India Mahdavi facts for kids

India Mahdavi is a famous Iranian-French architect and designer. For over 20 years, she has created amazing spaces. She works on big hotel projects and designs her own furniture. India Mahdavi is often called the "queen of color." She is known for her fun and colorful designs. Her projects include hotels like the Hotel du Cloitre in Arles and the Monte Carlo Beach in Monaco. She also designed the Coburg Bar in London.

Early Life and Learning

India Mahdavi was born in 1962 in Tehran. Her father was Persian and her mother was English-Egyptian. She spent her early years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Her love for color started with Disney movies and cartoons like Bugs Bunny. She even loved the colorful foods in her lunchbox. India remembers her early life in America as "a time of very strong colors."

She grew up in the United States, Germany, and France. Her background and travels greatly influenced her work. She studied architecture at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1980 to 1986. Later, she studied furniture design at Parsons School of Design in New York. She also learned graphic design at the School of Visual Arts.

India Mahdavi met a restaurant owner named Jonathan Morr. He wanted to open a hotel with a small budget. This hotel became the Townhouse Hotel in Miami. India went to Miami and became the designer for its 80 rooms. This was one of her first big projects. It helped her start her career in interior design.

Design Career

After her studies, India Mahdavi returned to France. She worked as an artistic director for Christian Liagre for seven years. In 1997, she decided to start her own business. Today, she has a design studio, a showroom, and a shop. They are all close to each other on Rue des Cases in Paris.

Hotels and Restaurants

Mahdavi's design of Sketch.

Before opening her studio in 2000, India worked on the Townhouse Hotel in Miami in 1999. This hotel had white walls with bright colors. It felt like an "endless summer" getaway. This first hotel showed her main idea: using rich, bold colors that stay popular over time. After Townhouse Miami, she designed many restaurants and bars. These include the Condesa DF Hotel in Mexico City and Le Germain in Paris. Le Germain's restaurant is famous for its 5-meter-tall statue of a woman. India Mahdavi also designed the famous Ladurée restaurants. She designed them in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Geneva. Each Ladurée location has a design with soft pastel colors. These colors are inspired by the style of Marie Antoinette.

In 2014, India Mahdavi designed the Sketch Restaurant in London. This restaurant changes its design every two years. Many people say it is the most shared restaurant on Instagram. India herself called the space "an immersive installation of monochrome thought." She wanted people to feel like they were in a movie there. The walls are covered with 250 drawings by artist David Shrigley.

Shops and Homes

India Mahdavi has also designed many shops and homes. After Sketch became popular, she got chances to design shops for Tod's and RedValentino. She used furniture pieces from her own collection in these shops. Her home designs are also full of color and fun, just like her shops and hotels.

Furniture Design

Soon after starting her studio, India Mahdavi began designing furniture. She opened three showrooms on Rue Las Casas in Paris. The first opened in 2003, and two more in 2011 and 2020. These showrooms show off her furniture and different art setups. Her furniture lines started in 2003 with a small collection. Then, in 2011, she created "Petits Objets" (Small Objects). This collection includes many useful and decorative pieces. They all feature India Mahdavi's special colorful style.

Creative Partnerships

As India Mahdavi became more well-known, she worked with many other designers and brands. In all these projects, you can see her unique rich colors and patterns. One of her first partnerships was with JEM, a jewelry designer, in 2011. She used her architectural ideas to create tiny gold jewelry. After this, India worked with other brands to create ceramics, hardware, and tiles. Some important projects include designs for Louis Vuitton and Nespresso. She also created a paint line with 56 shades with Meriguet-Carrère in 2019. In 2020, she worked with Longwy Enamels. They made her famous Bishop stools, first made in 2003, into fancy flower versions. Her work with Cogolin in 2015 and De Gournay wallpaper in 2020 shows how her style goes beyond her own designs. She sees each partnership as a new chance to create.

Style and Influence

Her Design Style

India Mahdavi's work mixes elegance with playful, cartoon-like colors. She says her background, travels, and design studies shaped her style. Yann Le Coadic, another designer, said, "Every detail of a space India designs is thought out... and yet the overall impression is very natural." He added that India focuses on how people will live in a space.

India says she is like the French word "metissage," meaning a mix of cultures. She explains, "I am a pure product of the Middle East... but I actually got to know my homeland much later." She felt emotional about discovering her roots late in life. She wondered what she missed and how she could bring those elements into her life now.

India Mahdavi is known as the "queen of color." She is famous for her fun colors and always using color in her designs. Ralph Pucci, who shows her colorful furniture, says her "work has humor, but it's not 100 percent humor, which would make it silly. It has sophistication, but it's not 100 percent sophistication, which would make it boring. It's this perfect balance that makes her work original."

Her Impact

Depiction of the Condesa de Mexico City.

One of India Mahdavi's most famous projects is Sketch at the Gallery of London. This project made her very popular on social media. A key part of her design was a soft pink color that covered everything. This included her own "Charlotte" armchair. About the restaurant's huge popularity, India said, "I don't want to sound like I'm boasting, but I changed the way people thought about pink." When asked about her lasting influence as a designer, India replied, "I will probably be remembered as someone who uses color as her own language. The language of freedom. And that is fine with me."

The social media success of her projects, especially Sketch, clearly shows her impact. The soft pink space was full of fun. Its cool yet bright feeling attracted thousands of visitors. They came just to take the perfect picture and share their location online. India Mahdavi truly changed how people see and use color in design.

Influences and Process

When India Mahdavi looks for ideas, she uses the location and her own background. She says she is "polyglot and polychrome." "Polyglot" means she gets ideas from many different cultures and places. "Polychrome" means she is "like a chameleon, always changing color." When choosing colors for a design, India says she likes "when colors swear at each other." To get the cartoon-like look in her designs, she uses bright colors and flat, matte materials. She prefers velvet over cotton or linen because it absorbs the colors she uses.

India Mahdavi believes that "now the only way to be really original is to go to your own library." This means she finds inspiration in less common places. For example, she looks to her birthplace, Tehran, Iran. Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed says India Mahdavi's works are "a form of childlike and joyous orientalism inspired by Iran." He believes she has created a magical image of the East.

Even with the social media success of Sketch, India Mahdavi says social media does not influence her work. Instead, she says her Instagram-worthy spaces come from her love for movies. India Mahdavi grew up loving films. At age 17, she watched movies three times a day. She especially studied how the scenes looked. When she started architecture school, she didn't love it. She even thought about designing movie sets. Now, as a designer, India Mahdavi says she "trained her eye to work like a camera."

Awards

• Officier des Arts et des Lettres 2015
• Architectural Digest's 2014 AD100 list
• AD Spain's AD Award 2014
• Designer of the Year by Maison et Objet 2004

Books by India Mahdavi