MATCHESFASHION.COM hosted the launch of Phaidon's Interiors this week and some very special guests came along!
There was good advice on offer from all corners of the room when we hosted a panel discussion and dinner for our new book Interiors: The Greatest Rooms of the Century at Matches, 5 Carlos Place, in Mayfair this week.
The book’s editor, William Norwich, flew in from New York to chat to featured interior designers Nicky Haslam and Ben Pentreath and Carolina Irving who wrote one of the book's excellent opening essays on good and bad taste in décor.
100 attendees including John and Catherine Pawson, Jasper Conran, Brooke & Julian Metcalfe, Minn Hogg, Ashley Hicks, Paolo Moschino, John and Susie Minshaw packed into the Georgian building to share in the combined knowledge of some of the best brains working in interiors today.
Nicky Haslam, outspoken as ever, looked suitably spectacular in mustard coloured corduroy suit, roll neck and trainers. Asked by Phaidon.com how he set about creating an interior that reflected someone else's character however, he answered:
“I look at their medicine cabinet and see what pills they’re on. I open their wardrobes and see what colours they like. I probably look in their kitchen – it’s those sorts of things that reveal character more than what they have in their room at the moment. Where they go on holiday, what they dance to.”
It was no secret to anyone who’d followed his career when Nicky said that he “liked a room that gives you a biff on the nose when you walk in.”
However, Ben Pentreath admitted he still found it a “weird thing to be asked by anyone to decorate their house. With architecture there are rules and proportions and technical things that will and won’t work. With decoration it’s very tough to be that dictatorial. Architecture can get better the more you sweat it - but interior decoration can get worse,” he said.
There was more good advice on offer from legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland via Nicky Haslam who worked with her in the early days. “She always said, think of your corners first. And to make a room look quiet you have to complicate everything. So true.”
Check out Interiors: The Greatest Rooms of the Century for more than 400 of the world’s best living spaces, created by over 300 of the most influential people in interior design in one luxurious book.
And, if like President Trump you’re planning a trip to Britain’s capital city soon, take the advice of our panellists on which three houses they think he should visit: Ben said, Sir. John Soane's House, Carolina went for Ham House and Nicky said he should visit Kensington Palace.
If you can’t make it any of those interiors you'll find them in Interiors: The Greatest Rooms of the Century in which you can luxuriate in 400 amazing living spaces without leaving your own.
