Designers and Tastemakers Reflect on 2020

“I am beyond grateful for the pleasure of having real conversations,” says interior designer and VERANDA contributor Joy Moyler. “Everyone suddenly has time to really talk. I am learning the names of colleagues, vendors, and neighbors’ children now, beyond the quick ‘Hello’, and ‘Please send…’. Before the pandemic hit, everyone was in such a rush to get to the next thing on the to-do list. I am getting to know people from having long conversations and making new connections. I hope that doesn’t change.”

“I think the only way forward in seemingly difficult times is to keep calm and enjoy what is on offer,” says iconic interior designer Nina Campbell. “For me, that has been staying in London, because although I love traveling, I have really enjoyed being home: seeing my family and giving small dinners and lunches, as we can only invite six people. The result is it’s all gotten more casual and relaxed. Another benefit is not leaving the dogs!”

“After months of solitude and reflection, I’m anxious to hit the ground running,” says interior designer and New Orleans shop owner Ware M. Porter. “In this next chapter, I’ll be sure to remember the important things in life.”

“I am incredibly grateful for family and friends on the rare occasions that we have be able to get together,” says ceramicist Frances Palmer, who has been handcrafting exquisite works of pottery since 1987. “Sharing moments have become significant, never to be taken for granted again. The silver lining for me has been the ability to work in my studio for long stretches and spend more time in the garden. The flowers have been enormous solace in this chaotic period.”

“Thinking of silver linings, and there are many, is the only way to face the fears and frustrations brought on by the 2020 pandemic,” Nathalie Farman-Farma, textile historian and the genius behind Décors Barbares, says. “I cooked, gardened, deep-cleaned closets, called old friends, and enjoyed the novelty of uninterrupted time with my teenage children. Most unexpected of all, the enforced freeze-frame of lockdown gave me the power to say ‘no’ to all the things I don’t want in the next chapters of my life.”

“As I write this, I’m in Florida finishing up a project in Palm Beach but have spent most of the last six months locked up at home…writing,” Hutton Wilkinson, the designer behind the legendary Tony Duquette studio, says. “My co-author on The Walk to Elsie’s, Manfred Flynn Kuhnert, and I have been able to put our COVID time to great creative use. We have written an eight-episode limited series about the first 10 years of Tony Duquette’s career and the last 10 years of Elsie de Wolfe’s life based on our book of historic fiction. Although the work was creative and involved a lot of laughter, it took us a grueling five months—working eight hours a day—to complete. What we have created (like our book) is a comedy as well as an epic journey starting the day the Germans take over Elsie de Wolfe’s house, the Villa Trianon, as Nazi headquarters at Versailles. Set in the 10 years between 1940 and 1950, Elsie flees the occupation by Rolls-Royce for the Spanish border, arrives in New York, and departs for Hollywood where she meets young Tony Duquette. They were creatively together for 10 years, going back to France after the war to restore the Villa Trianon, culminating with Duquette’s unprecedented one-man exhibition at the Louvre. We have a top Hollywood producers interested in our script…Let’s see what happens!”

“I live in a leafy part of southwest London with my husband and three daughters and have remained here throughout the pandemic,” says Nicole Salvesen, one part of the design duo Salvesen & Graham. “London can be frenetic and pressured at times, and we have all cherished this time as a family where life has slowed down, and being surrounded by our kind and generous neighbours has made us realize what a wonderful community we live in. We also took the opportunity to get the puppy we had been discussing for months and are delighted we did. She gives us even more opportunity to be together as a family, running and walking outside of the working week. The joy she brings us all, especially the children, even makes some of the tougher days bearable, especially as we move in and out of varying restrictions.”

“Having just finished renovating our period farmhouse at the start of the pandemic, it was an unexpected pleasure to be able to spend more time at home with my family and to really have the opportunity to consider all the finishing touches needed to turn the property from a house to a home! My husband and I normally spend half the week in London, so to spend each week in our own home was bliss, although I became absolutely addicted to online antique shopping,” says Mary Graham. “I was so grateful for the chance to slow down and enjoy making a home for my family. As interior designers, we rarely get the chance to give as much time to our own homes as to those of our clients, so that has been something I’ve appreciated beyond measure this year.”

