The Style Files: Conversations with Creatives

The Style Files: Conversations with Creatives

By Paloma ContrerasArtsDesign
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The Style Files: Conversations with Creatives episodes

  • India Hicks
    Designer, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and mother of five, India Hicks was born in London, England, and comes from both British and design royalty. Her father was famed interior decorator David Hicks, and her mother is Lady Pamela Hicks, whose father was the last Viceroy of India, hence her name.
    India has always made bold life choices, which have led to a multi-faceted, unexpected life journey. She has authored four design books, modeled for Ralph Lauren, among others, and been an on-air personality for networks ranging from Bravo to the BBC. She has had her hand in the design world for over two decades – from hotels to home collections.
    In 2015 India launched her eponymous Direct Sales brand. British Heritage and a fresh perspective on island life informed this exclusive lifestyle collection. Despite closing its doors after 5 years of trading thousands of women saw talents and qualities in themselves that had been undiscovered.
    More recently India launched a Podcast series - a look into the life her extraordinary mother Lady Pamela - recording wonderfully intimate conversations between mother and daughter. With over 100,000 downloads already the Podcast repeatedly sits at the top of many charts.
    The India Hicks company had a strong focus on Giving Back as has India herself. Having run 3 marathons in aid of Bahamian children’s education and cycling two 100 mile races raising funds for breast cancer in the Bahamas - a cause close to her heart as this disease took the life of her adopted son’s mother.
    Living in the Bahamas for the past 25 years India is in the position to now partner with Global Empowerment Mission as an on the ground force, bringing awareness to the continuing crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.
    1 hr
  • Kathryn Ireland

    British-born, pre-eminent interior designer Kathryn M. Ireland is a true citizen of the world. From her legendary “sympathetic restorations” of landmark architectural houses and hotels to extraordinary homes for the Hollywood elite, the star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Decorators brings the best attributes of grand European style and cool California chic to every project. A die-hard fan of bold color, the layering of pattern and texture, and the beauty of imperfection, Ireland’s interiors convey an easy, elegant vibe that is worldly and chic, yet effortless. Kathryn has also established herself as a major force in product manufacturing and has been dedicated to producing her bespoke textile collections, weave collections, and upholstered goods all locally in the United States.

    Beyond her eponymous lines of textiles and furniture, Kathryn has most recently set out to disrupt the digital design industry with her newest venture, The Perfect Room. Backed by three decades of experience in luxury interior design, Kathryn has – through TPR – introduced the first luxury online concierge design service, providing curated products and unparalleled design expertise in a simple online platform. Kathryn has also authored 6 best-selling books, including her most recent, Kathryn At Home, and has collaborated with several home furnishing brands including Grange, Scalamandre, and C2 Paints. Kathryn has also acted as the North American Brand Ambassador for beloved European appliance brand AGA Rangemaster.

    Adding to her long list of credits over her multi-hyphenate career, Kathryn has long developed and hosted Design Retreats each summer at her home in the south of France, and regularly hosts design bootcamps in Los Angeles. At each she offers insight on her favorite local resources, professional expertise and storied experiences to help others succeed in the design industry.

    Kathryn has appeared as an expert on Good Morning America, Access Hollywood Live, Good Day LA, and E! News. A shelter magazine favorite, Kathryn’s design work appears frequently in Elle Decor, World of Interiors, House Beautiful, Veranda, Architectural Digest, Vogue and InStyle. Kathryn is consistently featured on Elle Decor’s A-List and is one of the Top 25 Interior Designers as listed by The Hollywood Reporter. When she’s not designing or entertaining, Ireland divides her time between her home in Santa Monica, CA and her restored farmhouse in southwest France.

