Kelly Hoppen interview: The interior design entrepreneur tells us why she’s gone all retro
Kelly Hoppen tells me that she’s gone all retro: basketry chairs, bold fabrics, colour, leaf. Does this mean that the queen of taupe, corkscrew– curled Hoppen is turning hippie?
“Homes are becoming much more loose,” she says, citing the OTT banana–leaf wallpaper, as seen in the Beverly Hills Hotel, that she says is coming back. “I will always do the neutrals, but it’s putting in splashes of colour and using very bold fabrics as one-off accent pieces. I like the way a neutral room feels and then the way a colour will sharpen it.”
An author, MBE and ambassador for Brand Britain, Hoppen has never been so busy. And there is clearly a Hoppen lifestyle that goes along with the design style – she looks glowing, fit and toned, with a steely passion for her work.
I’m an entrepreneur as well as a business woman but first and foremost my passion is design.”
Of course we know her cool, calm and considered persona from two series of Dragons’ Den. The two programmes are “chalk and cheese”, she says of the business show vs Great Interior Design Challenge. “Dragons’ Den is about people coming in and shaking at the knees and asking for money, whereas the GIDC is all about design. I’m an entrepreneur as well as a business woman but first and foremost my passion is design.”
She needed no leg-up from investors nor the banks – her wealthy bohemian London upbringing gave her celebrity connections, and as a teenager she renovated a house in swanky The Boltons for the racing driver Guy Edwards, and designed a flat for Professionals actor Martin Shaw (she later became step-mum to Sienna Miller). In 1975, she founded her studio.
A trademark neutral bathroom design by Kelly Hoppen
Today, she has 48 projects happening worldwide, among them yacht interiors, hotels, boutiques and private residences (the Beckhams are fans and friends), and her work spans myriad collaborations and licensing deals, from high–end baths with Apaiser, to rugs with Brintons and glasses with Boots.
But, tune in to the shopping channel QVC and, low and behold, you will find her jewellery and homewares at mass-market prices. Successfully bridging high/low is surely a nifty tightrope to walk? “You have to start at the top, and once you are established, then you can filter down,” she says. In 2014 she began the Kelly Hoppen London collection of homewares.
“We launched kellyhoppen.com as an online store, so that people can ‘get the look for less’,” she says. She likens it to the fashion world, where as soon as the designers have finished a catwalk show, similar looks appear on the high street. “That’s the way of the world, so now if you want the Kelly Hoppen look you can go and find it.” She was not prepared to leave the imitation game wide open.
Kelly Hoppen
She thinks a fifth series of GIDC is likely. “It’s an uplifting show,” she says. “I didn’t want to come across as hard, but being constructive and guiding people and giving them hope, because there is an opportunity in this country for people to become interior designers. As a country we support new young businesses.”
Homewares from kellyhoppen.com; commissions and concierge at kellyhoppeninteriors.com
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