“For the last 32 years of my life, I have traveled frenetically—almost six months of the year,” says jewelry designer Elizabeth Locke. “Then 2020 came, and I walked unknowingly through Dulles Airport for the last time at the end of February. Since then I have been at home, and I have come to appreciate and love my home and garden more than I ever knew possible. This was the first March I have spent in Virginia since I began my business in 1988, and it was incredibly gratifying to see each day bring new growth and beauty. My garden has become my daily refuge, and I am grateful for the calming beauty that I find there.”

“FaceTiming with the team has been a surprisingly satisfying way for us to ‘be together,’ but a trip to Venice this summer was a reminder of how important it is to see new things too, even if one is going back to old familiar spots,” says renowned interior designer Robert Kime. “I was grateful I was able to make that journey.”

“I think that the reset we have experienced coupled with the universal vulnerability we all have felt has brought the world closer in many ways while opened up our eyes to many things,” says Sue Sartor, the fashion merchandiser who began designing her own kaftans and tunics in 2017. “We now have a more collective enhanced appreciation and respect for our environment and the undeniable fact that we are all connected. This unique time has also forced us to slow down and reflect and focus on what matters most. This pause has allowed us to focus more deeply on family, our homes and gardens, and our creativity. I think the world was in a bit of a rut, and we were moving too fast and taking far too much for granted. I think all of us feel our priorities are a bit more in line now. A silver lining for my business was a the surge of appreciation for small-batch, high-quality, hard-to-find sustainable wares. With supply chains broken for much big-box retail, it was a unique opportunity for the small niche brands to gain exposure. In addition, the growing viewership on social media has helped to extend the reach of my brand of artisan luxury dresses and kaftans.”

“I started the year 2020 working from our Paris office. From there, I travelled to Qatar for the Doha Jewelry and Watch Exhibition, just before the COVID-19 travel restrictions were put into place. From Doha, I flew home to Miami for a family visit, assuming that I would be there for a few weeks, until those weeks gradually turned into eight months,” says David Gusky, jewelry designer and founder of Davidor. “I am thankful and relieved that I could spend that extended time, at the height of the pandemic, with my family. I took advantage of my prolonged stay to work on new Davidor collections, while seizing an unexpected retail opportunity. I was invited to open a pop-up boutique at the prestigious Bal Harbour Shops in Bal Harbour, Florida. Our pop-up will open in time for the 2020 holiday season, and it will be followed by the spring 2021 opening of our very first U.S. flagship boutique at Bal Harbour Shops. Had COVID-19 not restricted travel and I not been in Miami, I’m not sure that any of these pieces would have fallen into place, ultimately providing Davidor with this incredible opportunity.”

“Since I haven’t been able to travel, one of the silver linings for me has been all of the wonderful inspiration that I’ve received from magazines, books, and Instagram,” says Schuyler Samperton, the Los Angeles–based textile designer. “I’ve relied heavily on all of those sources and have had the great fortune to connect with some amazing creative spirits. Through an article I saw on the Instagram account of design PR whiz, Christina Juarez, I connected with a textile artist named Neil Goss. He’s based in Asheville, North Carolina, but I commissioned him to do a piece for a current design client in Santa Monica, and it’s the perfect fit. I also so appreciate whoever invented FaceTime, because without it I wouldn’t be able to stay connected to my friends and family. They’re the ones who keep me going!”

“Our greatest silver lining is truly silver—it is our renovated Airstream that we call Rosie,” says interior designer Rela Gleason. “Since the recent devastation caused by the Napa wildfires, it has turned into our mini-home on wheels. We are thankful to have it and to have completed the renovations in August, just in time for our fire evacuation order in the same month. I remain able to cook good food, and we have all the comforts of design even in a small space—along with, of course, the kindness of strangers and dear friends and family. Being in our own surroundings with our cherished treasures has given us solace during this time.”