    1 hr 4 min
  • Barrie Benson
    BARRIE BENSON is a Charlotte-based interior designer best known for balancing the modern with the traditional in her signature interiors. She transforms residences like her iconic 1950s ranch with traditional pieces to create an interesting blend of periods, rooms, and moods.
    Barrie is also known for giving architecturally traditional homes a dash of energy and color with her fresh take on European and American 20th-century furniture, art, and collections.
    In addition to interiors, Barrie designs a signature line of furniture for Highland House and a line of decorative hardware and accessories in collaboration with Addison Weeks.
    Top publications have featured Barrie’s work including AD, Coastal Living, Domino, Elle Dècor, Garden & Gun, House Beautiful, Southern Living and The Wall Street Journal.
    A true lover of the arts, Barrie is an active board member of the Mint Museum and the Charlotte Symphony and regularly visits galleries and art fairs around the world.
    1 hr 7 min
  • Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen
    Nicholas Haslam Ltd was established in 1980 by Nicky Haslam, who owned and operated the company in partnership with Paolo Moschino. Paolo bought the firm in 1995 when Nicky Haslam left to launch NH Design, and Paolo has since grown the company, which he now leads with Philip Vergeylen, into one of the most prominent and respected names in the design world.
    Though Paolo and Philip are equally passionate about design, neither of them set out to be a designer. Born and raised in Italy, Paolo studied Political Science in Florence. It was at the age of 23, after university, that he came to stay in London for a few months. He ended up running an interiors shop—and never left.
    Philip, who was born and raised in Belgium, says his parents gave him three choices of profession: doctor, banker or lawyer. However, during his first year at university, he found ten years’ worth of a design magazine in his grandmother’s library and eagerly read every issue cover to cover. (This might have been a clue to his real interests.) After studying Commercial Management Engineering in Brussels, Philip began an accomplished career in marketing in the financial-services sector which took him to far-flung spots across the globe.
    Philip eventually settled in London, met Paolo and started to help him with some interior design projects. Not long after, Philip’s passion and natural instinct for design began to influence the direction of the firm, and over the past decade, his work has been pivotal to the company’s growth. Now leading the Design Studio, he oversees numerous residential, hospitality and commercial projects around the world.
    Years ago, whilst Paolo was running the shop, he and Philip renovated and reconfigured a rambling, unconventional apartment, one that has since been photographed and published in countless top design magazines. Customers and friends would visit the apartment and then go to the shop to ask, “Won’t you please do my house?” That’s how the design business launched, expanding organically; today the firm has projects on every continent.
    1 hr 3 min
  • Josh Young
    Josh Young is a Chicago-based artist, designer, and tastemaker. A graduate of Italy's renowned Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Josh's 6 years spent in Milan heavily influenced and crafted his overall artistic style. After returning to the U.S., Josh began working as a designer in the textile industry, in New York City's Flatiron District.
    Inspired by the fusion of old world elements married with bold, modern-day techniques, he has been experimenting with an avant-garde approach to classical portraits since 2009.
    Josh has appeared in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Vogue Italia, GQ Italia, Domino Magazine, MyDomaine, O, The Oprah Magazine, House Beautiful and The Maryn. His collaborations have included work with Nate Berkus Associates, Paloma Contreras, Kate Marker and large-scale commercial projects like the newly built Draper Hotel in New York City and the Bulgari Hotel in London.
    He has also collaborated with brands such as Williams-Sonoma Home, Circa Lighting and CB2. Josh is scheduled to show at next years renowned Salone del Mobile in Milan.
    56 min
  • Michael S Smith
    Michael S. Smith is one of the most sought-after talents in the design industry today. With an international roster of high-profile residential, hospitality, and commercial clients, he is known for an effortless blend of all-American modernism and European classicism—always fresh, always surprising, always evolving.
    A California native, Smith studied interior architecture at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, followed by graduate work at the Victoria and Albert Museum Study Centre in London. He has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including being continuously named to the AD100 and Elle Decor’s A-List, and he was honored by the Hispanic Society of America with his partner, James Costos, the former ambassador to Spain and Andorra; they received the organization’s 2016 Sorolla Medal in recognition of their extraordinary support of Spanish art and culture. Smith was also the 2018 recipient of the distinguished Arthur Ross Award for Excellence in the Field of Interior Design from the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art.
    From 2008 through 2016, Smith worked with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on the design of the private quarters of the White House, as well as the refurbishment of some of its State Rooms, and their focus on showcasing works by a diverse group of artists and artisans was both groundbreaking and highly acclaimed. In 2010 Smith was appointed by President Obama to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House and he now serves on the Design Advisory Team for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
