Friedmann & Versace's Trademark Is Their Infinite Artistic Style
French interior design firm Friedmann & Versace prioritizes comfort, accessibility, and collaboration with artists of varying mediums in its hospitality-focused work across the globe.
French interior design team Freidmann & Versace don’t limit themselves to a specific style. Their work, which focuses on hospitality but includes private residences, offers a wide spectrum of design influence, from French elegance to English cottage to midcentury modern. Their open-minded approach to design results in timeless, comfortable spaces filled with attitude and personality. Delphine Versace and Virginie Friedman invite artists of a variety of mediums—from graphic design to illustration to ceramics—to inspire their warm and memorable spaces. The team spoke to L’OFFICIEL about their origins, their standout projects, and their unique approach to accessible interiors.
L’OFFICIEL: What led you to interior design?
Delphine Versace: I grew up in the hinterlands of Nice with a cabinetmaker dad, a craftsman who worked with his hands. He built our house when I was little. So I grew up in this work and construction environment. Quite early on, I wanted to work in interior architecture. As a child, I did a lot of manual activities like pottery, sculpture, and drawing. I always needed to do something with my hands, and I graduated from Beaux-Arts in Marseille.
Virginie Friedmann: I searched a little more for myself. I tend to get tired of things, so I had lots of different passions. But, like Delphine, I had a jack-of-all-trades dad who knew how to make a wrought iron gate as well as a swimming pool. He was very fast and very efficient; he always had something to build. But his impatience made working with him impossible. It had no transmission capacity. On the other hand, with my grandfather, we loved going to look at beautiful houses. I have always been passionate about beauty, and it is this passion that led me to interior architecture. Before starting out, I studied law, commerce, and communication. I had several experiences, including working with [French interior designer] Michaël Malapert, which is where I met Delphine.
L’O: What memories do you have of your work with Michaël Malapert?
VF: I created furniture there as well as an entire universe.
DV: And that’s where we realized our professional chemistry.
L’O: Tell me about the beginnings of Friedmann & Versace.
DV: After working for Michaël Malapert, we went on individual freelance adventures. We’d discuss our respective projects, and these conversations led us to creating our own studio, which we opened at the beginning of 2019.
L’O: What was your first project together?
VF: Baby Doll on rue Daunou, a small nightclub near Place Vendôme [in Paris]. We had limited resources and a complicated client, but we put all our energy into making it happen, and we really liked the result.
L’O: Hospitality characterizes your agency…
DV: We have authentic knowledge of the market, and we have always wanted to create living spaces that everyone can access.
L’O: What is the Friedmann & Versace signature?
VF: We do not limit ourselves to a specific style. We communicate an attitude and create places where people feel good, whether we're talking about a pastry shop or a 5-star hotel. When you look at our spaces, you never feel uncomfortable. This does not mean that we do not use marble or other very noble materials such as bronze, onyx, or velvet, but the way we put them together and the way we stage them changes everything.
DV: We try to create spaces that are timeless, without referencing modern times too much. We achieve this by focusing on the history of the space and the needs of our clients, which leads to immersive places that allow us to move from one story to another without having an identical artistic style.
We do not limit ourselves to a specific style. We communicate an attitude and create places where people feel good.
L’O: What do all your stories have in common?
VF: We take into account local roots, the typology of the building and its history, and the unique needs of our clients.
L’O: Who are the designers whose work inspires you?
VF: Dimore Studio, always very inspiring.
DV: And the Italians of the 1960s: Gio Ponti, Carlo Scarpa, Gabriella Crespi. The last developed her furniture with notions of engineering, which was very avant-garde. They all knew how to bridge the gaps between the past, present, and future.
L’O: What was your first big project together?
DV: The Bambini restaurant, at the Palais de Tokyo, for the Paris Society Group. We had four days to create our concept for a totally crazy volume: a space 100 meters long by 10 meters wide by 8 meters high. Warmly welcoming people into such a vast space was a real challenge.
L’O: Tell us about your international projects.
DV: We work in Belgium and China for Cartier boutiques, and in the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and Europe for restaurants.
L’O: Do you ever curate contemporary works for your clients?
VF: Yes. We have always liked to involve artists in our projects, like the fresco by Roberto Ruspoli at the Palais de Tokyo or Marie Victoire de Bascher in a chalet in Megève. We involve artists from different mediums in our work, from graphic designers to illustrators to ceramists. It's the same thing in the development of our furniture collection. We partner with creators like the marquetry cabinet maker Anton Laborde, with whom we developed the pattern on our screen [the Constellation 06 Dressed Screen, part of the Constellation collection].
DV: And we would very much like to collaborate with the sculptor Victor Levai and the decorator Victor Cadene.
L’O: What are your latest projects?
DV: We are working on renovations for the Bar de la Mer and Ciro’s in Deauville.
L’O: Tell us about the La Pérouse hotel in Nice.
DV: Its position is special since it is at the very end of the Promenade des Anglais and the structure is clinging to the rocks. Its singularity is that it is invisible from the street; only the reception is on the ground floor. An elevator takes you directly four floors higher. There is a natural swimming pool dug into the rock, and each room faces the Mediterranean. Everywhere, you have the sea as far as the eye can see. The challenge of this hotel was to recreate a family home and restore nobility to this establishment which had been abandoned and which, in its heyday, had a regular clientele made up of many celebrities.
L’O: What is your latest work in Paris?
DV: The MoSuke restaurant, by Mory Sacko [renowned chef in Paris known for a mix of French, West African, and Japanese cuisine].
L’O: And soon, where will we find you?
VF: In the French Alps because, since the opening of the Bambini restaurant in Megève and the creation of a chalet, we have had a lot of requests.
