Page 56 - Ocean Blue World 24th Edition

ART & DESIGN
India Mahdavi
La Vie en Rose
Hailed as the most Instagrammed restaurant in London, The Gallery at Sketch is a sea of velvety pink, like stepping inside a magical, bubblegum cocoon. When asked to remodel the space in 2014,
the illustrious and exacting Iranian-born designer spent a month searching for just the right color -- the Pantone reference is Rose Quartz 13-520 -- and the result is breathtaking.
That’s typical of this much sought-after, Paris-based designer who has worked on celebrated projects around the globe transforming them into masterpieces through flirtations with color and striking patterns.
Take, for example, heiress to the Hoffmann–La Roche pharmaceutical fortune and art patron Moja Hoffman’s Hotel du Cloître in Arles, France. Using playful mosaic tiles, splashes of bold color straight out of a Van Gogh painting and innovative furniture of her own design, Mahdavi transformed the 13th- century monastery into an unexpectedly whimsical boutique hotel.
There’s also her contemporary update to the iconic Hotel Monte Carlo Beach in Monaco, the elegantly fluid interiors of the Condesa DF hotel in Mexico City and the fairyland magic of patisserie Ladurée locations around the world, including Beverley Hills, Paris and Tokyo.
Mahdavi’s creative process includes contemplating the culture and history of a place, a perspective developed through a globe- trotting childhood spent in four countries –an experience she describes as “the color of a strawberry milkshake”–and the jewel tones of her rich, Iranian heritage.
Photos Courtesy Of: Ed Reeve, Hotel Monte Carlo Beach, Natalie Weiss
“In Paris, the light is pink. In London the grass is green and the sky is grey. In New York, the light
is orange or mandarine au lait” - India Mahdavi
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