Anouska Hempel
The Trendsetter
She started a trend in luxury boutique hotels in 1978 with the opening of The Blakes London, its eclectic opium-den aesthetic and carefree exuberance proving an immediate success with rock stars and celebrities.
A one-time Bond girl, Anouska Hempel embraced an opulent east-meets-west decor style with gusto, showing a distinctive flair for theatrical drama. Her bold designs are daring and sexy, yet remain romantic, and her passion for travel is evident in her eclecticism.
She has often said her design philosophy comes from her own utopian lifestyle.
Looking back at The Blakes London, Hempel attributes its success to the mood she managed to create, “the atmosphere and a quixotic mixture of things placed carefully together to bemuse and amuse the eyes and the senses. And, the fabulous staff of course, who became everyone’s best friends”.
Hempel’s dramatic spaces often rely on strong statement colours (red, green, blue), and in a rare occurrence for a designer, she’s not afraid of using black. “White reveals all very quickly, black takes more time, heightening the drama,” she says, pointing out the best example of this is in Chinese black lacquer, before adding: “Fear and the unknown are synonymous with black: black humour, black dog, black sheep, black cat, black swan, black hole. All of these evoke the same reaction.”
The designer has left her mark on Six Senses Duxton in Singapore, a perfect location for her opulent east-meets-west signature style to run wild.
Her daring strong mix of black, gold and yellow hues is a far cry from Six Senses’ more usual Zen-like, barefoot luxury approach.
In Paris, Hempel recently completed Hôtel Monsieur Georges, a boutique hotel due to open this month.
Staying faithful to her eclectic couture approach, some of the suites are decked out in dark grey velvet with gold accents, while others are in all white or dark greens.
Hempel says she likes to offer a “sense of magic” with her design and she finds it “extremely rewarding to set scenes for extraordinary people to have an equally extraordinary time”.
“Fear and the unknown are synonymous with black: black humour, black dog, black sheep, black cat, black swan, black hole. All of these
evoke the same reaction.”