformed the house to breathtaking effect.

“Philippe has been a friend for many, many years,” says Khelfa.

“He understands us very well and knew what we wanted.”

Starck ripped out walls to make each floor open-plan,

replacing the original staircase with a spiral of oak and > FARIDA WEARS DRESS, BELT AND BOOTS, ALL CELINE BY HEDI SLIMANE. JEWELLERY, HER OWN. © ADAGP, PARIS/DACS, LONDON 2019

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