Le Bristol Paris unveils new Josephine Baker Suite
To commemorate the life of one of hotel’s illustrious past guests and a fierce lover of Paris, Le Bristol has unveiled a new ‘Josephine Baker Suite’.
July 2ndParis
Paying homage to the great artist, this is Le Bristol‘s first suite with a personal dedication to one of the many luminaries who chose the hotel as their Parisian home. The beautiful Josephine Baker Suite looks like a jewellery box of silk, cashmere and precious materials, and features photographs of Josephine herself captured at the hotel on the opening night of her 50-year musical review at the Bobino Theatre in 1975. As a habitué of Le Bristol Paris, on this night Josephine invited 250 guests to the hotel to celebrate – and so it was that Princess Grace, Alain Delon, Jean-Claude Brialy, Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger and Tino Rossi passed through Le Bristol Paris’s revolving doors to honour the great Josephine in the grand salon of the Parisian palace. Located on the seventh floor at the top of the hotel, the Josephine Baker Suite is flooded with natural light and has spectacular views over the rooftops of Paris and the Eiffel Tower – a sight that bewitched the Mississippi born singer back in 1925 when she began a new life in the city of lights. Like Josephine herself, the suite is nothing short of supremely elegant. Designed by architecture firm MM-Design, it offers the intimate, soothing atmosphere of a classic Parisian apartment in shades of cream, sky blue, white, light oak and powder pink. Fabrics were selected from Manuel Canovas, Pierre Frey and Loro Piana; lamp shades are in pleated silk; while white marble was selected for the bathroom; rosewood for the Louis XVI style furniture, and oak for contemporary features. In the living room of the suite hangs a 1934 portrait of Josephine Baker, taken by the photographer George Hoyningen-Huene – a familiar image from her ‘The Best of Josephine Baker’ album cover. Upon learning of the creation of the suite, Josephine Baker’s son, Brian Bouillon Baker, reacted with emotion: “As a frequent visitor to Le Bristol Paris, I adore its atmosphere which is both Parisian and cosmopolitan, refined and generous. This place touches me because it always brings memories of my mother. I am very proud that the Palace chose to honour her memory with its first suite dedicated to an iconic personality.” This new suite perfectly celebrates Josephine Baker, the roaring twenties, the art of living, joy, love and Paris.