Speaker Biographies
Charlotte Abrahams
Charlotte Abrahams is a freelance writer and curator. As well as contributing regular features to a variety of publications, including FT How to Spend It, The Design Edit and Design Anthology, she also writes books, both under her own name and as a ghost. Her latest book, Love Pattern, Choosing Patterns to Live With will be published by Ivy Press in the autumn. Her curating work includes The Craft of Wallpaper at the Geffrye Museum, Rodmarton Re-Imagined at Rodmarton Manor in Gloucestershire and the bi-annual new design showcase Spotted at Top Drawer.
For London Design Week 2021, she leads the Creative Collaborations sessions.
Carole Annett
Carole Annett is interiors editor of Country & Town House magazine and host of The House Guest podcast where she chats to designers and makers. The podcast is a top ten design podcast on I-Tunes and was chosen for British Airways and Air Lingus inflight entertainment systems.
Esti Barnes
Born in Istanbul, Esti Barnes studied at the School of Applied Fine Arts. After running a number of fashion and interior businesses, she set up Topfloor by Esti in London. Her designs have received many international awards over the years, including ELLE Decorationâs British Design of the Year and many others in the USA. Estiâs inspiration comes from the photographs she takes during her travels and the world around her. She is especially intrigued by textures and pushes the boundaries of weaving to create striking and timeless rugs and carpets.
Naomi Astley Clarke
Naomi Astley Clarke specialises in the total renovation and refurbishment of residential properties. She has worked in the industry for over 20 years and her small team delivers a unique and personal service. It mixes fine British craftsmanship with design flair from around the world, using bold colours and opulent materials to create the look its clients love. She lives between Dorset and London with her husband and two children.
Scott Baxter
Scott Baxter is founder and CEO of SA Baxter.
SA Baxter designs and manufactures timeless custom and semi-custom architectural hardware for high-end residential homes and buildings, offering the most extensive palette of patterns and finishes in the custom architectural hardware industry.
Its goal is to enable design. Breaking the mould, SA Baxter gives clients the ability to customise over 200 signature hardware designs with an array of finishes and alloys, or the unprecedented freedom to create their own custom door hardware, window hardware, or cabinet hardware.
From door knobs and door levers to window levers and cabinet knobs, SA Baxter can turn just about any concept into exquisite architectural hardware.
Sasha Bikoff
Sasha Bikoff is known for her flawless execution of bold and colourful maximalist designs sculpted by her vast worldly exploits and experiences. Bikoffâs international style is heavily influenced by the multicultural flair of her hometown, New York City, and from her frequent travels to Paris, Marrakesh and Milan. Sasha studied Fine Arts and Art History at George Washington University and the American University in Paris, beginning her career at a world-renowned art gallery before establishing her own interior design firm, Sasha Bikoff Interior Design.
Following her design debut with an apartment in the famed Dakota, Sasha was dubbed the âinterior designer for the young & wealthyâ by the New York Times and the âgo-to decorator for Manhattanâs well-heeled millennial setâ by the New York Post.
Using a keen understanding of design and culture, Bikoff creates spaces based on her clientsâ passions and inspirations. For Bikoff, interiors represent more than just living spaces: They evoke a distinguished lifestyle, offering individuals the unique opportunity to turn their homes into an eclectic, creative oasis.
Sasha has exhibited her work at Art Basel Miami and Salone del Mobile in collaboration with Versace, DIFFA, the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Gala, Holiday House, and the Kips Bay Decorator Show House. Sasha has a collection of carpets with her Disco Dots and Zodiac designs, as well as a fabric and wallpaper collection with Fabricut and Vervain, a mosaic tile collection with New Ravenna, and a lighting collection with Currey & Company.
Jinny Blom
Landscape designer Jinny Blom has spent the last 20 years creating landscapes that push the boundaries of creative and intelligent design. With an undefinable style, her work is driven by a need to understand what lies beneath and what has gone before. It is these initial discoveries that become central to how the projects unfold and why Jinny so often works with local artisans who have an invaluable understanding of the place.
Hatta Byng
Hatta Byng has been the editor of House & Garden magazine since 2014. She arrived at the magazine as features editor in 2006, and became the deputy editor in 2013. Hatta studied history of art and architecture, and has also worked as an interior designer, as well as a two-year stint for the South African edition of House & Garden whilst living in Cape Town.
