The most important thing to know about Ramdane Touhami, the creative conservationist, entrepreneur and artistic polymath responsible for reinventing such brands as Trudon and Buly 1803 (whose candles and scents transport us to the olfactory worlds of centuries past), is that he is not nostalgic.
“Everyone makes out that I am ‘the King of old brands’, which I hate,” he laughs. ‘”There should be a balance between past and future. As you can see, it’s undecided where I am.” Which couldn’t be more true as we walk through historic parts of Paris and he shows me his new store, A Young Hiker (which shares its name with his soon-to-launch label) in the Palais-Royal; the divine Permanent gallery he’s just opened on the Place des Petits Pères (where photographer Gabriel Moses recently did a show); and a new café outpost of his Swiss hotel, Drei Berge.
Touhami has lived life on his own terms. Growing up in the French countryside, where his father was an apple picker, he developed his entrepreneurial skills early on, launching his first T-shirt brand while still at boarding school. He dropped out at 18 and headed to Paris to become one of the country’s most compelling creatives.
An avid (and somewhat enigmatic) traveller, Touhami has lived all across the globe with his wife, Victoire, and spends around 200 days on the road, so is not easily impressed by hotels. “The Fife Arms in Scotland is perhaps the only one I liked a lot – the whole thing was so well thought out,” he says, sighing rapturously, “Ah, this one I could see was not done by ‘hotel’ people.” Indeed, he is referring to the esteemed gallerists Iwan and Manuela Wirth, who created this artistic haven/restored Victorian coaching inn in Braemar.
Custom-designed pennants are paired with vintage pieces in the main lounge (Image credit: Younes Klouche)
Ramdane Touhami; detail of a bespoke carpet in one of the hotel’s 19 rooms (Image credit: Leonard Verhnet, Marsy Hild Thorsdottir)
It was while hiking in Scotland with Victoire that Touhami discovered the hotel – once a year, they head to the hills for a holiday, exploring peaks around the world. Escape means different things to different people, and Touhami’s heart is in the mountains. “They are the best places in the world. The air is clear, the water is clear, your mind is clear, you have a goal.” And it was on a hiking holiday in Switzerland that he found a hotel for sale in Mürren that would become his latest big project, Drei Berge Hotel, which opened to much fanfare last year.
While most hoteliers measure their success in stars, you get the sense that Touhami does not hustle for that kind of glory – he is not elitist or old-school, harking back to a bygone age of travel. What I like about him (and about his friend Paddy Mckillen, the hotelier behind Villa La Coste) is that he has an innate sense of style and a singular vision to make sure every detail is perfection, because his standards admit nothing less.
Aside from the epic views of Jungfrau, the Eiger and Mönch’s snow-capped peaks, the interiors of Drei Berge are what make it special. Everywhere there are touches of levity and wit, informed by Touhami’s wide range of travels and pursuits, from his days skateboarding in the 90s to his love of Defender cars. Objects such as esoteric masks, alongside 1960s Martin Visser sofas, add to the wonderfully surreal atmosphere.
Equally enchanting is the restaurant, overseen by innovative Japanese chef Ryutaro Kobayashi. At breakfast, even the butter is a work of art, shaped like a mountain – not to mention dinner, with steaming ramen accompanying tempura prawns, or the most extraordinary teriyaki burger flame-grilled in saké.
Then there is the stellar hotel scent and a statement candle theatrically set in a slab of stone, which smell like a mountain forest after the rain. Yet Touhami is quick to stop questions about another beauty brand in the making, saying, “I have done cosmetics and beauty and, yes, I know how to do it well. It is my work. But this hotel project in the mountains is my passion.”
“The mountains are the best places in the world. The air is clear, the water is clear, your mind is clear, you have a goal.”
Ramdane Touhami
(Image credit: Younes Klouche)
Interiors are an eclectic mix of original features and modern touches added by Touhami (Image credit: Jan Abellan)
So where inspires Touhami? Japan, of course – he still hasan apartment in Tokyo and is manufacturing his hiking label there. Aside from the aesthetic qualities of the country, the most obvious reason for him is the fact that “Japan’s landscape is made of 70 percent mountains, exactly like Switzerland.”
And he’s right – mountains remain an insistent “travel fantasy” because their scale has enormous emotional power over us. Hiking around Mürren, scaling its peaks, you can’t help but relish the transformative effects as the sense of wonder grows and the sense of self decreases.
“See, I told you there was more to mountains than fondue, cowbells and hot chocolate,” Touhami quips in his usual droll way – although the chocolat chaud (made to his recipe) at the hotel is quite the sensory experience as it is. And when asked where else generates the same clarity of thought as a mountain trip, Touhami replies, “A week at Lanserhof. Both my wife and I fast.” He pauses before adding, “But my advice would be not to go as a couple!”
To celebrate his 50th birthday later this year, the journey Touhami has planned is nothing short of fantastical – driving all the way to Tokyo in his old Defender. “I don’t even want to calculate how long it will take,” he exclaims. But would you expect anything less from this extraordinary hotelier whose whole ethos is informed by taking the path less travelled? Beat that, César Ritz.
Ramdane Touhami’s must-climb mountains
Mount Fitz Roy, Patagonia, Chile
“The most surprising mountain imaginable, where one side is like the desert and the other side is pure jungle.”
Toubkal, Morocco
“Snow in Africa is always unexpected and the climb up through valleys, Berber villages and the Atlas Mountains is extraordinary.”
Mount Fuji, Japan
“To scale and hike this volcano is totally otherworldly – and you can climb it easily in a day.”