Reader event: Alidad on four decades of bringing the past to life through furniture, textiles, colour, craftsmanship and texture

A classically inspired scheme created for a client by Alidad.

(Image credit: Alidad)

published 19 June 2024

Antique furniture, textiles and treasured collections bring both mood and interest to a space. Yet creating interiors with a sense of the past doesn’t only require a deep understanding of history — but also colour, craftsmanship and texture. It was that creative challenge that attracted designer Alidad to his profession more than 40 years ago. This year, his huge contribution to the interiors world will be celebrated with an invitation to create the Legend Room at WOW!house, the biggest and most inspiring design event of the summer, held at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour.

Alidad is creating the room in collaboration with the historic textile, wallcovering and passementerie specialist Watts 1874, founded by the Victorian architects George Frederick Bodley, George Gilbert Scott and Thomas Garner, which has worked at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire and Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. Raised in Iran, Alidad started his career at Sotheby’s, where he specialised in Islamic art and textiles.

After setting up an interior-design studio in 1985, his work caught the eye of Min Hogg, founding editor of The World of Interiors magazine, and he gained a reputation for creating highly layered schemes inspired by his interest in 18th- and 19th-century European art and architecture, as well as a host of other styles, including Islamic design, chinoiserie and Art Deco. He has been commissioned to design houses in London, Paris, Beirut and Kuwait, as well as to restore the interior of Buscot Park, a National Trust house in Oxfordshire.

Alidad will be in discussion with Giles Kime, Country Life’s Executive Editor, and will explain how he takes inspiration from a wide range of historic influences to create distinctive interiors. The talk is part of a programme of events in June that will feature several of the 20 designers at WOW!House, including Charlotte Freemantle, Guy Goodfellow, Katharine Pooley, Lucy Hammond Giles, Romanos Brihi, Suzy Hoodless and Veere Grenney.

History in the making: The WOW!House Event

When: June 25, 2pm Where: Design Club, Third Floor, South Dome, Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 Tickets: £5; visit www.dcch.co.uk

Credit: Getty Images

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Giles Kime is Country Life's Executive and Interiors Editor, an expert in interior design with decades of experience since starting his career at The World of Interiors magazine. Giles joined Country Life in 2016, introducing new weekly interiors features, bridging the gap between our coverage of architecture and gardening. He previously launched a design section in The Telegraph and spent over a decade at Homes & Gardens magazine (launched by Country Life's founder Edward Hudson in 1919). A regular host of events at London Craft Week, Focus, Decorex and the V&A, he has interviewed leading design figures, including Kit Kemp, Tricia Guild, Mary Fox Linton, Chester Jones, Barbara Barry and Lord Snowdon. He has written a number of books on interior design, property and wine, the most recent of which is on the legendary interior designer Nina Campbell who last year celebrated her fiftieth year in business. This Autumn sees the publication of his book on the work of the interior designer, Emma Sims-Hilditch. He has also written widely on wine and at 26, was the youngest ever editor of Decanter Magazine. Having spent ten years restoring an Arts & Crafts house on the banks of the Itchen, he and his wife, Kate, are breathing life into a 16th-century cottage near Alresford that has remained untouched for almost half a century.