House & Garden showcases the best in international design and decoration from around the world. Its influence extends to its website, houseandgarden.co.uk
Matthew Childs
Matthew is an award winning British garden designer and has designed a diverse range of exciting landscapes. Matthewâs approach to garden design is to tailor gardens to each client and produce very human outdoor spaces which have a strong narrative, are a reflection of the people who use them and the surroundings in which they sit.
His conceptual garden at the 2012 RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show called âLight at the end of the tunnelâ received a gold medal and has defined Matthewâs approach to design ever since. It became a vehicle for empathy allowing people to relate it to their own experiences of recovery in life and demonstrated how gardens have the power to touch emotions. Matthew strives to do this in all of his work. This garden has been followed by three gold and âbest in showâ gardens at RHS Hampton Court and a silver gilt medal at RHS Chelsea.
Matthew believes in the power of gardens to have huge benefits for mental and physical wellbeing, but also as having an important role to play in tackling climate change and providing habitat for wildlife. His studio is passionate about creating gardens that lead to positive change.
Bernie de Le Cuona
Bernie de Le Cuona is the founder and CEO of de Le Cuona, a purveyor of interior textiles with a 27- year history. She heads both the creative direction and business operations. Always ahead of the game this fabric house launched GOTS certified organic linen to this industry. All fabrics are responsibly crafted from the finest natural fibres using specialist artisans and mills. Bernie is one of the most influential people in British luxury who excel as leaders of innovation and sustainability in their sector.
Christopher Dezille
Christopher Dezille founded Honky in 2001. His London-based multi-disciplinary architectural and interior design practice works with property developers and private clients in the UK and beyond. Dezille has earned a reputation for creating strong, sustainable, and timeless interiors delivered on time and on budget by engaging closely with clients from concept to completion. âInterior design is storytelling in 3D,â he says, âour role is not to impose a house style but to encapsulate our clientsâ narrative and deliver it Honky style.â
Sarah Douglas
Sarah Douglas is editor-in-chief for Wallpaper*, where she is responsible for the print magazine, digital platforms, in-house creative agency Bespoke, brand partnerships and events. Joining Wallpaper* in 2007 as art editor, Sarah became creative director in 2012, before being named editor-in-chief in 2017. During this time she has commissioned an array of illustrious artists and designers including Jean Nouvel, Yayoi Kusama, Tom Sachs and Jenny Holzer; championed next generation talents such as Bethan Laura Wood, Philippe Malouin, Paul Cocksedge and Craig Green; and overseen partnerships with leading brands including B&B Italia, Prada and Rolex.
Sarah is also a member of the judging panel for the London Design Medal, and regularly judges for international design competitions.
Jamie Drake
Jamie Drake is the co-founder of Drake/Andersen.
Dynamic eclecticism is the hallmark of the New York-based firm, whose work forges a perfect balance between timelessness and today. At the heart of every project is the belief that the best décor expresses personality and place. The resulting environments are inviting, delightful, and above all resolutely livable.
Jamie Drake and Caleb Anderson bring their respective takes on glamour, curation, and elegance to bear in a range of luxurious residential and commercial projects. Drake is widely regarded as one of the first designers to popularize Modernism in interior design, beginning in the 1980s. He is known for his fearless approach to color as well as his fashion-conscious sensibility. Anderson is lauded for his layered approach to interiors and the confidence with which he juxtaposes a variety of historic periods from the design continuum.
Drake and Anderson have completed elegant, polished interiors in many of Manhattanâs âitâ buildingsâincluding One57, 70 Vestry, 520 Park, and Herzog & de Meuronâs 56 Leonardâas well as in sprawling Hamptons estates, luxurious Malibu beach houses, stately London townhouses, and lush retreats from Bermuda to the Middle East and around the world.
Individually and as a team, Drake and Anderson have achieved the highest awards and accolades in the industry, including the prestigious Elle Decor A-List, the Architectural Digest AD100 list, Interior Design magazineâs Hall of Fame, House Beautifulâs Master Class and Next Wave, and many more.
Tiffany Duggan
Listed in House & Gardenâs list of the âTop 100 Designersâ, founder Tiffany Duggan and the Studio Duggan team create distinctive and well considered interiors for high-end residential and boutique commercial projects.
