Philipp Plein

After His Celebrity-packed New York Debut Show The Flamboyant Designer Opens The Doors Of His Extravagant Townhouse
 

- Nana Bottazzi

With an insatiable appetite for everything bold, brash and bling, German-born designer Philipp Plein took a great big noisy bite out of the Big Apple when he showed there for the first time this spring. Vowing to “make New York Fashion Week great again,” he unleashed his lavish rock‘n’roll aesthetic on a delighted celebrity audience that included Madonna, Kylie Jenner, Paris and Nicky Hilton, Tiffany Trump and a who’s who of hip-hop legends.

To take their front-row seats in the New York Public Library venue, his guests had run the gauntlet of women dressed as the Statue of Liberty, Elvis impersonators and Times Square’s Naked Cowboy on the steps. You’d expect nothing less from a man whose past shows have featured roller-coasters, jets of fire, monster trucks and jet skis.

The move to New York is a dream come true for Philipp who, after 18 years in the business and 120 store openings, decided that the US was ready for his mind blowing creations. It will be a new frontier for the label, which currently counts Asia and Eastern Europe as its top markets.

But making a splash across the Pond meant Philipp had to splash out on a pied-à-terre, too – he and his model girlfriend Andreea regularly flit between his HQ in Lugano, Switzerland and his homes in Cannes and Bel Air.

A stunning six-storey, six bedroom, six-bathroom townhouse with three outdoor spaces, including a garden, near Manhattan’s Central Park, was just the ticket.

Though sold as renovated, it’s since had a complete, boisterous Philipp Plein makeover. Restraint has gone out of the window – and Central Park seems to have come in, with tree branches twisting their way up the stairs and across the ceilings. It’s a glorious mixture of Baroque and avant-garde, full of energy and surprise.