I had no idea that I’d been in love with India Mahdavi’s work since 2014. As soon as Gallery at Sketch London reopened after renovation that year, I knew this was a place I wanted to visit: full of rose pink velvet and chairs that looked like they were made of fluffy biscuits, it seemed a perfect place for cocktails. For some reason, it never occurred me to check, however, who made the chairs and I continued to live in ignorance.

Until last week, when I happened to browse the bottomless abyss that is Instagram and came across this picture. Suddenly, I realised that this pink fantasy had come out of someone’s head and I needed to know who that someone was. Turns out, India Mahdavi is an architect and designer of Iranian-Egyptian origin, currently living in Paris where she has a showroom. She has travelled and worked all over the world, however, including New York, Siwa and Sydney.

While her style has a very strong sense of shape, something one could expect based on her architectural background, she also has the most striking feel for colour and texture. Emerald and chartreuse, purple and lilac, lemon, teal and gold, the colours are wonderful on their own and amazing when combined. One could probably accuse her of being camp, but she has an elegance of touch that reminds me a bit of art deco. And being camp isn’t much of an accusation in my book anyway.

In addition to Sketch, she has recently created a shop/cafe for Laduree – a pretty shrewd hire by Laduree, one has to admit. It looks fantastic and not as pink as you’d expect. I also love her Bishop… chairs? Tables? Decorative elements? Once I own a flock of flamingos, I’ll buy all of them a Bishop to stand on. I’m thinking turquoise. Ot maybe olive. Or yellow. What say you?

Pictures from www.india-mahdavi.com.