The Studio Duggan design philosophy is to create liveable yet dynamic spaces which fearlessly unite different eras and styles in pursuit of todayâs perfection. Working on only a handful of full service design projects at a time, Studio Duggan frequently fields enquiries about where they source furnishings for private clients. Launching with a bedroom collection, Trove was an organic response to this demand, embodying Studio Dugganâs signature style – with a nomadic, yet timeless sensibility and an emphasis on quality, craftsmanship and the never ending search for the extraordinary and the beautiful.
Gianluca Franzese
Gianluca Franzese is an Italian-born American artist, living and working in San Francisco, California. With a background in decorative painting and classical art, his style has evolved to blend patterns and shapes of colour with dynamic metal reflections. He creates trompe lâoeil landscapes of design, with meticulous attention to detail. Franzese is dedicated to flawlessness and beauty. His paintings play with the viewerâs perspective, illuminating the spaces in which they reside.
Benjamin Frowein
Benni is the president of Schumacher, overseeing and driving the companyâs business divisions and working in close collaboration with creative director, Dara Caponigro, to lead the company.
Before joining Schumacher, Benni spent ten years at the Boston Consulting Group, one of the worldâs top business consulting firms. His marketing and sales expertise propelled transformation and growth in client companies across the globe.
Benni holds a dual degree in international business administration from Spainâs Universidad Pontificia Comillas and Germanyâs European School of Business. He is an avid traveller and has a penchant for months-long backpacking adventures.
Damian Foxe
Damian Foxe is the owner and director at Bitton by a Foxe. an agency that unites the creative forces of Damian Foxe, formerly fashion director of FT How To Spend It magazine and his partner Elad Bitton who previously looked after the visual identity for luxury fashion brands. Damianâs works spans the fashion, lifestyle, interior design, travel, hair and beauty sectors. In parallel Foxe continues to work on editorial projects.
Aino Grapin
CEO Aino joined Winch Design in 2016, bringing 20 years of experience in leading and growing businesses in creative industries, namely in the art, luxury and technology sectors. Holding an MBA from INSEAD, Aino started her career as a strategy consultant with Bain & Company. She then spent nearly a decade at Christieâs, in a variety of strategic and operational roles. Aino works closely with Andrew Winch, the board and senior management team to ensure Winch Design is as strong commercially as it is creatively.
David Harris
David Harris, design director at Andrew Martin, has been designing the fabric, wallpaper, and cushion collections since he joined the global design company over 20 years ago.
From working with the worldâs finest mills, printers and weavers and globetrotting for inspiration, David’s most recent works include Scholar, the super-wide wallpaper collection, Andrew Martin’s first paint offering, and the much-anticipated Burlington collection where he worked closely with interior designer Sophie Paterson on their second collaboration.
Beata Heuman
Beata Heuman is a Swedish interior designer living in London, whose original and vibrant work has singled her out for the highest plaudits and earned her a dedicated following. In 2018, she was awarded House and Gardenâs inaugural Interior Designer of the Year Award and she now features on all major lists of the worldâs most talented interior designers, including Architectural Digestâs hallowed and elite collection, which calls her the âIt girl of the AD 100â.
Heumanâs outlook is not focused solely on âbeautyâ or the âideal homeâ, but on creating something that she believes is truer to human nature, a philosophy that âhas established a well-deserved reputation for homes filled with whimsical, personal detailsâ (Vogue UK).
Her first book Every Room Should Sing presents Heumanâs innovative approach and provides a dynamic look into her work. Organised according to design principle, each chapter offers fresh ways to think about decorating a home, finding your voice, making ordinary details extraordinary, and forging a truly unique space.
Humaira Ikram
Humaira Ikram has been working as a professional garden designer at Redscape Design for over 10 years and specialises in pollinator friendly and sustainable landscapes. She runs the garden design diploma at the KLC School of Design and over the last few years has cultivated a special interest in collaborating on show garden planting projects.
She is currently a regular contributor on BBC Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4, has been a guest judge on the Netflix Series The Big Flower Fight, is a gardens advisor to RHS Hyde Hall and on various selection and advisory panels for the RHS.
In her previous life, she read Environmental Science at Kings College and worked for Reuters, before retraining as a garden designer.
