Once upon a time long long ago I had dreams of becoming an Architect. I use to render tons and tons of dream homes and floor plans at my drafting desk in which my parents bought me one Christmas along with a fresh set of prism color markers that came in a holder that spun around (I miss that table). Anyhow, I started writing Architects in what had to be the 6th grade, asking them for advice on colleges and portfolio preparation. I would flip through the pages of the Architectural Digest that my parents subscribed to just for me! (ahem, yes I was in the 6th grade reading Architectural Digest:). I would jot down the names of all of the Architects that I liked. Well to make a long story short, I received some fantastic responses from some of my favorite and influential designers that really did inspire me to reach for my dream. Although, once I reached high school I decided that architecture was not my cup of tea(much to technical & detail oriented), so I turned my eye to Interior Design, and once again I flipped through Architectural Digest (because in the 90’s there were not nearly as many design magazines as there are now) and wrote down all of the Designers names. So I thought it would be fun to highlight a couple of them who I remember being ecstatic about & who took the time out of their busy schedules to write a young lady who they had never met back with autographed catalogs and solid words of advice.
First off is Architect Steven Ehrlich. I still love his contemporary style…clean lines, and industrious organic color palettes. Simple, modern, and super fresh!
Next is Designer Juan Montoya of New York. I must say that the majority of his decorating style is no longer of my personal taste, however I wanted to highlight him because he played a major role in the Interior Design industry and like I said, I was truly stoked about receiving a letter back from him!
So, that’s all. I want to give a big thanks to Juan and Steven for giving a young girl great design to be inspired by! I received many more, but these two had the most up to date sites/portfolios to highlight, after all it was in the 90’s when I wrote them. Another Designer who wrote me back was Janet Bussell, who was the Designer for Chers Malibu home. I was really excited about that one! Oh, and by the way, I did not do Interior Design either…in the end, I found my passion in Textile & Fibers! It fulfills all of the artistic ideas that are dancing around in my head…Go figure! But obviously I still carry a special love for all things interior and architecturally inspiring and will still sketch up an imaginary floor plan or residential design in a heartbeat!
