Simple opulence

Kelly Hoppen is a household name in the UK, as much for her vast range of designer products adorned with her monochromatic logo as for her ever lengthening list of celebrity clients, which at the last count included Victoria Beckham, Gary Rhodes and of course, her stepdaughter Sienna Miller. CID met up with Hoppen at the launch of her latest ‘simple but opulent' designs at Harvey Nichols in Dubai.

CID: So how did you get into design at 16½ years old?

It's simple really, my father had died, I ran away, came back and basically somebody offered me a job and I did it, and from there I built a multimillion pound business.

Don't ask me how I did it, but I did it. I think at 16 you're fearless, I didn't want to go back to school, I happened to get an incredible second job, the first job was very small but I did it very well then it was word of mouth and then suddenly I was making money.

CID: What were your first design jobs?

The first job was a kitchen and the builders on the job liked a drink, they kept hanging everything upside down, it is absolutely true. And then I got a job doing a racing driver's five-storey house in Chelsea. They saw my flat and they loved it - I guess I just had style. I was very lucky with some of the clients I worked for in the early days, they're all very well-known and when I look back it's quite funny. There were actors coming in to my studio on motorbikes and grumpy racing drivers and little old me, at 17½ and I think you're not fazed by it, if you don't know any different. And celebrity wasn't any big thing like it is now, I'd be like, ‘oh yes, I've seen you on telly,' but I wouldn't care.

CID: How has your style evolved in your 25 year career?

It's softer, more feminine. I used to hate round shapes, and now I use them a lot. I do things in interiors that I never would have dreamed doing ten years ago.

CID: What are you working on at the moment?

I run six businesses. The main one is interiors, and we are doing about 40 projects around the world, as far as New Zealand. Then the publishing side, we are doing a new book in September, and we just got the figures back from the book I've got out now, and we've sold 180,000 copies in 18 months. We're working on a TV show that will be worldwide, we've got the BHS high street collection which is in 130 stores across Britain, which is doing phenomenally well, then I launched the Design School and I also have the products. So six different things, but all under one umbrella. I try not to think about it to be honest, because if I do I think, ‘ahhhh! How do I manage that?'

CID: How do you design such a vast range of products?

If I want to design a particular product I could phone up any company and they'd do a line with me, but I tend not to do that. We've just launched the Wedgwood collection, which is absolutely stunning and we've been working with them for several years now. With paint, that was a license that I did years ago, and I never thought it would be a big license, but we sell over 2 million pounds of paint a year, with over 18 colours, and I'm launching a new range called ‘The Perfect Neutrals'.

CID: How do you decide what area you branch out in?

You don't. How do you decide that you're going to wear pink that day? You just see it and decide to wear it. I'm a great believer in fate and syncro-destiny and that you meet people and things evolve for a reason.

I believe that if you want something bad enough you can make it happen, and all the things that have happened in my life have happened because I've been in the right place, I've met someone, I've had an idea, I'm good at putting things together.

CID: Is there any thing that you haven't done yet that you'd like to?

There are a million things that I would like to do and produce but will I do it? I don't know. I'm very keen to do this TV show. The show is my show, it's being written by someone very big in television, we're just coming up with the concept at the moment. But it will be about home, interiors and reality, that sort of thing.

CID: Like an interior design advice show?

[She shakes her head] I'm not going to speak about it because someone will nick the idea it's so brilliant.

CID: You've recently completed a restaurant in London for celebrity chef Gary Rhodes, what is that like?

The brief was French/ English so I wanted to make it very eclectic. The chairs in the waiting area are all grafittied with his menu and it's also got an Eastern element with screens. I had absolutely stunning chandeliers made in crystal and all these amazing mirrors that are wrapped in velvet. It's very luxurious. The press have gone crazy for it in England.

CID: How much say did he have in the interior design of his restaurant?

I had to understand the food he was going to serve and understand him, like I would any client who says ‘this is the way I want to live,' it's the same thing.

CID: Where does your inspiration come from?

Somewhere. I just do it. I do so many projects I just wake up in the morning and feel inspired. I design everyday. People say to me, where do you get the inspiration from? And I just do.

CID: Do you carry a notebook with you to jot down ideas?

No, it's all in my head. Travelling, shoe shopping, going and having my hair done, whatever I'm doing I'll see something that inspires me. Say for example a colour, I just saw an ochre yellow sofa next door and I thought, how would that look with taupe? So it's not the design of things, it's a fraction of things. That's how my brain works, it triggers something else that I've seen, which triggers something else. I have a brain that is constantly going and I might pull something from here, from there and then I have this whole thing to work on.

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