British designer David Hicks (1929–1998) wowed the English decorating world with his bold geometric prints, electrifying color combinations, and quirky mix of antique and contemporary furniture.

Thanks to his prodigious talents, his gift for publicity, and his connection to the royal family through his wife, Lady Pamela Mountbatten (cousin of Prince Philip), Hicks attracted an A-list clientele. For decades, Hicks documented every salient moment of his life in scrapbooks, amassing 24 volumes filled with press clippings, invitations, swatches of his signature textiles, sketches of interiors, magazine articles on his projects, and hundreds of photographs, mainly family snapshots but also his own photos of people like Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly, and Andy Warhol. Many of the pages, now thumbed and foxed, are laid out in a collage style, and several are embellished with drawings and notes, revealing Hicks’s thoughts and sense of whimsy. Here, his son, Ashley Hicks, has chosen more than 325 of the best pages — providing not just a window into the extraordinary world of David Hicks but also a fascinating time capsule.

About the Author:

Ashley Hicks, an architect and interior designer, is the author of two books on his father. Since 2003 he has produced a line of fabrics, carpets, and wallpaper called David Hicks by Ashley Hicks. 

Back in print for the first time in years, this classic of interior-design history showcases the masterful work of David Hicks (1929–1998), who is acknowledged as one of the most important designers of the late twentieth century, in the company of Billy Baldwin and Albert Hadley.

Known for his bold use of color, eclecticism, and geometric designs in carpets and textiles, Hicks turned English decorating on its head in the 1950s and ’60s. His trademark use of electrifying color combinations, and mixing antiques, modern furniture, and abstract paintings became the “in style” for the chic of the day, including Vidal Sassoon and Helena Rubinstein. By the 1970s, David Hicks was a brand; his company was making wallpaper, fabrics, and linens and had outposts in eight countries, including the United States where he worked with the young Mark Hampton, and where his wallpaper was used in the White House. “My greatest contribution as an interior designer has been to show people how to use bold color mixtures, how to use patterned carpets, how to light rooms, and how to mix old with new,” he stated in his 1968 work, David Hicks on Living — With Taste, the last authoritative book on his work. Written by his son, Ashley Hicks, with unprecedented access to Hicks’s archives, personal photographs, journals, and scrapbooks, this book is a vibrantly illustrated celebration of a half century of stunning interiors.

About the Author:

Ashley Hicks is a British author, architect, interior and furniture designer, and photographer. He is the son of Lady Pamela Hicks and the legendary decorator David Hicks.

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Пролистать книгу David Hicks: A Life of Design на сайте издательства.

The late David Hicks is one of the great designers of the twentieth century. He is primarily known for his interior design, but he was also involved with carpets, jewellery, fabrics, furniture, wall paper, sheets and, last but not least, gardens. His approach was dictatorial and uncompromising and he did not mince his words. What he seeks to impart in this book is 'style' and it is very much a style of his own.

His clear-cut attitudes are revealed in these writings on garden design and on the gardens and styles which he admires. 'What I have sought to achieve, all through my working life,' he writes 'is a liaison between the past and the present day whilst maintaining a practical but somewhat experimental attitude to outdated tradition. I have attempted to introduce a lot of today and some of tomorrow whilst always keeping appropriateness and the client's requirements foremost in my mind. This applies to my interior designing, product designing, writing, jewellery and garden designing. In every one of those visually dominated activities quality, form and innovation are always of vital importance to produce style.'

My Kind of Garden is superbly illustrated with photographs, by Dana Hyde, of gardens David Hicks designed, and gardens from all around the world which particularly appealed to his very personal sense of good taste.