Starck raving mad

PHILIPPE Starck must be wondering whether there's something in this fung shui business after all.

Go caught up with him the other night, drowning his sorrows in his latest creation, Felix at the Peninsula, and furious because they've had to put carpet down to protect his floor which was being churned up by those inconvenient people known as customers. Anyway, true to the Hong Kong spirit of compromise, he has come up with a solution: design a carpet that looks like wood.

Alas, his problems don't end there. It seems there has also been a suggestion to remove those chair-back covers with faces on them because they make the place look like a funeral parlour.