By Dakota Smith
The cell phone reception from Ibiza to Los Angeles may not be very clear, but there’s no mistaking Jade Jagger’s voice on the other end of the line. Calling from her home in Sant Joan, the 34-year-old’s English accent is tinged with a warm friendliness that one imagines comes from island life.
Not that Jagger’s life is any vacation. Despite living on an idyllic spread on Ibiza-far from the real estate centers of New York and London-Jagger is establishing a serious name for herself at YOO, the international uber-development firm founded by Philippe Starck and John Hitchcox.
“I’ve always been interested in real estate,” says Jagger, whose first YOO project, Jade, a 57-unit building in New York, opened for sales this past summer. “It’s not just about doing the finishes, but looking at the layout, the amenity space, looking at how we live.”
If Jagger is well-known in Europe, most Americans know Jagger for her design work at UK jewelry house Garrard and for her boho-chic style that graces the pages of Vogue and W magazines. There is also the famous upbringing: the only child of Mick Jagger and Bianca Jagger, Jade grew up in Manhattan, where she attended Spence School before heading to boarding school in England.
Painted by the press as a feisty celeb-child, she moved to Ibiza in her 20s with her two young daughters, Assisi and Amba (by then-boyfriend Piers Jackson), settling down in a sprawling 18th century farmhouse.
A popular fixture on the island, she hosts DJ nights at Pacha, a night club in Ibiza Town, and runs Jezebel, a music label. But even this famous party girl sounds grateful Ibiza’s reputation as a party destination is changing.
“Ibiza is becoming more known as a resort,” says Jagger. “It’s not so imbedded in just clubbing.”
After meeting real estate magnet John Hitchcox, who also has a home on the island, Jagger joined YOO in 2004, and began work on Jade, a condo conversion in New York.
Bucking convention, Jagger introduced the pod concept at Jade: 10-foot-by-10-foot modules containing a bathroom, kitchen, washer/dryer and closet. The pods, inspired by vintage Louis Vuitton trunks that open up to become mini-dressers for hotel rooms, were “all about solving the Manhattan space dilemma,” she says.
Next, Jagger and her partner at YOO, Tom Bartlett, a London-based architect, will bring their pod concept to an apartment building conversion in Vienna, while the duo is also working on a multi-family “green” home development in the English countryside near Oxfordshire.
According to Bartlett, the appeal of joining YOO has been the ability to design high-end apartments that don’t sell for high-end prices. “It’s thinking about a broader audience,” he says. “Not just your jewelry buying-public.”
Jagger, who was recently named the face of UK-based lingerie line Adore Moi, and is working on a merchandise line for her Jezebel line, also has a more personal estate project: the continued renovation of her sprawling Ibiza compound. In a follow-up email, she notes that she’s extended the main house and gardens. “Having the patience,” she writes,” has been the most challenging part.”
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July 6, 2007The Big Idea on Donny Deutsch
