INDIA MAHDAVI

“It’s very important that spaces can be like people. People can look alike but they have their individuality and I think it’s important to keep that sense of individuality, even though if you have a common language going on.”

1962 - now

Early Influences: American pop culture, Walt Disney movies

Notable Clients: Sketch London, Alber Elbaz, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Thierry Costes

India Mahdavi, also-known-as the “colour guru” or “queen of colours” is a Paris-based architect and designer, who made interiors colourful and pink cool. She was born in Tehran and raised between the US, Germany, and France. “I took lots from the different countries in which I grew up” she explains, “the structured grammar from Germany, sophistication and artisanship from Paris, and the know-how from the United States.” Having exposed to both oriental and western cultures, Mahdavi set herself apart as an “icon of nomadic chic” with her bold, neo-baroque style. Her designs reflect her free-spirit and intuition with variety of colours, textures and shapes.

Her dream was to study film and become a filmmaker but instead she went to study architecture as film industry was too challenging to get in at the time. “I was passionate about films; interior design seemed a perfect space to express my vision” she says, “It is quite close to making movies, from the narrative to the production to the actors to the promotion.” She completed her architecture degree at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and then went onto study industrial design at the Cooper Union, followed by graphic design at the School of Visual Arts and then finally furniture design at the Parsons School of Design in New York. After completing her studies, India Mahdavi returned to Paris to start her career as an artistic director for Christian Liaigre. She stayed there for seven years and worked on the Mercer Hotel together with Christian Liaigre before setting up her own design studio in 1999 in Paris. Shortly after, she opened her first showroom and home accessories store and became one of the leading French female interior designers in the world. She made a name for herself in the design world with her very own style, which is charming, playful, quirky, upbeat and whimsical. Her designs are so unique that there’s no way of mistaking her work. She put her stamp on the design world with many iconic projects including but not limited to the Gallery at Sketch and bar at the Connaught Hotel in London, Monte-Carlo Beach Hotel in Monaco and the Condesa DF in Mexico City.

Mahdavi is mostly known for creating dynamic and playful designs as well as her mastery of colour. Her use of unexpected but well-suited colour palettes made coloured interiors fashionable. Ralph Pucci once described her as “a master of colour – probably the best colourist in the design world right now”. According to Mahdavi, her passion for colour comes from her Irano-Egyptian heritage and she describes her taste as “polyglot and polychrome - a rich mix of cultures and colours”. Her inspiration comes from various places and cultures, resulting in her bold style of modernism and nomadic chic. “Shape, dimension, scale, and texture - all are super important,” she says, “softness and comfort are important to me, too. I love the intensity of colour and the feel of velvet”. Another element that is important for Mahdavi is function - all her designs are functional as well as beautiful; she believes that good design has always purpose.

She designs happy interiors that gives joy to people and make them feel at home. “My aesthetic is related to the time I spent in Cambridge, which was the happiest of my childhood. It was the mid-1960s, boom time in America, and my world was filled with pop culture, cartoons and colour – Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry on the television, strawberry milkshakes and technicolour lunchboxes. I have integrated all those things into my designs and I think people respond to them so positively because they are reminiscent of their own childhoods. It makes my work seem somehow familiar and that is comforting” Mahdavi explains.

One thing that she is not a fan of is ‘matchmalism’. Instead she prefers when things are slightly off, “I like putting colours in danger” she says. She also likes to use sofas with a certain roundness as she believes they are more versatile and give a room less static and more dynamic feel. Known for her playful and soft pink candy chair in spaces including Sketch London and more recently the Red Valentino flagship store, Mahdavi keeps creating sensational and iconic designs.

Fun Fact: Designed by India Mahdavi in 2014, London’s iconic pink restaurant The Gallery at Sketch became an Instagram sensation. The owners of the restaurant were planning to change the interiors after two years but it became such an iconic look that after six years, the restaurant still carries Mahdavi’s signature.

Books: Home Chic: Decorating with Style