Suzanne Imre
For over 17 years, Suzanne Imre was the influential editor of leading interiors magazine and website LivingEtc and Livingetc.com; a renowned style pundit and trend leader, and an industry advisor to numerous retail and publishing brands. Today, she works as a brand consultant, content director and journalist and, occasionally, as an interior designer on small projects. One day, sheâs going to finish doing up her own home.
Kit Kemp
Kit Kemp MBE has forged an internationally-acclaimed reputation, not only for her unique hotel interiors as founder and creative director of Firmdale Hotels and the Kit Kemp Design Studio, but also as a successful textiles, fragrance and homewares designer, author and a highly-respected champion of British art, craft and sculpture.
Kit is celebrated for her individual and original approach with colourful and detailed storytelling in her design. Kit has collaborated with leading global design brands such as Andrew Martin, Wedgwood, Wilton Carpets, Christopher Farr, Chelsea Textiles, Fine Cell Work and Porta Romana, creating collections including tableware, furniture, fabrics, wallpaper and lighting.
Kitâs new book Design Secrets is published in May 2021.
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Robbie Kerr
Robbie Kerr is an architect and urban designer, and has been a Director of Adam Architecture since 2016. His work includes new buildings, alterations and repairs to historic properties, and new master planning schemes. Robbieâs aim is to continue to evolve the principles of classical and traditional architecture, tailored to modern life and to create elegant and beautifully crafted buildings.
Giles Kime
Giles Kime is executive and interiors editor of Country Life magazine and author of four books including Nina Campbell Interior Decoration. He started his career on The World of Interiors, has held senior positions on both House & Garden and Homes & Gardens magazine and previously edited the interiors pages of the Daily Telegraph.
Daniel Lobb
Dan is both a landscape architect and garden designer. Â He creates outdoor spaces which combine functionality, beauty and sustainability, ensuring that environmental considerations are never compromised. A member and adjudication panellist of the Society of Garden Designers, designate RHS judge and winner of a Gold Medal and âBest Conceptualâ Garden at Hampton Court, Danâs background in fine art sculpture gives him an instinctive and creative flair displayed through each project; blending spatial design with his practical knowledge of horticulture.
Steele Marcoux
Steele Marcoux is editor-in chief of Veranda magazine. Her design education started during her childhood in Atlanta, where she spent many afternoons with her artist mother browsing through galleries, antiques stores, and fabric showrooms. After graduating from Williams College, where Steele studied art history and played on the varsity tennis team, she worked in Washington, DC as a reporter before returning to the south to pursue a master of arts in American history at the University of Alabama.
She is a veteran of the shelter publishing industry, having served as editor of Coastal Living, executive editor and style director of Country Living, and design editor at Southern Living and Coastal Living. Steele serves on the board of directors for the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, where she lives with her husband, two sons, and dog Sawyer.
Pip McCormac
Pip McCormac is the editor of Livingetc and oversees its print edition, website, events and brand extensions.
A journalist with almost 20 yearsâ experience, he has held staff positions at Sunday Times Style, Red, ELLE Decoration and Grazia, and written for publications as varied as Stylist, the Guardian, and Country Living. His next book, A New Leaf, looking at the way architects have folded houseplants into the curated design of their homes, will be out in November, published by Hardie Grant.
He recently moved to Somerset, where he is renovating a country house that was last decorated in the early 1970s.
Selina McCabe
Since joining Winch Design in 2007, Selina has become invaluable within the interiors team. Her outstanding level of creativity has been evident in the multiple yacht, aviation and architectural projects that she has seen from concept to completion.
Selina now focuses on leading the architecture interiors team with an energy and enthusiasm that is infectious, reverberating throughout the whole studio. Tirelessly managing FF&E and presenting Winch Design concepts and schemes to clients, Selina also mentors the junior members of the team, encouraging them to be confident and creative in their decisions. Selina is also responsible for collaborations with other brand partners.
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Diana McKnight
Diana McKnight is a BIID registered interior designer. In addition to running her own interior design practice, she has trained thousands of designers, including many BIID members, in her role of director of studies at KLC School of Design. She is responsible for the academic content, planning, management and delivery of all courses at KLC and has lectured in Japan and Russia as well as in the UK.
Shalini Misra
Shalini Misra Ltd creates multi award-winning interior designs, specialising in luxury interiors for residential, hospitality and commercial projects. Founded in 1996 by visionary interior designer Shalini Misra, it has developed a diverse portfolio of exceptional projects from across the globe. Its ability to work closely with its clients, incorporating their needs while creating characterful, functional and timeless interiors, has fostered a loyal clientele.
