Background
With degrees in architecture & industrial, graphic and furniture design, India Mahdavi started her career as artistic director for Christian Liaigre, with whom she worked for seven years. In 2000, she founded her namesake design studio and, shortly after, she opened a showroom and a homeware store in Paris. Known for her many international projects, her restaurants and hotels have set the standard in hospitality design: the On Rivington in New York, the Café Français and Le Germain in Paris, the Apogée Courchevel in the Alps, the Monte-Carlo Bach Hotel in Monaco, and the Sketch Gallery and the Connaught-Coburg bar in London. She has also designed a collection of objects for Monoprix, the Red Valentino stores, and Ladurée in LA. India has partnered with our co-founder Isabelle Dubern to refurbish the private-styling VIP lounge at Le Bon Marché department store, and the Suite at Galeries Lafayette in collaboration with Perrotin art gallery. In 2016, India designed a lovely set of plates for Dior Maison, a collection commissioned by Isabelle who was then Dior Maison artistic director.
Signature Style
Tapping into her European and oriental culture, India has created a unique style that sets her apart as an icon of nomadic chic. Instinctive and free-spirited, her neo-baroque style explores a world of colors, textures, and shapes. Her creative, upbeat, playful, and quirky decors bear an unmistakably distinctive charm of its own.
She loves
The art of combining patterned fabrics, graphic designs and patterns, unique combinations and old-fashioned colors into a very modern mix-and-match assortment.
Our favorite
Her collection of lamps produced by Pouenat. These poetic lamps cast the shadow of the object’s silhouette in a highly graphic play of light.
Designer of the Year – Maison & Objet, 2004
AD 100
ELLE Décor A List