India Mahdavi’s work is as intriguing as her name – a nod to a country that, just like her, is deeply rooted in stories that give it depth and character. The international interior designer comes from a new breed of creatives, multi-taskers whose work is not confined to just designing home and office space, and not only in her area or home base. India has designed hotels, nightclubs, individual furnishings and even airline interiors. PASSIONS explores the many stories of India, some of which she narrates, and others that are about her.
Born to an Iranian father and an Egyptian-Scottish mother, India spent her childhood living in 11 different countries. She credits this upbringing for her fascination with storytelling, as she was continually exposed to many interesting cultures. Later, in university, she studied architecture and discovered a passionate interest in interior design, a field she started working in as a designer with a focus on interior furnishings and objects.
Tall Tales
The secret to her work lies in her own ability as a storyteller, which comes to life through her designs, each one reflecting its location’s history and having an identity of its own. When she was hired to work on a hotel in South Beach, Miami, she used her impressions to capture the essence of the city – sea and sun. “The light is very strong, so let’s use strong colours,” the designer said. “The whole idea was to feel like you can go to the beach, come back to the hotel, sit on the porch, meet someone, have a glass of white wine, a cigarette, go up to your room, and reflect on your day.”
To design the New York City club APT, which is an apartment-themed nightclub, she created a character named Bernard who owns the apartment. “He’s a French bachelor who teaches at Columbia University, and he’s lived in New York for years. He was married very briefly, he travels a lot and he likes to entertain.
He’s in his fifties, and has a limited budget, so he created an Upper East Side apartment,” India says.
The Storyteller’s Tools
These tales allow India to apply and ‘get in character’ within the technical side of her work. She admits that it is mostly a physical process, but that it is one of her favourite parts – first drawing on a blackboard, creating furniture, tearing it apart and then putting it back together. She likes to ‘mix’ materials, using cold and warm materials together – for instance, oversized ‘cool’ ceramic tiles with ‘warm’ wooden stools upholstered with cow skin.
India also emphasises the importance of style. “You can have very good design and bad styling, and it doesn’t work,” she said in an interview. “I know that I have the ability to take a space without changing any of the furniture and make it look a hundred percent better just by switching things around. That’s style. It’s vision. It’s the way your eye sees things.”
Going Places
With her unique skills, she caught the attention of prominent personalities and establishments that were looking for something fresh and modern. She decorated Lanvin designer Albert Elbaz’s apartment using bright hues that radiate fun and whimsy. “I think a home should be quite happy,” she explains. “I like the challenge of mixing improbable things together – geometric, floral and animal prints all mixed up, for instance.”
Her clients have described her work as chic, offbeat and playful but elegant, all seen in her designs at the Coburg Bar at London’s Connaught Hotel, Mexico City’s boutique hotel Condesa DF and even the airplane interiors for NetJet’s private planes.
Her imagination and sense of adventure with her work have also attracted design houses Ralph Pucci, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton, with whom she has collaborated, and who have described her designs as ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ and ‘often injected with contemporary humour’. Most of all, they have praised her almost effortless style, which is as rich and diverse as the very country she was named after.
