Mario Testino explores the home and studio of set designer Alexandre de Betak as part of a new series of studio visits, launched on his website MiraMira.tv.
The fashion photographer’s film follows de Betak around his light-filled space in an undisclosed location in Paris.
De Betak, dubbed the ‘the Fellini of Fashion’, is the creative director of Bureau Betak set design and events studio, known for masterminding elaborate fashion week spectacles. These include a mirrored courtyard at the Louvre for Dior and a Moroccan riad-like space for Roberto Cavalli.
‘I have a very big attraction and need of aestheticism,’ he says. ‘I’ve always managed to – as soon as I could control it – surround myself with things that please my eyes.’
His home, featuring patched-up walls, looks like an interrupted production. Is it midway through renovation, or left deliberately raw?
Testino also shows us around his studio – a sleek, glass-roofed office – as de Betak reveals insights into his creative mind along the way.
‘[Paris] offers you tremendous quality of history, of architecture, of beauty. And unconsciously one can go wrong with that not using it or getting it [into your work].’
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