Design Centre Stories

Design Date – Allegra Hicks

Allegra_Hicks_Design_Date

Acclaimed for her innate sense of style, Allegra Hicks is the designer behind the eponymous international luxury lifestyle brand known for its beautiful textiles and prints. Having studied design in Milan and fine art in Brussels, she worked in New York before settling in London. Today she works on her signature kaftans and fashion accessories as well as a home collection, fabrics and rugs. Allegra is the recipient of multiple design awards. She joins Tatler‘s executive fashion and retail editor Mariella Tandy at Focus/14 to discuss how beauty and elegance can translate from the catwalk to the home. Here she talks about her inspirations, her design process and what’s she’s got coming up.

Talking Design: From Fashion To Interiors – My Life in Design, 3pm, 24 September; Tickets, £7.50.

You work across fashion and interiors – how does your fashion work inform your interiors work and vice versa? Since part of my work is designing textiles, my approach to interiors and fashion in that sense is the same. My designs often start as a watercolour and then evolve digitally. Be it for interiors or fashion, the design speaks for itself; for instance, the scale and the palette of a design might be enough to define its purpose.

What inspires you? Travel – I carry a moleskin notebook with me on my travels and sketch. Back in my studio, those sketches often become the starting point for a new design.

What do you enjoy most about your work? The best part of my work is seeing a product in its final conception, for instance seeing a rug in the room it was designed for for the first time, when it started as an idea on paper.

Your career to date has been incredible – what are you most proud of? Having stayed true to myself.

What’s next for you? As well as the launch of my new printed linen Garden collection at GP&J Baker, I will soon be launching a new rug collection and a range of bedding.