Art deco on my mind

Barbara Hulanicki, 71, was born in Poland and grew up in England. In 1964 she founded Biba, the famous London boutique, with her late husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon. In 1987 she moved to Miami Beach and developed a second career as an award- winning interior and exterior designer. She was a prime mover in the refurbishment of Miami Beach’s art deco hotel district.

You’ve lived in Miami since the late 1980s. What attracted you to the city?

In the late 1960s the only direct flight [from London] to the sun was to Miami Beach. I was fascinated by the Morris Lapidus-designed hotels filled with Sopranos-type characters and their busty, blonde girlfriends sizzling around the pool, clad in leopard-skin bikinis, gold stiletto mules and coral lipstick. Down at the south end of the beach was a decaying art deco Ocean Drive full of impoverished retirees from Detroit and other blue-collar cities. In the late 1980s I was asked to design a hotel, Woody’s on the Beach, for Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones so Fitz and I leapt at the chance to return to this eccentric city. We came to stay for six months and never left Florida.

Was it a big contrast to living in London in the Swinging Sixties?

Our second encounter with Miami Beach was quite different to the first. It had an “anything goes” attitude and felt very like the 1960s in London. It was the era of [the film] Scarface. The deco buildings were crumbling and the retirees on their way to heaven would gather on the grass along the beach-front. In the late afternoon you could see old people seated in circles, singing eastern European songs accompanied by ukuleles. It was too dangerous to go out at night. It was the business hour for drug dealers and they congregated in the back-alleys of the dingy hotels. Miamians from the mainland were too scared to set foot on the beach. Today on the beach the Scarface image is just a print on a best-selling T-shirt.

Do you miss London?

I miss my English friends and all of the Biba people. I frequently return to London to re-charge.

It’s impossible to think of Biba without conjuring up art deco images. What do you love about the style?

The building of Woody’s went on for two years. During that time Europeans arrived in droves, attracted to the small scale of the deco buildings. The atmosphere reminded Fitz and I of the barren High Street Kensington in London in the 1960s. The deco period is imprinted on my mind. As a 13-year-old I loved, and lived through, films from the 1930s. I was always told by my aunt, who was frozen in that period, how sad it was that we had been born in the wrong era and how we had missed the good old days of the 1930s.

After Biba you developed a career as a designer.

When Woody’s was finally finished I received job after job for clubs and restaurants. I would take a walk on the sand and come back with a couple of new jobs. Then one day I met [Island Records founder] Chris Blackwell through his art director, Tony Wright, because I was designing costumes for one of Chris’s bands. Tony asked me if I would like to design a hotel. So I met Chris and, to my disappointment, he asked me to design a corridor. Being a cautious man, he tests people out first. The corridor led to a refurbishment of his apartment and then The Marlin, the first boutique hotel in Miami, which became a mecca for musicians. Chris then bought a job lot of 12 dilapidated hotels and the work just went on.

Did you remodel your own home before moving in?

I didn’t need to do that. Fitz and I fell in love with the first Miami Beach re-development project, a deco apartment building. It was such a joy to move from flat to flat as they became vacant. I still live in that same building and have now sampled every floor.

Have you designed your own home furnishings?

Most of my furniture consists of the prototypes I’ve designed for hotel projects. It is a mish-mash of styles but every piece has a good story to tell.

Do you apply the same design criteria to your clients’ homes as you did to your own?

The eclectic collection in my home arises from my attempts to submerge myself completely in my clients’ psyches. Every client is very different so I have to be a chameleon. I try to sense what they want and guide them along as the job progresses. With private clients you must never override their spirit as they will eventually surrender for you. If you try to block them, you’re in trouble. Having worked for myself at Biba for so many years, it was very difficult for me to work for others. With Biba, the client was the public and it was easy to pick up the instant vibe. If it sold well, you were on the right path. It was a bit of a shock when I started designing for clients with commercial properties. I had to go to endless meetings that resolved nothing. I consoled myself that I was being paid to sit and listen to people who were mesmerised by their own voices.

You recently designed a wallpaper collection for interiors retailer Habitat’s UK stores. Do you have plans to retail any more of your designs?

Yes, it’s great to be involved in retail. You get such a high when a product sells well. There is nothing as exhilarating as being on the same wavelength as the public. I’ve recently designed a Biba Home range that will launch in the US next year.

You’ve also designed costumes for the stage and films throughout your career. Do these relate in any way to your home furnishing designs?

I try to set aside time for costumes whenever I can. In the early days in Miami I hand-made chicken outfits and designed for the entire cast of fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. My ideas just explode when designing costumes but there are only a few people who let you loose on interior design projects in the same way. This is why I love working for Chris Blackwell. He understands how to allow creativity to flourish because his experience is in allowing bands to develop a strong style.

Where do you find the inspiration for your designs?

From everywhere and from everything, especially from fashions.

Tell me about your next projects.

I’m working on the interiors for the Ian Fleming resort, Goldeneye, in Jamaica and I’ll be revamping the Pink Sands hotel resort on Harbor Island, Bahamas. I’m also working on a private house on the same island. I’ve designed a furniture range called Hiphome – a young starter collection – for an American manufacturer, Holland Industries. I’m beginning a furniture range with bone inlay with a company in India. I’ve designed additional products for Habitat, including carpets and pillows, and products for the Victoria and Albert museum in London. I’m keeping my fingers crossed about a shoe collection that’s in the air. I also love designing for charities. Recent products include a clock, a tie, a customised Mini Cooper and an iPod and now I’m working on a paint box.

Do you have a place where you go at weekends?

There are no weekends in my life. I usually snatch a day on Harbor Island. And London is my place of choice to re-charge.

Is the idea of cocooning at home important to you?

There is nothing more glorious that occasionally cocooning at home, watching videos and trying not to feel guilty about doing nothing.

Do you entertain at home?

When Fitz was alive we were big-time party-givers but those days are over. Now that I live alone I never entertain at home. I’d have to tidy up too much and I’d rather go out.

Do you have a dream home?

No. It’s not bad what I have. Dreams are always disappointing and they fade away.