Is interior design essentially creating ‘sets’ for people to live in?
Of course it is. It’s a backdrop to a lifestyle. And most of our clients are people who have lifestyles. But you’re not on show in your own home, it’s not theater. Have you seen The Devil Wears Prada? There’s a scene in that film…she [the magazine editor] has a parting line to her assistant, who doesn’t want any part of the [glamour world], and she says, ‘Look at yourself. Everybody wants to be us.’ And I believe that. I think that the little girl sitting behind the typewriter, or the hairdresser, they all fantasize and have a vicarious pleasure out of watching it all. This room, for all of its glamour, is also quite calming. I seek serenity in all my interiors. I think that art brings a lot of that signature to it. I mean we’re not talking great Picassos that are representing the Spanish wars but art really has a serenity. Are you an optimist? I was born an optimist. So it helps. I have chums who really suffer, they’re unhappy and feel they’re being unjustly treated and I just don’t f
