Prince Stash on Tripping With Pink Floyd, Personal Style, and Becoming a Social Media Star at 82
If one were to ask Stanislas Klossowski de Rola to draw up a list of his most valuable skills, timing would undoubtedly claim the top spot. The son of renowned Polish French modern artist Balthus—who claimed to descend from Poland’s medieval nobility, hence the title—the now 82-year-old has enjoyed a charmed but convention-defying trajectory: being discovered by Luchino Visconti and whisked off to the Cannes Film Festival with Fellini as a teen, getting busted with Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones in his 20s, and providing creative fuel for Gucci in his 70s, when he was cast in one of the brand’s fragrance commercials.
Lately, Prince Stash, as he’s known to his legions of followers on TikTok and Instagram, has become a social-media darling (an unlikely position for a dread-locked, technology-averse octogenarian). But whether he’s opening the rooms of his 1,200-year-old Tuscan castle or telling stories about dropping acid with Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett, he flies the flag for individuality with every post. And given the flattening sameness of luxury, perhaps the former bad boy once linked to Nico, Anita Pallenberg, and Marianne Faithfull is the harpsichord-playing bohemian éminence grise we didn’t know we needed.
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What’s the first thing you do in the morning?
Usually I’m up very early, especially in summer in this house, because it can be extremely hot. You have to bounce out of bed, rush and close maybe 20-odd windows that face the rising sun. It’s absolutely imperative.
What apps do you use the most?
My social-media manager says I should engage more with the public, but how? That’s hundreds of people… If I need to speak to someone, they’d better contact me on WhatsApp.
How would you describe your look?
Sheer eccentricity, a bit in the traditional English way, but more than your continental European. It’s a sense of what you like to put together, with interesting combinations.
How would others describe your look?
In the ’60s, Brian Jones and I were known for our sartorial extravagance… We just went and shopped for women’s clothes, if they could be adapted to resemble sort of medieval tunics and so on.
Where do you get your clothes?
When I had to wear formal clothes, I frequented Johns & Peggin England. [But] I scour to this day. In Thailand, I’ve found things in women’s boutiques that would fit me, and I went to a top-of-the-line sari manufacturer in India, designed things, and had them made to my specification.
What do you do that’s still analog?
I have a 1956 Seeburg 200 jukebox. It plays actual old 45s, some of which I’ve had since I was 16 years old.
What’s your favorite cocktail, and how do you make it?
That’s an easy answer, thank God. I like Ricard, especially in the summer. When you go to a café in Paris, you ask for a Ricard tomate. It’s not with tomato juice, rather grenadine. You put a tiny bit of the pomegranate syrup in lots of water, and it’s very refreshing.
What do you crave most at the end of the day?
I have instruments in several rooms. I’ll improvise a little bit on the harpsichord. It’s a gift, my form of meditation, and a direct feed into the absolute elsewhere as a being.
How do you get to sleep?
I have all kinds of vintage dressing gowns. Princess Claudia Ruspoli gave me this divine [one] from some fancy designer in Rome in the most wonderful fabric.
What’s the most recent thing you’ve added to your collection?
I found some exquisite 18th-century chairs, a pair of them. When I was a kid, these things would’ve been worth thousands of dollars, but people are no longer interested in that kind of stuff because they want all modern gear.
Who is your dealer, and what do they source for you?
I collect antique books, and the internet has been great for that. I picked up an original edition of Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers for a few euros here because it was in English, so no one verified anything.
Are you wearing a watch? How many do you own?
I have one of the rarest watches, that belonged to my mother, a Patek Philippe brooch with the noble crown… I also have a Ulysse Nardin watch from the ’40s, which was made for my uncle, Hubert de Watteville. It was graduated on a certain number of pulsations, since he was a physician, so it has a complete custom part of a chronometer.
What car are you most attached to?
I have a very impractical, very rare car in America. It’s a 1976 Rolls-Royce Camarguein willow green. In Italy, I have a very practical, very powerful Audi A6.
How much do you trust your gut?
Implicitly. It’s more like an intuition. Ignore the intuition and you get in trouble, I’ve always found.
What does success look like to you?
I don’t know what success is. The moment you say, “I am doing this, and I am successful,” you put the wrong emphasis on the ego. It’s the moment when a gain is lost.
If you could learn a new skill, what would it be?
I’d love to be able to read German perfectly well. I’d love to read all the German romantics in the original language, as their voices are lost in translation.
What’s your exercise routine, and how often do you do it?
Every morning, I work with free weights with the window open. I do a whole bunch of movements, increasing the weight, and that keeps you in good shape.
Drive or be driven?
Drive. I don’t like being driven. When I did the Gucci commercial, we couldn’t drive our own cars, due to our contract. That driver was exceptionally nice, except he’d get hopelessly lost in the dark.
What kind of music makes you happy?
I listen to Ray Charles, I listen to gospel music, I listen to Indian music, classical Indian music—a vast variety. I don’t specifically like the way a lot of classical music is recorded, but that’s another thing. I’d rather listen to it live.
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