Stories of style

A VILLA IN NOTO, WHERE JACQUES GARCIA HAS CREATE AN IDEAL BLEND OF FIFTIES ELEGANCE AND BAROQUE SPIRIT. Like a writer who identifies with his characters, Jacques Garcia, an outstanding name in international interior design, has the rare ability to get in tune with the context. The approach is narrative, weaving a plot of spaces with inimitable style and striking visual inventions. His storytelling flair can be seen in the Maison des Oliviers, a villa in Noto, jewel of Sicilian Baroque, in what was once an olive oil factory and is now a luxury resort after one full year of renovation. The surrounding landscape of olive groves threatens to steal the stage from the architecture. To assert a strong identity, Garcia has turned to the imagery of Café Society in the 1950s. The four suites and the large lounge all suggest further plot lines. «The rooms are all different, though there are two suites featuring canopy beds», the designer points out. The accessories by Serge Roche and Jacques Adnet, the beds with overtones of Louis XVI, the carefully chosen details – like the plaster palms framing certain doors, or the antique-finish mirrors covering entire walls – call a world of style back to life. Garcia nimbly mixes a nearly infinite range of images from period books and magazines, snippets of famous films and precious accents, for an absolutely original take on inimitable glamor. The context narrates a parallel history, a sort of fictional version of the elegant interiors of the most refined vacation spots of the Fifties.