So which kooky celebrity lives in amadho use like this!
Gucci wallpaper at $270 a panel, a ball pit, no fewer than four bars – and a ‘vagina tunnel’...
STANDING beside the 1930s, green-tiled fireplace in her opulent new LA mansion, Cara Delevingne prises open a secret door in the wood-panelled wall, concealed behind a large mirror. ‘This is my vagina tunnel,’ she declares, unabashed, disappearing between two vertical swathes of plush, pink fabric lined with feather boas into a cushioned cave hidden deep inside the wall cavity. ‘I come in here to think. I come in here to create. I feel inspired.’
‘Rebirthed and cleansed,’ Cara adds as she clambers out of the exit, which is designed to look like a washing-machine door.
Welcome to the wacky world of the 28-year-old British supermodel and actress.
Her newly renovated home – which she describes as an ‘adult playhouse’ – was bought for $7m in 2019 and overhauled to the model’s eclectic specifications by architect Nicolò Bini.
The Italian, who worked with Cara and her older sister Poppy on their previous home in the Hollywood Hills, is the ‘Mad Hatter’ to her ‘Alice in Wonderland’, she says.
And there is certainly more than a touch of the Lewis Carroll classic in the whimsical decor. There is another hidden door that leads upstairs, and various hidden spaces.
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday about the project, Mr Bini says the ‘vagina tunnel’ was just one of Cara’s many weird ideas for the house which includes a ‘sex room’ with padded walls, a stripper’s pole and a swing.
There is a bathroom shrine to David Bowie, a mounted Chanel surfboard, neon signs, a bath with a built-in television and a ball pit into which Cara can jump at the first hint of any ‘sad thoughts’.
Mr Bini says: ‘Cara thinks in ways others can only dream about.
‘We’d already designed three giant bars in the house and then there was this little hidden bar between the living room and one of the bedrooms. She asked me “Can we make a little secret tunnel here?” and I said, “Sure.”
‘Then she said, “Can we make it a vagina tunnel?” That could only have been a Cara idea. And, of course, it was my pleasure to help her vision become a reality.’
THE interior, filmed for a video for Architectural Digest magazine and with Cara as a tour guide, offers an intriguing insight into her domestic life.
There are rolls of heron-patterned Gucci wallpaper, which cost $500 for two panels, and further wallpaper designed by the British artist Jonathan Yeo, who has previously painted a portrait series of the model he called ‘the perfect muse’.
There is a wall of hats, a room full of trainers and ‘stripper heels’, and a costume room featuring rows of fancy dress.
‘My work requires me to put on many different hats and costumes,’ Cara explains. ‘I love slipping into these various characters, so I wanted my home to reflect lots of different themes and moods.
‘I feel that people need to change a little bit, get out of their heads and have a laugh,’ she adds.
‘It’s definitely “Mad Hatters’ Tea
Party”. There’s a jungle theme, there’s “Beverly Hills hotel”, there’s an old English style but also quite typical LA.’
Mr Bini says the pair spent most of the pandemic renovating the four-bedroom, six-bathroom home.
The father-of-two – who has built eco-friendly homes for Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr and other celebrities – said: ‘We did it pretty fast. She was making a movie in
Europe for some of the time so we communicated a lot over WhatsApp,’ he explained.
‘We developed a general direction for where the house was going before we started. It was quite a dark house. Initially, I questioned why she would buy it – knowing Cara’s spirit.’
The property was built for the deeply religious Von der Ahe family, who made their fortune from a
US supermarket chain. Pope Jean Paul II was once a guest.
It was sold to a designer who favoured heavy furnishings and dark-painted walls. But rather than strip it all out, Mr Bini says Cara was keen to repurpose and recycle as much of the old fixtures and fittings as possible.
An old dining-room set was re-covered in bright citrus fabrics with Cara’s favourite artwork – a
Chemical X sculpture made from thousands of ecstasy tablets encased in acrylic – hung on the wall. In the living room, 14ft-long Chesterfield sofas were re-covered in pale fabric while a traditional chandelier was ‘modified’ with a disco ball and draped with strings of coloured beads to ‘make it more Cara’.
Mr Bini says: ‘She exudes style, taste and elegance but she has a fantastic way of understanding the rules and then wanting to break them. She’s a free, fun spirit and this house radiates that.’ He did not