From Lemon Juicer to St Martins Lane & Sanderson

The St Martins Lane's remarkable bedrooms, with floor to ceiling windows, Philippe Starck's fresh interiors and whimsical but perfectly ergonomic furniture design won the ultimate accolade in 2006 with Condé Nast Traveler's Gold List 2006 ‘BEST HOTELS IN THE WORLD' – Best for rooms.

Although Philippe Starck is perhaps best known for his innovative and amusing re-design of popular items such as his Juicy Salif Lemon Juicer and Ghost chairs, the French designer has been a revolutionary force in hotel design since 1988. Impresario Ian Schrager first commissioned Philippe to refit the Royalton Hotel on New York's West 44th Street. It was a design moment that changed the hotel industry. Boutique hotels, where design is the crucial factor, became the industry buzz.

The Starck-Schrager design hotel partnerships continued in New York at the Paramount hotel, and then progressed to Miami with the opening of the Delano Hotel in South Beach in 1995 and onto Los Angeles with the Mondrian Hotel in 1996.

St. Martins Lane hotel in 1999 and the Sanderson hotel in 2000 (both within Iconic Hotels of London) were Philippe’s first hotel commissions outside the USA.

Since then Philippe Starck has gone on to inject new excitement and energy into iconic hotels across Asia and Europe including the famed Peninsula Hong Kong and recently, the fabulous Le Meurice in Paris.