Who Was David Hicks?

I fell in love with this late British designer in the early 90's by reading all his old books from the 60's and 70's which I found at the public library. What was it that attracted me so? It was the clean, the graphic, the eclectic, and the glamorous. It's what is happening in design right now. David Hicks has been hugely influential lately.

His later designs from the 80's don't look quite as interesting right now, but they still show the strong sense of symmetry, repetition, and eclectisism that made his earlier more glamorous work look so good.

Here are some David Hicks trademarks which you will see all over fashionable rooms right now:

• Geometric Patterns: He designed textiles, wallpapers, and carpets. His geometric designs are being reproduced in a big way. Pattern on the wall is a growing trend and especially patern underfoot.
  
• Mixing Traditional and Modern: For example his rooms often juxtaposed boxy modern upholstered pieces with 18th century french chair shapes painted white with solid upholstery. Or a collection of antique decorative pieces featured on a simple parsons table.
  
• Lucite: coffee tables, end tables, and always putting antique artifacts or sculptures under a lucite box, museum style.
  
• Strong Colors: supported by a lot of white, and sometimes black accents (we could learn a lot about odd, bracing color combinations from the British designers. Why do we always want things to harmonize in such a "nice" way?)
  
• Borders: plain borders framing pillows, sofas, beds, walls, rugs or roman shades.
  

Check out: http://www.dh1970.com/ for an archive of his designs.

How to be Trendy...or Not

(photo: NYTimes)


Here's a link to a year-end round up of decorating trends that are "over"!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/garden/20over.html

If you're like me you may have been wondering:"what's up with all the antlers, faux deer heads, and woodland creatures popping up everywhere in the past few years?" (have you seen Smith, on 15th in Seattle?, they really went for it with the antlers)

The linked article has the answer.

As for the "Hollywood Regency" look being over, when a term becomes a keyword on Craigslist and Ebay descriptions to be lumped together with a bunch of other vague labels like "Eames", and when the pieces featured only vaguely have anything to do with the look. You know the trend is becoming threadbare.

The sad thing is how fast this is happening.

Neoclassical, yes, Empire, yes, but this chair would have to be more exaggerated to be "Hollywood Regency", maybe if it was laquered green with black and white zebra upholstery!


Also "Hollywood Regency" according to the lister on Craigslist. To me it's just a nice little mahogany dining chair with a neoclassical influence, probably from the 40's when this sort of thing was very common.

It could be pushed into "Hollywood Regency" territory if it were re-done, let's say white laquer with a bold, large scale black and white geometric seat fabric, that would do it!


Here is a room by Johnathan Adler which shows the exaggerated, almost cartoonish quality of the "Hollywood Regency" look. (and there's that zebra rug!)