    Smith’s extensive Jasper collection of fabric, wall coverings, furniture, and accessories and his Templeton line of fabrics are available at his showrooms in L.A. and Madrid and in multiline showrooms across America. The designer has published five books with Rizzoli: Elements of Style (2007), Houses (2008), Kitchens and Baths (2011), Building Beauty (2013), and The Curated House: Creating Style, Beauty, and Balance (2015). His latest book, Designing History: The Extraordinary Art & Style of the Obama White House, will be released this September. It documents Smith’s extraordinary collaboration with the Obamas through extensive photography, behind-the-scenes stories, and rich archival material. The book places the Obama White House within the context of the building's storied past and its evolution over the past two centuries, chronicling the process of updating the country's most symbolic residence and revealing how Smith's collaboration on the decoration, showcasing of art, and style of entertaining reflected the youthful spirit of the first family and their vision of a more progressive, inclusive American society.
    1 hr 17 min
  • Tom Scheerer
    Tom Scheerer began his decorating career in the mid-1980s, after graduating from Cooper Union with a degree in architecture. He formed his own firm in 1995. His work is characterized by clear and logical architectural solutions combined with beautiful, comfortable furnishings. His work is regularly featured in AD, Town & Country, House Beautiful, and Elle Décor and is named annually to the AD100 list of top interior designers. He divides his time between New York, Paris, and the Bahamas.
    56 min
  • Nam Dang-Mitchell
    Long featured in the pages of Canadian shelter magazines, Nam Dang-Mitchell was named Canadian House & Home's designer of the year in 2019. The interior designer's spaces strike a delicate balance between classic and edgy, merging disparate styles into a seamlessly chic and livable whole. Dang-Mitchell often animates her neutral-toned color palettes with layers of pattern and textures that keep even formal spaces warm and lively. Her keen eye for combining furniture, accessories, and fabrics from different styles and eras is especially evident in her ability to select distinctively modern furniture and lighting pieces that are full of personality but still harmonize with an interior's overall look. Dang-Mitchell lives in Calgary, where she has recently expanded her practice to include a residential townhouse development.
    50 min
  • David Jimenez
    David Jimenez was born and raised in New York City, currently resides in Paris, and recently launched his own design firm David Jimenez LLC. During his career, David has played an important role in developing the visual aesthetic of Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Hallmark, Williams-Sonoma and Williams-Sonoma Home and, as a result, has influenced what constitutes style in the American home.
    His work has been featured in a variety of print media, including Architectural Digest US, AD Italy, AD Russia, House Beautiful, the New York Times and in a variety of home decor books including House Beautiful The Home Book, The Find and Living Retro. You’ll want to check out his Instagram page #davidjimenezstudio. The photos are breathtaking and he shares entertainingly written, usable advice for creating glorious rooms.
    1 hr 7 min
  • Serena Dugan
    Serena Dugan is an artist and textile designer based in Sausalito, California. With an education in both Psychology and Fine Art, Serena has spent the past 20 years developing her imprint as a painter, product designer, and Chief Creative Officer of Serena & Lily, the home and lifestyle brand she launched in 2004.
    In 2016, Serena stepped away from Serena & Lily to get back to her roots as an artist. While painting, she explored shapes and rhythms in her compositions, which she could not help but envision in pattern form. This is the inspiration for her new line of textiles, wallpapers, paintings, and objects for Serena Dugan Studio. The new collection will debut in select showrooms and online at www.serenadugan.com in early 2020.
    Serena’s rallying belief is in the power of art to transform an environment into an experience. This can take the form of an energetic painting or a striking pattern that defines and enlivens a space. Her background in both mediums allows her to toggle between the two as she explores the themes of rhythm and form. With pattern, her focus is on creating harmony through repetition, shape and placement. With painting, she creates impact through layering and composition. Each art form sharpens the other by means of opposition — both equally representative of her aesthetic fingerprint.
    Serena received her BA in Psychology from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC in 1994. She returned to school to pursue a BFA in 1997 and then expanded her design education by studying textile design and printmaking. Starting Art School in Denver, CO, at Metropolitan State College of Denver, she continued to Florence, Italy, to study painting at the Lorenzo de’Medici Art Institute of Florence. She studied textile design in Berkeley, CA at the Institute for Textile Print Design, and printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute.
    Serena and her two children reside in Sausalito, CA, close to her sun-filled studio on the waterfront.
    1 hr 7 min

About The Style Files: Conversations with Creatives

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Interior designer and tastemaker, Paloma Contreras takes you further into the beloved "The Style Files" column from her blog, La Dolce Vita, for thoughtful, engaging conversations with creative…

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