Martina Mondadori
Martina Mondadori was born in Milan in 1981. She represents the fourth generation of the Mondadori family and is part of the board of directors of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore publishing group. She graduated in 2005 âmagna cum laudeâ in philosophy at the University of Milan.
In 2014 she started Cabana, a magazine focusing on timeless interiors and decorative arts. She is editor in chief and creative director for the homeware and tabletop collections which appeared on 1stdibs and as the first Home Trunk show on Moda Operandi.
Martina is also European editor at large for Town and Country U.S. She has been the curator for Design at Large in Basel in June 2016 as part of the Design Miami Fair. 2017 saw her first book published in the US, Renzo Mongiardino: A Painterly Vision by Rizzoli. She lives in Milan with her three children. She has a great passion for the visual arts, and for travel.
Rose Murray
These White Walls is a multi award winning luxury-led and concept-driven design studio, creating boldly elegant and beautifully crafted interiors for the high-end hospitality and residential sectors.
Director Rose Murray founded the practice in 2017 and defines her distinct approach as âblank canvas creativityâ which leaves preconceptions aside so that each interior emerges unique.
Her multidisciplinary background began when she turned an internship at Vogue into a role styling editorials and television sets for the BBC. Her vanguard spirit led her into the world of immersive events, designing luxury dining spaces and performative venues for a more radically-minded corporate clientele.
She uses her academic background in anthropology, alongside a well-honed talent for visual storytelling to inform the studioâs distinct approach. The studioâs aesthetic is not defined by a particular style, rather a consistent three part process where the pillars of narrative, materials and artistry are explored to define a new experience.
She takes inspiration from life offline, poetry, and global travels. As a child her first memories are of living in Nigeria before returning to reside in the UK, and this hugely influenced her interest in the visual language of other cultures and the cross-pollination of ideas that reflect our personal histories.
The studio is currently working on hospitality and residential projects across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Far East with upcoming launches including a boutique hotel in Italy, a vineyard pressing centre in the UK, and a fine dining restaurant in central London.
Thomas O'Brien
Thomas OâBrien is an interior and home furnishings designer based in New York City and Long Island. He is the founder of Aero Studios, one of Americaâs leading design firms, where he has long been recognised for the warm blend of history and modernism in his acclaimed interiors. As a prolific product designer, Thomas has been creating lighting with Visual Comfort for over a decade, among other popular home furnishings lines.
Phoebe Oldrey
Phoebe Oldrey is the founder of Smartstyle Interiors, an innovative interior design studio which takes a holistic approach.
In 2017, after 15 years in the industry and tired of being asked what the next trend was, Phoebe decided to take an approach to her designs that not only balances how a space works and what it looks like, but also asks âhow does it make us feelâ. She believes that only when we get the balance right between function, aesthetics and emotions will we create amazing places people are happy in. This led to her Ted X talk âInterior design is about more than wallpaper and bean bagsâ and numerous speaking opportunities where she shares her passion for putting people at the front of design.
Olivia Outred
As pedigrees go, it is hard to top Olivia Outredâs professional progression. Before setting up on her own in 2014, she took a degree in interior and spatial design at Chelsea College of Arts, worked under Philip Hooper at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler and headed up the interior-design side of Lulu Lytleâs Soane. Olivia brings a fresh, imaginative and modern eye to classic English decorating.
Sophie Paterson
Sophie Paterson set up her eponymous firm in 2008. Fast forward 13 years and her team of 12 designers and interior architects forms one of the leading interior design studios in London, specialising in luxury residential projects across the world.
Current projects include two 20,000 square foot villas in Oman, a 13,000 square foot home in St Johnâs wood, a 10,000 square foot home in Kensington Gardens, a 13,000, a new-build project next to Buckingham Palace, and numerous Grade II listed properties across London. In total Sophie Paterson Interiors is currently designing over 100,000 square foot of high end residential property across the world.
John and Catherine Pawson
Yorkshire-born John Pawson CBE is renowned for work that focuses on ways of approaching fundamental problems of space, proportion, light, and materials. His many residential and commercial interiors have included private homes, art galleries, museums, chapels, and stores around the world.
