-
Style Icons : Catherine Raphaely -
Style Icons : Author, Paul Duncan -
Style Icons : From the Boyd Ferguson chapter. He says "I have an incredible for telling the African story. And each time it's told it needs to be new". -
Style Icons : Catherine Raphaely says she fell into the safari business because of a man. -
Style Icons : Catherine Raphaely says she gets great pleasure from visual things, and from what we can see she must really enjoy her work... -
Style Icons : The work of Julian and Trevyn McGowan of Source embraces Africa at its finest. -
Style Icons : Boyd Ferguson says he is mostly inspired by nature. -
Style Icons : Trevyn and Julian McGowan say they are designers, but not of one specific thing. -
Style Icons : Boyd Ferguson's work around Africa inspires, and in this book the reader gets a chance to find what went on in Boyd's head before work commenced. -
Style Icons : The book to watch out for.
WORDS: Remy Raitt | PHOTOS: Courtesy of Random House Struik
South Africa’s top interior designers and decorators have been hand-picked by author Paul Duncan and neatly bound up in the first local book celebrating creatives in this field, aptly titled Style Icons: Top South African Designers & their Interiors.
Paul, former editorial director at Condé Nast Independent Magazines and former editor of Condé Nast’s House & Garden, is currently Head of Design for Homeware at Woolworths. He spent a year compiling and writing this 192-page coffee table book, which will make the perfect gift for anyone with a love for interiors.
Paul said he took on this book because the work of these decorators has never been properly shown off. “Oddly, they’re a group of talented people whose work hasn’t really been celebrated other than in South African decorating magazines. And because I knew their work first-hand, I also realised that there’s a story to tell: while their work is stylistically individual, collectively – and unconsciously – they all have the same springing point and, in the end, are searching for the same thing. This ‘thing’ is authenticity.”
A fresh and varied bunch of interior professionals were chosen, both well and lesser known to the South African public. The twelve icons are Stephen Falcke, Boyd Ferguson, John Jacob Zwiegelaar, Graham Viney, Catherine Raphaely, Charlotte Daneel, Julian and Trevyn McGowan, Karen Roos, Maira Koutsoudakis, Michele Throssell, Stefan Antoni and Toni Tollman.
Paul says his choice of decorators was based on the fact that their work moves people at a time when the world is looking for substance. “There’s an expansive, emotionally connected quality that’s in evidence in all their work and I wanted to draw attention to it.”
VISI shot a few questions at Paul to find out more on his take on design…
Who is your ultimate style icon?
A man called Willie Landels who was the founder-editor of Harpers & Queen magazine in the UK. He was my mentor. He introduced me to interiors, decorating, cabbages as tabletop decoration, Roman palaces and the Maharani of Jaipur. He also told me that you can always tell a gentleman by the quality of his trays.
Your favourite decor / design store in South Africa?
Private Collections, Hans Niehaus, Obelisk… there are many – and they’re sources for decorating rather than decorating stores.
And abroad?
ABC Carpet & Home in New York
Your top design destination?
City: Rome. Country: India
The designer item you most desire?
I’m not switched on by designer items. I’d rather have a wonderful old chair or an ancient piece of decorated Roman pottery.
Your personal decor style?
It’s non-decorated decorating. I live with a layering of textures, periods of things and tones of a single colour. My interiors are resonant with the passage of time.
The most stylish couch out there?
A neo-classical one made for me by John Jacob Interiors.
Your favourite colour for the season?
Tobacco, and old gold.
Young designer to watch?
John Jacob Zwiegelaar at John Jacob Interiors.
One tip to update a space for summer?
Mix and match colour and print, shape and scale.
Struik is giving away three copies of Style Icons: Top South African Designers & their Interiors to three lucky VISI readers! To stand a chance to win, email your name and contact details to web@visi.co.za by 31 October 2011.
Style Icons: Top South African Designers & their Interiors is published by Random House Struik and will be available for purchase in October for R330. Download the chapter on Julian and Trevyn McGowan and view more info on http://randomstruik.co.za.
