Harper's Bazaar | September 1995

STARCK WHITE

By Jean Bond Rafferty

"Step into my cloud," says French designer Philippe Starck. He's inviting you into Agua, the rooftop refuge that is the hautest part of Miami's white-hot-haute Delano Hotel. Starck's white-on-white fantasy was designed in collaboration with Rita Norona Schrager, wife of Delano owner . And it resembles an ordinary spa about as much as the revolutionary Delano resembles other Miami hotels.

In fact, Agua is more a bathhouse than a spa, a soothing sanctuary catering to the ultimate in feminine privacy and repose. The Delano is surrounded by the ocean, beach, and city, but none of this is apparent as you take your first step into the cloud on the penthouse. Look down to a seamless, matte white floor. Look ahead to a white lacquered-wood and marble reception desk, and behind it two women clad in skimpy T-shirts and cotton drawstring pants-all in white, bien s˚r.

Then look onward for a translucent glimpse of a ballet of female forms and water in the Swiss shower, which is masked by thick sandblasted glass. "It doesn't show details, but mass and movement," Starck explains, "so that you understand immediately the relation between the body and water."

A white curtain, held in place by a Daliesque bronze pole, drapes the entrance to a semicircular corridor-"the magic promenade in a totally white universe," as Starck describes it. This leads to the treatment rooms, tented enclaves swathed in white parachute silk and glowing with filtered light.

"All the walls and windows are hidden by fabrics," says Starck. "There is a luminosity, like the aurora borealis. It is like life inside a cloud. That's it-a place created for angels by an angel," he says with a cherubic grin.

While traveled to Havana, Rio, Bali, and Vietnam to research the concept of his tropical "self-contained destination resort," Starck traveled into his own fertile imagination. "When you start to see what others have done, you finish by doing the same, or only the contrary," he explains. "And that's not sufficient."

Aiming to design an environment specifically for women, Starck consulted Agua's creator Rita Schrager and her best friend and partner, Leila Fazel, now Agua's director. The spa's filmy interior was inspired by the difference between men and women, says Starck. "Men are all right angles, with a certain weightiness, and women live in space, very detached from gravity. Here there are no shadows, no rigid walls; everything is textiles. I wanted to give the ambience of a light, cool mist."

In total contrast to the hotel's dark, surrealist lobby, the whiteout on the roof echoes the color scheme of the Delano guest rooms. The spa features some of the same furniture as well, variously inspired, Starck says, by "milkmaid furniture from that old dairy of the Chateau de Fontainebleau," and simple, pristine pieces from "the cabin of a poor Greek fisherman." Starck's white porcelain washbasin is featured in the spa's treatment rooms and in the communal changing room, which also includes an upholstered bench with white cotton slipcover, white lacquered lockers, and showers with double curtains, where the shy can change in private.

A body-scrub room, two soaking-tub rooms, and three massage rooms are also decorated with pure white furniture; and most of these rooms include Starck's white silk-skirted Rosy Angelis standing lamps and large white-frame mirrors that lean against the wall. Guests can listen to music or doze in the lounge, which is furnished with white slipcovered chaise longues and Starck's Miss Sissi lamps, perched on little tables.

Starck's designs for Agua excel at the unexpected. The steam room is more like a salon, with coffee tables and chairs that can be pulled together for a convivial chat. While a guest's body is being polished, she can gaze up at an inspirational series of black-and-white photographs of beautiful bodies in movement. Dancers fly through the air, a slender leg dips tantalizingly into water, a twisting torso beguiles with its beauty. The photographs, from the designer's personal collection, include the work of Herb Ritts.

At the end of the magic promenade, one arrives at the indoor/outdoor Sky Bar and terrace, with its knockout panorama. A large white marble table is the focal point of the bar, which offers fresh juices, mineral water, and other healthy drinks.

"Out on the terrace, there is a very Moroccan/Greek feeling," says Anda Andrei, who, as design director of Hotels, has smoothed Starck's visions into reality. Chaise longues are slipcovered in white Sunbrella; thick futons piled with pillows rest on the deck in the solarium and in the shade of bamboo shelters.

White bougainvillea, jasmine, and Florida gardenias spill from Moroccan-blue flowerpots, echoing the bright-blue wainscoting and floor-the only touch of color on the terrace, besides Miami's ever-azure sky. There is also a cabana for massages. "It's hard to believe that in Florida you'd want to have a massage outdoors, because it is so hot," says Rita Schrager. "But we're so high up, there is an actual breeze up here."

One feature still to come is an all-black windowless meditation room, furnished with a single sofa. "It is based on Leonardo da Vinci's camera obscura," explains Starck. "One will be surrounded by images of Miami projected on the walls, alone in a closed room. It's a place to retire to after a massage."

Exercise facilities are conspicuously absent from Agua; guests in search of a vigorous workout can find it 13 flights down, in the Delano's state-of-the-art gym. "Agua is for stress relief and relaxation," says Schrager. "This is the kind of bathing house where you come in and take a steam or a soaking with herbs and essential oils."

Agua's treatment menu includes aromatherapy and reflexology, in addition to meditation and massage. That undeniable feminine urge to shop is catered to as well, with a boutique that stocks Agua's own oils and skincare products along with sarongs from Bali, Norma Kamali swimwear, and Mini Girl terry totes, packed with everything you'll need for a Delano weekend, from swimsuit to minidress.

For Starck, Agua is as much a philosophy as a spa. "It re-creates true femininity by replacing the false image, belittling and ridiculous, that they try to sell through advertising: the woman in pink with pillows and lace everywhere. A woman's universe is not cute, mignon. Women are just as tough and precise as men, but in a different way. They have a more supple system of thinking and are open to new solutions. The idea was to discover the real woman."

To Schrager, the real woman longs for a place "she could go without guys cruising her. "Starck's sophisticated "seraglio" fits the bill. "It's all white, slick, modern, and sexy," Schrager says approvingly.

Has Starck designed the first contemporary harem? "It's not too distant," he admits, "except the definition of harem is that all the women belong to the same man. Here? No...unless when I've lost weight, maybe I'll have succés fou," he says with a laugh. "I started my diet yesterday."