Catherine Pawson studied at the Inchbald School of Design in London and worked at Colefax & Fowler, before embarking on a long-term partnership with fellow interiors specialist Juliet Byrne.
Emilio Pimentel-Reid
Emilio Pimentel-Reid is an author and creative director working across the disciplines of design, events, retail and publishing. He has over 20 years of experience collaborating with some of the worldâs most recognized high-end interior style brands (Zoffany, Dedar, Savoir, de Le Cuona, Rubelli), retailers (Harrodâs, Healâs), online platforms and large corporate organisations. His features and shoots have appeared in the pages of international editions of Architectural Digest, Sunday Times Style, Harperâs Bazaar and GQ, amongst others.
Emilio launched his own multidisciplinary studio in 2012 following many years as the decorating editor at ELLE Decoration (UK). An advocate for British design and manufacturing, he also consults with leading interior companies and emerging talent advising in the area of brand development. His projects blend his interest in contemporary design and historic interiors with a sense of playfulness, rigour and a colourful aesthetic. His latest book Bold British Design (Quadrille) launched in 2020.
Henry Prideaux
London-based interior designer, Henry Prideaux is known for combining classic and contemporary interior styles to create authentic environments that emphasise the character and decorative detail in each project. With an eye for detail and a love of colour, texture, and pattern, every design scheme is artfully crafted within a carefully curated blend of old and new pieces bringing each space to life. Following a successful career working at some of the industryâs most renowned design practices, Henry Prideaux Interior Design was established in 2014 to provide a personalised interior design service for private residential and boutique commercial clients.
Elspeth Pridham
Elspeth Pridham is a journalist with over 25 yearsâ experience writing about interiors. Previously editor of Studio magazine, Elspeth now writes The Insider blog where she shares the latest news, insights and product updates. The Insider is aimed at interior design professionals.
Martin H. Redmayne
Martin Redmayne is chairman and editor in chief of The Superyacht Group. Having visited nearly every shipyard in the world from Auckland to Seattle and stepped on board over 1000 yachts and met countless owners, builders, designer and brokers over the years, Martin brings over 30 years of unrivalled experience in the superyacht market, as a journalist, analyst and commentator. He is passionate about design, engineering, ownership, the oceans and sustainability, regularly chairing and speaking on these various topics on stages across the world. When he is not observing superyachts and commenting on the market, he loves being on or near the sea with his friends and family.
Remy Renzullo
Remy Renzullo is an interior decorator and antique advisor based between Connecticut and London. He founded his practice in 2016, and has since completed residential projects in the United States and England.
In addition to decoration, Renzullo sources rare European furniture and objects, primarily of the 17th and 18th centuries, for private clients.
Sophia Salaman
Sophia Salaman is executive editor at The World of Interiors, comprising several different roles including Network editor, social media editor and more recently editor of the newly launched The Interiors Index, the magazineâs new platform and directory.
Gale Singer
Gale Singer is the founder and president of Circa Lighting. Circa is the premiere reseller of Visual Comfort & Co. family of brands and quintessential resource for top tier lighting. By 2020, Circa Lighting expanded its showroom and e-commerce business to 21 locations across the US and an international hub in London.
Gale and her brother, founder of Visual Comfort Andy Singer, were the 2020 recipient of the New York School of Interior Designâs Larry Kravet Design Industry Innovation Award.
Andy Singer
Andy Singer was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved to Houston, Texas where he attended University of Houston. While working on an undergraduate degree in business â Andy worked his way through school as a manufacturerâs rep selling residential lighting products.
Upon graduation Andy established Andrew Singer & Co representing lighting manufacturers in Texas and Oklahoma and in 1987 founded Visual Comfort & Co which he operates today as CEO.
Kate Watson-Smyth
Kate Watson-Smyth is an award-winning journalist who has written extensively on interiors and design for publications including the Financial Times, The Independent, and the Sunday Telegraph and she has a monthly interiors column in Red. Her home has been featured in the The Wall Street Journal, la Repubblica, Elle Decoration, Livingetc and Remodelista. Kateâs acclaimed website, madaboutthehouse.com, founded in 2012, is officially the UKâs No. 1 interiors blog. The Great Indoors â which she co-hosts with Sophie Robinson â is the nationâs most popular interiors podcast. Kate has written three bestselling books, Mad About the House: How to Decorate Your Home with Style (2018) and Mad About the House: 101 Interior Design Answers (2020) as well as her most recent Mad About the House Planner. @mad_about_the_house has 262k IG followers. Her shop DesignStoreyShop is an edited curation of the interiors stores designed to highlight the best of what is available with notes on how to style it in your own home.
