A Legendary Winner
Interior design firm Gunter & Co is the winner of London Design Week 2019’s ‘Legends’ initiative, for which showrooms have teamed up with leading creative figures to remodel their window displays, using classic vintage photography as their inspiration. Iconic Images, whose archives include the work of Norman Parkinson, Terry O’Neill and Milton H.Greene, provided the photography – and Irene Gunter of Gunter & Co (pictured top) chose a Parkinson shot of Dutch fashion model Apollonia van Ravenstein, from a 1973 issue of Vogue. “A lot of the photography [to choose from] was black and white, and quite serious and demure, but when I saw this, it got me excited,” says Gunter. “It shares a common thread with my projects, which I want to be uplifting and cheerful.”
Van Ravenstein is pictured head-to-toe in white Saint Laurent Rive Gauche and smoking a cigarette; Gunter captured the spirit of the image using Phillip Jeffries’ ‘Shangri-La’ manila hemp wallcovering along with a ‘Scorched Cork’ wallcovering on a metallic ground, while recreating the photograph’s console table, discarded white parasol and wall-mounted Delft plates.
The results were judged by Wallpaper* editor-at-large Suzanne Trocme, who also gave two Highly Commended awards. At George Spencer Designs, Sophie Ashby of Studio Ashby used an image of a reclining Bianca Jagger, swathed in a yellow Zandra Rhodes dress, taken by Eva Sereny; while interior designer Cassidy Hughes incorporated an image of singer PJ Harvey by Kevin Cummings into Altfield’s window.
