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Nancy Cunard, the so-called “renegade heiress”, elegant, brilliant, if not ultimately self-destructive, having survived the dark years of fascism and war, this extraordinary and wildly unconventional child of privilege, a vocal and vociferous supporter of the disenfranchised, proved too progressive for her peers, abandoned even by the supposed avant-garde.

In the ever-shifting contemporary landscape, in the context of fashion and design, the question of what qualifies as "art", is less a matter of definitive classification and more a matter of context, execution, and the cultural or historical lens through which it is viewed. To state that "anything can be art" is not a trite dismissal of boundaries but rather an assertion of the fluidity between forms, whether it be decoration, problem-solving, or pure expression.

There are very few creatives under forty that stand out for doing anything truly different, and as such, one has to question what the design world will look like in another decade or so. Perhaps we should strike while the iron’s hot, galvanizing ourselves against Labour’s imminent budget by buying shares in bouclé, Venetian plaster and chalk paint, in readiness for another onslaught of ton sur ton interiors; or rather, embrace and encourage those doing something a little different.

PEOPLE 

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Saman Amel have launched a flagship London atelier; and with an approach akin to Gertrude Stein, they intend to use the space as a platform for expressing their innate passion for art and design. Generations of young creatives “found” their place within Stein’s illustrious salons, a synergistic environment where, crucially, ideas were exchanged face to face, first-hand. Similarly, Saman Amel hope to foster an environment where customers can come together for thematic exhibitions and soirées, with the hope of promoting conversations beyond clothes.

With such a rich history of art and design, interweaving as it does, different eras and epochs, from Elsie de Wolfe and Jean-Michel Frank to the influence of exiled European avant-garde artists, and gallerists such as Peggy Guggenheim, it should come as little surprise that a new generation of New York decorators are taking inspiration from the past. As such, we spoke to Sebastian Zuchowicki about coquille d’œuf marquetry, the rise and rise of the celebrity interior stylist and, perhaps more pressingly, his abiding love for lampshades.

It might come as little surprise that for a recently completed townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Italian-born architect Achille Salvagni was influenced not only by the work of New York native Rosario Candela, but cites Jean-Michel Frank, who designed the now iconic Rockefeller penthouse, as a key source of inspiration. We caught up at his London atelier, to discuss cannibals from Fiji, bespoke London tailoring and the teahouse of Villa Albani.

Upon entering the burnt-brick hues of the hotel’s Neo-Greek lobby, one quickly loses all sense of the outside world, entering a richly layered mise-en-scène, a throwback to a golden age of luxury. Beguiled by its inherent charm, I met the designer, François-Joseph Graf, for a tour, after which, we discussed his influences and inspirations, the decorators he most admires, and more pressing concerns, such as where to get the best steak tartare and frog legs in Paris.

“Hotel Château Voltaire is anything but a decoration,” explains Thierry Gillier, “It is a place of today to be experienced today by people of today.” With that in mind, we spoke to Charlotte de Tonnac and Hugo Sauzay of Festen architecture, not only about their design for this 32-room five-star Paris hotel, but also their likes, dislikes and, in the case of the former, a long-harboured desire to moonlight as a dancer.

We spoke to Andrea Bokobsa, co-founder of Pied-A-Terre Paris, about his passion for art and design (in part inspired by his mother, a former designer for Baby Dior and Bonpoint) and where he hopes to take the company in coming years