The original Silencio, a subterranean club in Paris designed by filmmaker David Lynch, is the stuff of dreams. Inspired by Club Silencio in Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and opened as a members-only club in 2011, the Paris destination was a cave whose barrel-vaulted ceiling was covered in a jumble of gold-leaf rectangles bathed in pinkish light. (Beyond Lynch’s scenography and concept, Raphael Navot provided art direction and interior design, supported by ENIA architects.) Like many club designs of the 1990s and early 2000s, reflectivity, blur, and the promiscuous possibility of late-night socialization reigned. The club was frequented by visionaries like Prince, Pharrell Williams, and Virgil Abloh. It later opened additional franchises in Ibiza and on the left bank in Paris. Now, Silencio lands in the Big Apple with an exclusive venue in Hell’s Kitchen designed by Crosby Studios.
Nightclubs orbit a central point of gravity: “It’s all about dancing or looking at who is dancing,” Harry Nuriev, who leads Crosby Studios, told Vogue. At Silencio in New York, red velvet adorns the walls, with edges outlined in linear lighting, and the floor is a literal red carpet. Private rooms are lined in gold paint, acting as intimate salons away from—but in view of—the main dancefloor. A DJ booth stands by itself, fronting another raised VIP zone able to be cordoned off with a curtain. The entire interior, which has a capacity of 300, glows red, an homage both to Lynch’s red room from Twin Peaks and the buzzing neon of New York.
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