Sarah Spiteri
Award-winning editor and journalist Sarah Spiteri is editorial director of all the Future homes magazine brands, including Homes & Gardens, Livingetc, Ideal Home and Country Homes & Interiors.
Ben Spriggs
Ben Spriggs is the UK editor of ELLE Decoration, the worldâs bestselling interiors magazine. With almost 20 yearsâ experience of lifestyle, interiors and design journalism, he has divided his career between newspapers and print magazines.
Having held senior roles at The Sunday Times Style, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, Ben also worked on the UK launch of InStyle, Livingetc and edited Real Homes. He has spent much of the last ten years driving the ELLE Decoration brand in the UK and took over the editorship in July 2017.
Robert Stilin
Robert Stilin is known for effortlessly combining crisp, clean architecture with custom upholstery, antique and vintage furniture and modern and contemporary art to create casually elegant homes that are warm, comfortable and very livable. With over 25 years of experience running his own design firm, the New York and Hamptons based designer has built a solid reputation as a highly versatile interior designer whose classically modern work is custom tailored to the needs of each client and project.
Completed projects include a duplex penthouse on Fifth Avenue, a family compound in Louisville, Kentucky, an ocean front beach house in the Hamptons and duplex penthouse in the West Village for a young family. Current projects include an ocean front home in Palm Beach, a farmhouse in Connecticut, an executive office in Seattle and a contemporary estate in Bel Air.
He was named one of Elle Decorâs top 25 A-List Designerâs in 2010, and each year subsequently. Robert was named to Architectural Digestâs Top 100 designers in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Robert is an avid art collector and serves on the Directorâs Council at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Emily Todhunter
Emily Todhunter is a British interior designer and co-founder of Todhunter Earle Interiors.
Emily studied philosophy and psychology at Bristol University, training in her spare time with the legendary colourist and specialist painter, Jim Smart, who had painted some of the great British rooms designed by John Fowler. After graduating, Emily set up her own paint effects business and shortly afterwards moved to New York where she was asked by Howard Stein, of Xenon fame, to create the feel of a St Jamesâs club in his nightclub, Au Bar. This brought public attention and, though only then twenty-three, her work was featured in the New York Times, Vanity Fair and many other publications. âDesigns by Emilyâ was incorporated in Delaware in 1986 and Emily Todhunter Designs in London in 1989. Commissions followed in the US including the Bel Air mansion for the industrial buccaneer Gordon White, Baron White of Hull. A move back to London in 1990 saw more exciting commissions, including an apartment for the Spectator columnist Taki Theodoracopulos, Sissinghurst castle for Nigel Nicholson and fashionable restaurants Daphneâs in Chelsea and Christopherâs in Covent Garden. In 1994, she founded Todhunter Earle Interiors with Kate Earle.
Claire Vallis
Claire Vallis, has been creative director of Sanderson Design Group for five years. Steering the art direction and utilising the brilliance of our extensive archive by taking influences from the past to evolve new collections for today. At the helm of seven brands, Claire guides the studio team to bring something new to the market as part of every launch.
Diane von Furstenberg
Diane von Furstenberg is a fashion designer and founder of her global brand, DVF. Her iconic wrap dress became a symbol of power and independence. As a passionate advocate and philanthropist, she created the DVF Awards that support women for their courage, strength, and leadership. In 2019 she was inducted into the National Womenâs Hall of Fame honouring women who changed the course of history. She has written several books including, The Woman I Wanted To Be, appears in seven languages. Own It: The Secret To Life, published by Phaidon, launched in 2021.
Rebecca Weir
Rebecca Weir is creative director and founder of Light IQ. Rebeccaâs passion for lighting and her ability to harness and maximise the creative potential of light, to explore and push the boundaries of illumination has led to the successful completion of over 1,200 award-winning residential and commercial projects worldwide.
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Edward Watson
Edward Watson MBE is a British ballet dancer. He is a principal dancer and coach with the Royal Ballet in London.