International Women’s Day: The visionary designers you should know

International Women’s Day on 8 March marks a moment for women to be celebrated in every way possible. When I consider my own design-hungry nature, I can’t help but revel in the brilliance of the women in my life, reminded that my own tastes are a mosaic of everyone and everything I’ve ever loved – especially them. After all, my mum picked out the blushing, gingerbreaded Victorian home I grew up in. My dad had reluctantly asked: “Are we really putting an offer in on the Barbie Dreamhouse?” Looking up at the home for the first time in all her pink glory, the colour of strawberry ice cream melting on searing pavement, little did I know I’d form an attachment and grow up to look for pink houses in each corner of the world I’d come to visit and live. Likewise, I have an unwavering affinity for Toile de Jouy patterned fabrics because the window seat I adored in my childhood best friend’s bedroom was upholstered in it, but I digress.

Looking towards the design world at large, it is female tastemakers and visionaries who defined aesthetic and material culture as we know it. Martin Waller, founder of global design house, Andrew Martin, says: “Perhaps no profession has been shaped so much by women as interior design. In the 19th century, decoration had been overseen by the male-dominated upholstery retailers and cabinet makers. The result was the heavy, dark, masculine interiors that we associate with the Victorian era. Then, in 1874, Agnes Garrett and her cousin Rhoda Garrett established Britain’s first women-run interior design company. They became not only the most influential female decorators of the age (with a bestselling interior design guide), but they’re also two of the most significant and articulate campaigners in the fight for women’s suffrage.”

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Carefully preserved in the archives of University of London’s Senate House Library is an ornate ceiling hand-painted by Agnes and Rhoda, which dates back to 1875. The design has a deep border of blooming flower bouquets, cherubs playing musical instruments, and fanciful birds alongside portraits of well known artists – a stark departure from Victorian gloom. This archived ceiling is the largest surviving preserved piece of their interior design work.

Waller continues: “Nobody had such a dramatic effect on global design as Elsie de Wolfe. Her light and airy decoration of the Colony Club – the first women’s social club in America – on Madison Avenue in 1907 was a radical reimagination of how an interior could look with women at the centre. She once said, ‘It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our homes.’”

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Instead of imitating the heavy atmosphere of men’s clubs, De Wolfe introduced a laid-back, feminine style peppered with glazed chintz, pale walls, tiled floors, light draperies, 18th-century French vanity tables, wicker chairs and trellised walls. Her extraordinary career brought a clientele that included Vanderbilts, Morgans, Rothschilds, Fricks, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Oh, and “she also served as a nurse in the First World War, and invented the pink lady cocktail (1/3 gin, 1/3 grapefruit juice, 1/3 Cointreau),” Waller adds.

“In 1915, 10 of the 127 interior decorators listed in the London Directory were women. Now, 67 per cent of all interior decorators are women,” concludes Waller. One of whom is illustrious designer and hotelier, Anouska Hempel, who pioneered the boutique hotel concept with her seminal, Blakes, which opened in London in 1978. Before her, the luxury hotel model was to homogenise rooms. Hempel’s unrivalled hideaways are characterised by glimmering bohemian excess and inspired by a well-worn passport. In 2022, she was awarded the very first Lifetime Achievement Award in the annual Andrew Martin International Interior Designer of the Year celebration – which is recognised as the Oscars of the interiors industry. Hempel is still designing today and tells me that she’s currently working on Merano Garden – a whimsical private oasis encased by the Italian Alps and lined with mulberries, hornbeams, topiaries and birdcages. She is also busy reimagining the interiors of Sounion II – a 1968 Benetti Yacht which she’s infusing with Japanese-influence, employing lacquered wood panelling and drill fabrics throughout.

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London-based designer to the stars, Naomi Astley Clarke, spent much of her childhood reconfiguring the furniture in her bedroom, obsessed with the pursuit of beautiful interiors. Now, having worked in the industry for 25 years, she is one of London’s most sought-after designers. Characterised by the use of exuberant hand-painted walls and rich colour across bespoke joinery, Astley Clarke describes her uplifting approach as “timelessly elegant without taking itself too seriously”. She tells me: “Interior design and the curatorship of one’s home, unlike the majority of professions, has long been championed by women such as the likes of Sibyl Colefax and Syrie Maugham. I feel so lucky to be in an industry that is surrounded by so many talented and inspirational women.” When asked about her current design icon, Naomi says: “At the moment, because inspiration waxes and wanes which is undoubtedly part of its beauty, I am loving the work of Brigette Romanek” – a self-taught and wildly imaginative Los Angeles-based decorator.

Géraldine B Prieur – founder of French design “house of glam”, Rouge Absolu – conjures up sanctuaries of boundless maximalism. An anti-conformist, Prieur stands opposed to the uniformity and blandness of the age, asserting a joyful, unwaveringly graphic style with conviction. Her own quirky family nest in Paris features traditional Haussmannian architecture, such as original 1860 stained glass windows, mouldings, fireplaces, and parquet flooring, which she has extravagantly outfitted in tones of Prussian blue, a bespoke pink she created called Rose Pommette, and lemon yellow, and punctuated with irreverent furnishings such as a stiletto-shaped chair she found in a Paris flea market. She explains: “I firmly believe that colours significantly impact people’s mood, so I try to improve everyday life through my projects.”

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Designer and architect, Anna von Schewen, founded her studio in 1997 in Stockholm. Since, she has collaborated with some of Sweden’s leading furniture companies, most recently on the reimagining of String Furniture’s Pira system – a mid-century shelving icon with clean lines and a light frame, which Mick Jagger proudly displayed in his London flat. Von Schewen has co-designed Pira G2, for which the ambition was never to design a retro-style piece of furniture, but rather to investigate the typology of the floor-to-ceiling shelf and embrace the core idea behind the original design – ultimately bringing a rock-royalty favourite up to date. Her Excellent Swedish Design Award-winning designs are featured in permanent collections across the world’s major modern art and design museums.

Lastly, perhaps the most famous woman architect of her time, Iraqi-born British architect, Zaha Hadid left an indelible mark on the architectural landscape with avant-garde designs such as the London Olympic Aquatics Centre, the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the Guangzhou Opera House. Hadid challenged the notion of geometry in architecture, opting for futuristic curvaceous facades and severe materials, creating gravity-defying structures which grace the skylines of major metropolitan cities. She received numerous prestigious awards over the course of her career, including having been the first woman to win the esteemed Pritzker Architecture Prize and the first to receive the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to architecture. The design world came to a standstill at news of her premature passing in March 2016.