India Mahdavi (born April 4, 1962) is an Iranian-French architect and designer. Mahdavi is known for her whimsical spaces and forms infused with playful palettes.[clarification needed] Projects include the Hotel du Cloitre in Arles, Coburg Bar at London's Connaught Hotel, Monte Carlo Beach in Monaco, Rivington Hotel in Manhattan, the Townhouse Hotel in Miami and the CondesaDF hotel in México City.
Early life and education
India Mahdavi was born in 1962 in Tehran to a Persian father and English-Egyptian mother. She spent her early years in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In a New York Times interview, Mahdavi recalls her early life in America as "a time of very strong colors".
Later, Mahdavi met a restaurateur, Jonathan Morr, looking to open a hotel on a small budget – today known as the Townhouse Hotel. She went to Miami to see it and became the designer of the 80 bedroom stay.
Design career
After her studies, Mahdavi returned to France to work as the artistic director of Christian Liagre for seven years and left in 1997 to start on her own. Today,[when?] she runs a studio, showroom, and shop, all steps away from each other on the Rue de Cases in Paris.
Hotels & restaurants
Mahdavi's design of Sketch
Shortly before opening her studio in 2000, Mahdavi worked with restaurateur Jonathan Morr on Townhouse, Miami in 1999. A white slate with bright accent colors, the hotel serves as a backdrop to a “endless summer” retreat. This first hotel by Mahdavi explored what would later become her thesis; rich, bold colors to extend beyond the trends of time. Following Townhouse Miami, Mahdavi designed a series of restaurants and bars including the Condesa DF Hotel of Mexico City, At the Connaught in London, and Le Germain in Paris. Best known for its 5-meter-tall (16ft) resin silhouette of a woman, Le Germain’s brasserie was accompanied by a 30 person private cinema, both exploring the material possibilities to give identity to the spaces. Whimsical spaces such as Le Germain are no stranger to Mahdavi. Her design work also includes the design of the famous Laduree restaurant in three locations: Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Geneva. Each location indulges in a design and pastel color palette inspired by Marie Antoinette's style.
In 2014, Mahdavi was hired to design the Sketch Restaurant at the Gallery of London, a restaurant that goes through a redesign every two years. The restaurant has been dubbed the most shared restaurant in the world on Instagram by many, including India herself. Mahdavi called the space "an immersive installation of monochrome thought", and said that she wanted people to feel like they were in a film while in the space. Wrapping the walls are 250 drawings by the artist David Shrigley.
Furniture
Soon after founding her studio, Mahdavi began with an exploration into furniture pieces, and opened three showrooms along the Rue Las Casas in Paris, France. The first opening in 2003, and then two following in 2011 and 2020. These furniture lines began in 2003, with a small sample of works, then grew and developed into another exploration, Petits Objets in 2011. Petits Objets includes many different pieces, both functional and decorative, and Mahdavi’s color palette that would be used in many of her designs.
Collaborations
One of Mahdavi's first collaborations was in 2011 with JEM, a jewelry designer. Using architectural language she translated to a minute scale, Mahdavi worked with the “ethically minded” company to create a gold voided line.[clarification needed] Following this, India worked with several other brands to create ceramics, hardware, and tiles. Some notable projects include the Louis Vuitton Nomadic Objects, designs with Nespresso, and a 56 shade paint line with Meriguet-Carrère in 2019. In 2020, she worked with Longwy Enamels to outfit her iconic Bishop stools, originally produced in 2003, in haute couture flower versions. In other works like the 2015 Cogolin interior garden collection and the 2020 De Gournay wallpaper, it can be seen how Mahdavi’s work of colors and materials goes beyond what she has explored in her own lines, and that her style transcends into new explorations. Not only using these works to engage with new collaborators, but seeing each as a new design opportunity, different from what is conducted solely in her own studio.
Style & impact
Style
Mahdavi's work is a mixture of elegance and cartoonish color. She credits her heritage to her design style. "You can't pin it down to a specific influence or reference," said Yann Le Coadic, "...Every detail of a space India designs is thought out to the millimeter, and yet the overall impression is very uncontrived. India focuses on how a space will be lived and not what visual impression it will make."
“I really think of myself like the French word 'metissage' (meaning the cultural mix of society),” says India. “I am a pure product of the Middle East product –at least by blood – but I actually got to know my homeland much later.” To know where I belong very late in life made it more emotional for me. It was like ‘what did I miss out on’ and ‘how can I integrate these elements into my life today.’”
Mahdavi is known for her creative use of color in her designs. Ralph Pucci, who has Mahdavi’s colorful furniture on display at the Ralph Pucci International Gallery says that her “work has humor, but it’s not 100 percent humor, which would make it kitsch. It has sophistication, but it’s not 100 percent sophistication, which would make it predictable. It’s this perfect balance that makes her work original.”
Impact
One of Mahdavi’s most notable projects, Sketch at the Gallery of London, attracted attention on social media. Central to Mahdavi’s design was a velvety pink that adorned every corner of the space, including her own furniture piece featured, the ‘Charlotte’ armchair. In regards to the restaurant’s sensational recognition, Mahdavi said “I don’t want to sound like I’m boasting, but I changed the way people thought about pink.” When asked about her legacy as a designer, Mahdavi replied “I will probably be remembered as someone who uses color as her own language. The language of freedom. And that is fine with me."
Mahdavi's Sketch at the Gallery of London, a velvety pink space, gained popularity on social media and drew thousands of visitors, who took with its geotag. In regards to the restaurant’s sensational recognition, Mahdavi said “I don’t want to sound like I’m boasting, but I changed the way people thought about pink.”
