THE LAST ADVENTURE OF VINCENT DARRÉ: Inside L’Aventure, Paris’ Most Theatrical New Five-Star Hotel

By Titina Penzini and Louis Voltaire

There are decorators who create interiors.And then there is Vincent Darré, who creates worlds.

For more than two decades, the former fashion insider turned decorator, illustrator, and artistic dream maker has built one of the most singular visual universes in Paris. His rooms are not designed. They are staged. His hotels are not hospitality projects. They are cinematic experiences populated by memories, fantasies, eccentric collectors, surreal objects, and ghosts of Parisian glamour.

Long before “immersive” became an overused marketing word, Vincent Darré was already imagining interiors as emotional narratives.

Titina Penzini, a longtime friend of Vincent Darré, had the opportunity to sit down with him during our latest stay in Paris and revisit both his creative journey and the philosophy behind his newest project, L’Aventure. Their conversation moved naturally between memories of fashion, illustration, nightlife, cinema, Paris, and the evolution of hospitality itself.

“I always begin with a drawing,” Vincent tells us. “A small watercolor. Something almost naïve. And then suddenly, it becomes real.”

That tension between fantasy and reality defines his work.

After spending over twenty years in fashion, Darré walked away from an industry he felt had become too commercial and too cynical. Design offered him something fashion no longer could: innocence, freedom, and the possibility to invent again.

Today, every project still starts by hand. No computers. No digital renderings. Only sketches, colors, watercolors, and imagination. Around him, artisans, architects, and collaborators translate his visions into reality, but the soul always begins with the drawing.

And perhaps that is why his interiors feel alive.

At a moment when many luxury hotels around the world have become increasingly interchangeable, polished, expensive, and emotionally empty, Vincent Darré continues to defend something radically Parisian: personality.

His latest project, L’Aventure, may be his most complete expression of that philosophy.

The project is one of the newest hospitality ventures linked to the descendants of the legendary Costes/Beaumarly universe, continuing the spirit of Parisian nightlife, restaurants, and intimate hospitality experiences associated with the iconic Costes culture.

This new five-star hotel is conceived as a total Parisian experience: part private apartment, part theatrical set, part nightlife fantasy, and part intimate club. Vincent Darré designed the hotel rooms and suites, while Martin Brudnizki, internationally known for projects such as Soho House and Annabel’s, conceived the restaurant, entrance spaces, and nightclub. Guests are invited not simply to stay there, but to inhabit an entire story.

Located within a universe inspired by legendary Parisian nights, the project blends restaurant, club, bar, and hotel into one continuous rhythm. A place where one can dine downstairs, disappear into music until late, sleep upstairs, wake slowly, spend the afternoon discovering the neighborhood, then return for another night.

Importantly, Vincent Darré’s intervention focused specifically on the hotel rooms and suites, approximately fifteen in total, each conceived individually as a unique immersive universe.

“It should feel like receiving the keys to the apartment of an eccentric Parisian collector,” Darré explains.

Nothing inside feels standardized.

The rooms combine vintage finds from the Paris flea markets with custom-designed furniture, celestial carpets, sculptural lighting, and references oscillating between Jean Cocteau, the Surrealists, old Parisian theaters, and the glamour of the 1970s. Giant hand-shaped sconces inspired by Cocteau hold golden stars beside antique French lighting discovered at the Paris flea markets. Consoles from different centuries coexist freely with contemporary creations. The effect is layered, sensual, and deeply personal.

One of the suites is lacquered in a deep amber orange, emulating the famous Yves Saint Laurent Opium perfume bottle, and enjoys a magnificent direct view of the Arc de Triomphe from the master bedroom, creating one of the most cinematic perspectives in the hotel.

Throughout the hotel, recurring symbols of the sun and moon create a visual mythology of day and night, celebration and dream, movement and escape.

Even the narrative structure of the project was conceived cinematically. Before construction began, Darré and his collaborators assembled mood boards, visual scripts, and short films imagining the atmosphere of the hotel as if it were a forgotten Parisian movie musical.

References range from Funny Face to Peter Greenaway films, from Montparnasse artists of the 1930s to the theatricality of old Left Bank cabarets.

And yet, despite all the references, the result never feels nostalgic.

That is perhaps Vincent Darré’s greatest talent: he does not recreate the past. He reinvents its emotional power.

At a time when cities like New York have become increasingly polished, controlled, and commercialized, Paris still preserves spaces for eccentricity, improvisation, and contradiction. Darré believes this tension is essential to the French spirit.

“People come to Paris to be amazed,” he says.

And increasingly, international visitors are not searching for traditional luxury anymore. They are searching for atmosphere, stories, hidden addresses, memorable nights, and authentic personalities. They want to experience what insiders experience.

In many ways, L’Aventure responds precisely to that desire.

It is not a palace hotel. It does not seek perfection. It seeks emotion.

And maybe that is why it already feels so contemporary.

Because in a world obsessed with algorithms, branding, and predictability, Vincent Darré still believes in fantasy, decoration as storytelling, the intelligence of the hand, and the beautiful irrationality of Paris.

Perhaps that is the real adventure.

We would also like to warmly thank Victoria Faucanie (@vicfaucanie), who oversees public relations for L’Aventure, for guiding us through this remarkable project and generously introducing us to the extraordinary conceptual universe behind each room and suite.

Instagram: @laventurehotel

Website: www.laventurehotel.com

PR & Communications: @vicfaucanie

Vincent Darré: @vincentdarre

Martin Brudnizki: @martinbrudnizki

Titina Penzini: @titinapenzini

Louis Voltaire: @louisvoltaire