India Mahdavi

We bestowed this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award on Paris-based IranianEgyptian designer India Mahdavi for her acute and sensitive use of colour, a skill that has inspired a more joyous, human-centric approach to spatial design worldwide. At heart, hers is an intuitive process, guided by her multicultural background – she was born in Tehran in 1962 and spent time in the US, Germany and France as a child before settling in the latter.

Mahdavi has earned her title as the undisputed Queen of Colour, honing her mastery of hue to the highest degree and creating some of the most visually recognizable spaces of our time. It took Mahdavi a month to decide on the rosy pink that characterized her most famous project, Insta-favourite London restaurant Sketch. First opened in 2014, the space is now enrobed in golden yellow, which she sees as a natural evolution in light of our post-pandemic need for intimacy and warmth. Mahdavi’s mood-driven approach to colour – one that responds to today’s anxiety-ridden, digital-first times – is indicative of her broader attitude to the tool, a purveyor of joy and sensuality alike.

Mahdavi’s expert wielding of colour’s power to enrich our physical world –and our experience of it – is precisely why we named her FRAME’s 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Since opening her eponymous studio in 1999, she’s lent her sensitivity – one that melds with, never overpowers, the needs of the client – to projects all over the world, from Cavallino restaurant at Ferrari’s home base in Italy to global Ladurée outposts and the Monte-Carlo Beach Monaco hotel. Other clients include Louis Vuitton, Valentino and Nespresso.

We sat down with Mahdavi to hear why and how to integrate more colour into interiors, whether working with colour is a talent or can be learned, and how interior designers can help time-honoured artisans adapt and survive.

Interview Tracey Ingram