26th of June 2008 / There are some events that mark the era better than a book or a movie do. The Demolition Party, or uninauguration party of the Royal Monceau Hotel, is one of them.
This party to remember was the biggest highlight of a strategy set by Alexandre Allard that aimed at fitting into the cozy world of the luxury hotel business. This great entrepreneur, who sees things with a child's eyes gathered all the characteristics of the bling era for the only purpose of valuing his real estate project : the luxury decor of a dusty five-star Parisian hotel, a star architect, the art and music world, members of Le Baron high society, and a few celebs. Everything you need to create a buzz that is intended for the silent world of finance.
After first making his fortune at thirty by selling out his behavioural databases company, Alexandre first cut his teeth in the real estate at the sides of his friend, Thierry Gillier. He notices that, unlike other worldcapitals, Paris has aging five-star hotels but none is worthy of receiving his alter egos, new billionaires in their forties who land their jet at Le Bourget. And that sucks. A lot.
In 2007, he buys out the Royal Monceau, which then looked more like a quiet guesthouse than a five-star hotel. His goal was to turn it into a residential palace with suites as big as a tennis court, a monumental spa, a bar worthy of a transatlantic liner and a luxury shop where the wives of the new milionaires in jeans and sneakers can patiently wait. They are essential to the balance of all the new business Formula 1 which are extremely solicited
and capable of leaving the road anytime.
In order to achieve its project, Alexandre Allard called on the architect, designer and socialite decorator Philippe Stark who also knew how to preserve his inner child and who, by the end of the 80's, had imposed the new hotel field rules by inventing the Royalton and the Paramount in New York first, and the Mondrian in Los Angeles.
Alexandre won't wait for the opening of the new Palace before communicating on his new toy. In a unique media stunt, he announced the end of an era and the birth of a new economic world order. He puts up for giant auctions the old furniture of the hotel organized by the spirited Maître Cornette de Saint-Cyr, and houses for one month twenty contemporary artists including Arne Quinze who will design the L'Eclaireur shop, rue de Sévigné in Paris, André the artiste founder of the Baron and Jean Feldman, an adman and friend of Jacques Séguéla. Far from acting out of capriciousness, Alexandre Allard is showing his power at the very beginning of a two-tier century which is driven by the Great God finance money. That's how his epic conquest of the luxury hotel business starts out.
Announced by a few videos on Dailymotion and Youtube, the information has also been reproduced by the international press. The Demolition Party took place on the 26th of January 2008 and it was sumptuous, incredible, orgiastic.
All the Parisian high society was here. The fauna that met there was so incredible that even Jude Law, Sébastien Tellier, and Guillaume Canet went unnoticed among a thousand guests of all genders watered by inexhaustible champagne fountains.
The guests, worshipping the golden calf, hammered the vestiges of the ancient world. All the works there were destroyed, as well as what remained of the furniture, mirrors, bathrooms, room walls. Everything has been destroyed at a big barbaric party.
The 2009 financial crisis will sober up everyone, and on the 18th of October 2010, Alexandre Allard will discreetly open the Palace's door, in the way required by the new decade.
At the Elysée, the French presidential palace, the president Sarkozy no longer offers to the French people working more to earn more and exchanges his Ray-Ban sunglasses with less media exposure. Alexandre Allard is also Balmain's trustee.