Pierre Balmain

The futuristic cantilevered architecture with open-to-sky central staircase, the house built fifteen feet above ground, and dramatic sculptural volumes give this residence serious architectural weight despite its intimate island scale.

A balanced tension between the cool modernist concrete, marble floors, and glass walls against the dark suede-covered living room, leopard-print upholstery, and vegetable-print wallcoverings in guest bedrooms.

The 'curiosity gallery' with floor-to-ceiling open shelving packed with statuettes, Greek vases, Chinese porcelain, and Gallo vases — nearly four hundred pieces — plus the dense, dark living room with crystal wall lights, sunburst clock, and animal prints create coherent maximalist layering.

The architecture is emphatically mid-century modern and futuristic, yet filled with 17th-century Chinese porcelain, antique vases, and 19th-century paintings — a deliberate cross-era mixing that serves personal taste rather than period commitment.

Balmain personally collected nearly four hundred vases 'one by one in the Flea Market and in the provinces,' and the article describes decades of accumulation by a man whose collections were deeply personal and linked to his life rhythm.

The pool terrace with multiple guests, the dining room designed so 'the important view was meant to be the great food and great wines on the table,' guest bedrooms with distinct personalities, and descriptions of Balmain as a 'nonstop raconteur' who hosted friends all indicate a home designed for entertaining.

The dark, windowless living room with suede walls and crystal fixtures reads as refined but the poolside casualness, wicker furniture, and island setting temper the formality into something considered but not intimidating.

While architect Leonardo Ricci designed the structure, the interiors reflect Balmain's intensely personal collecting and aesthetic — the curiosity gallery is self-curated obsession, though the overall composition shows professional design sensibility.

The house itself is a statement — built futuristically on Elba where 'no one went there' — and the leopard prints, sunburst clock, and dramatic architecture perform somewhat, but this is a personal retreat for a man whose inner circle already knew his taste, not a showpiece for strangers.