International Women’s Day: The visionary designers you should know

Adele Cardani reflects on the work of some of the most influential women in interiors and architecture

Géraldine B Prieur, as featured in the Andrew Martin Interior Design Review Vol 25 (Andrew Martin)

International Women’s Day on 8 March marks a moment for women to be celebrated in every way possible. When I consider my own design-hungry nature, I can’t help but revel in the brilliance of the women in my life, reminded that my own tastes are a mosaic of everyone and everything I’ve ever loved – especially them. After all, my mum picked out the blushing, gingerbreaded Victorian home I grew up in. My dad had reluctantly asked: “Are we really putting an offer in on the Barbie Dreamhouse?” Looking up at the home for the first time in all her pink glory, the colour of strawberry ice cream melting on searing pavement, little did I know I’d form an attachment and grow up to look for pink houses in each corner of the world I’d come to visit and live. Likewise, I have an unwavering affinity for Toile de Jouy patterned fabrics because the window seat I adored in my childhood best friend’s bedroom was upholstered in it, but I digress.

Looking towards the design world at large, it is female tastemakers and visionaries who defined aesthetic and material culture as we know it. Martin Waller, founder of global design house, Andrew Martin, says: “Perhaps no profession has been shaped so much by women as interior design. In the 19th century, decoration had been overseen by the male-dominated upholstery retailers and cabinet makers. The result was the heavy, dark, masculine interiors that we associate with the Victorian era. Then, in 1874, Agnes Garrett and her cousin Rhoda Garrett established Britain’s first women-run interior design company. They became not only the most influential female decorators of the age (with a bestselling interior design guide), but they’re also two of the most significant and articulate campaigners in the fight for women’s suffrage.”

Naomi Astley Clarke, Shepherds Bush House (Paul Massey)