I was recently asked a rather seemingly simple question of 'who are my favorite interior designers,' and I had to really thing about it. It is very hard to distinguish one individual who does everything "right" in my eyes,when design is a world of "the eye of the beholder." After mulling the question over, I really got to thinking about who has a specific aesthetic that stands out among the rest. In my opinion, there are few people that really are artists; who create something a little unexpected, ever evolving, and inspire others. In any case, I came up with a few visionaries that I would move right into anything they come up with.
The first designer that always comes to mind is the great Kelly Wearstler, she is a trendsetter, plain and simple. I mean the girl literally marches to her own beat. Remember when Hollywood Regency style made a HUGE comeback?? Everyone was on Craigslist searching for anything Greek key, brass or something with those lines to paint a bright cheery color. Then whenever we all thought that was the greatest thing ever, she changed things up and started dipping into retro 1980's overstuffed furniture and bold marbles. I like to think of her as High Fashion meets Interior Design.
Ms. Wearstler evolves on to not only a fabric designer (come on who didn't have some sort of Imperial Trellis something???), to clothing, jewelry and sculpture. Like I said, a complete visionary, that mark my words, everyone will be clamoring over her designs years after she's already in the groove.
Then I started to think a little more locally. In Houston, a household name is Sally Wheat. Sally has gone from the very beginning of the French Country/ Belgian Design to Modern to Classic and is also ever changing her aesthetic. Many of Kitchens have been inspired by her personal Kitchen and I would love to pick her brain about her adorable courtyard. Wheat's aesthetic is what I like to call Casual Class.
And last one off of the top of my head, is local here in the Dallas area, none other than Gary Riggs. I recently visited his North Dallas store that took over two retail locations and uber amounts of square footage-- Oh! and I saw him in action taking super precaution in where things were located in his store, and artist at work!
Gary's style is something that I like to call Southern Layers. Super eclectic, colorful, charming, collected, and with a little southern twist. His designs are super energetic with tons to look at, and the man wrote the book on pattern play.
