mydeco profile: Barry Dixon

Image credit: Barry Dixon

My immense appreciation for Fortuny‘s new showroom made me realize that I absolutely had to interview its mastermind, designer Barry Dixon. Dixon, whose work is regularly featured in a number of shelter magazines, also designs his own furniture line (his nail head quatrefoil-back chair deftly marries timeless and trendy in an uncanny way), as well as a Vervain fabric line and a rug collection. While his multi-lateral involvement in the design process is impressive, it was my conversation with him which revealed his fascinating conceptual grasp of design’s objectives throughout the ages that really had me enthralled. I enormously enjoyed talking to Barry Dixon, who struck me as a philosopher and Southern gentleman as much as the consummate designer that he is.

Image credit: Barry Dixon

mydeco: Your latest project, the Fortuny showroom, was gorgeous and so well received. It was signature “you” but also represented Fortuny perfectly. How did fuse the two and how were you selected for this project?

BDD: I had a great sense of responsibility and the Riads had a dynamic idea of how they wanted a showroom to function. They wanted it to be an interactive experience and a destination to discover, and a place that people would desire to be in. I’ve always loved Fortuny and knew it growing up; it was very popular in the South with its romantic history. Fortuny’s beautiful fabrics ended up in a lot of Southern homes, so I grew up having a love affair with the fabric, and of course used it as a designer. Mickey and Maury looked to the designers that were ordering from them. A home I designed was featured on the cover of House Beautiful with Fortuny covered French doors opening up to the garden, and the Riads noticed it, of course. Unbeknownst to me, they were looking for a designer– and one that used the fabric in different and original ways. They invited me to lunch one day (under the guise of fantastic customer service) and we discussed ways to reexamine the use of Fortuny fabric in the context of the the 21st century. I didn’t realize I was being interviewed! They are just the nicest guys in the world. Anyway, they offered me the job. We wanted there to be a sense of continuity in the showrooms– and a sense of divided and open spaces which people could meander through to new discoveries. I wanted to lure people through spaces while allowing them to focus on what they see along the way.

Image credit: Mieke ten Have

I really love to use fabric on the walls as a background, and juxtapose it with a stone or hardwood, simple floor.  It feels nostalgic and old world, and I also wanted to show how relatable and appropriate it is in the US at large. Fortuny is a timelessly elegant product and I wanted to connect it to our current time and place. I used the rooms large windows and transparent bookcases (above) as an allegory: the showroom’s fabrics and furnishings don’t block the view but become one with it. I created a grid with bookcases and windows, right up to the ceiling to emulate the sky scrapers in the vista. You always have to integrate the view, no matter where you are. The location has to be to taken it into consideration– it is so important to the soul of the room. It is the innate tenet of good design that needs to be considered at the beginning of any project.  A place isn’t just a floorplan, it’s the place where it is on the map. It has to relate to where it is. It’s very important to consider the geography of the project.

Image credit: Barry Dixon

mydeco: What is your favorite period in furniture and how has it influenced your own line?

BDD: That’s like asking who your favorite child is! But I have to say, the one period consistently would be Arts and Crafts. I love the craftsmanship and the understanding of the natural world, and seeing God in the hand of the craftsman and the artistry of working with wonderful shapes and silhouettes . William Morris, king of Arts and Crafts deemed that things should be both beautiful and functional. Things shouldn’t be extraneously beautiful- they are beautiful because they are there. They are functional. It’s like a beautiful person who is out there changing the world or helping the needy—applying those attributes to a movement or interior.

Image credit: Barry Dixon

mydeco: That surprises me as I wouldn’t necessarily identify your aesthetic as Arts and Crafts?

BDD: I don’t want to regurgitate Arts and Crafts, but it’s a period that inspires me most. The nail heads on my upholstered pieces, for example are very Arts and Crafts. It’s not mass produced, but rather hammered in one by one by the artisan. The philosophy behind it is the most fertile area for me creatively. You have to take it out of itself, though. I couldn’t live in an Arts and Crafts time capsule, but I come away from Kelmscott Manor inspired by the natural world he brought into that house. All of those beautiful patterns– from farming motifs to water lilies—make you feel surrounded by nature. But, I couldn’t live with it.

mydeco: Are you a collector? If so, what do you collect?

Image credit: Barry Dixon

BDD: I’m a book fiend. I’m on the internet and all that, but you can’t replace books. I am a huge book antiquarian. And china in all forms– Transferware, Queensware, antique porcelains, i have a whole giant pantry with ladders going up to shelves you can’t even reach. You’d think I’d be having dinner parties nightly, but i am not. They are their own timeline of ornament and history. Some of my fabric I did for Vervain was inspired by my china patterns. They’re a reference to every era– you look at any given set and know precisely what was going on aesthetically at any time.

Image credit: Barry Dixon

I also love pieces that have been in contact with nature– they’ve been with God and bring the outdoor world in. Like bringing an old table that’s been sitting in the garden into the living room. It’s a modern concept really– it helps strike that balance between tradition and originality. The Abermarle oval backed chairs I designed were inspried by a wood Georgian antique, but now I’ve upholstered them. It’s casting the same shadow but it’s totally different and can change whenever you want.  That’s part of the evolution of design– there are things in my line from virtually every era. That means it’s all mixed up. I am not a slave to Regency or Chippendale, I really love mixing them all together. That’s modern. It’s reinventing in a fresh way and not trying to live in a museum.

Image credit: Barry Dixon

mydeco: What color could you not live without?

BDD: I love colors—I think, though, that I can’t do without mellow, yellowy orange. It seems seasonless—you see it in the leaves in the fall, in the summer, in the winter—blue is a bit too cold—it’s icy. But there is something about that warm yellow orange that is the color for all seasons. It’s always relevant. It is part of outdoors every time of year. It’s cheerful and warm. It can be sophisticated or laid back. It has a glow that works well with your skin. Yellowy-orange bouncing off your skin makes you look great! Like you just came from the beach. If you subconsciously think you look good, it changes your mood. It’s benevolent and warm and healthy.

Image credit: Barry Dixon

mydeco: Historically, what informs your aesthetic perspective the most?

BBD: The ancient Greeks and Romans– they are the real muses. They wished to bring the natural world in– and that’s the ultimate objective of all our ornaments and fabrics—all we are doing is mimicking the natural world. It was the Greeks and the Romans who captured the proportions of the universe within the world of the interior. Their blueprints inform all of our aesthetic perspectives. So, a lot of Greek and Roman revival pieces are so important to me. But I love Regency and Empire. Sometimes I think we  get lost in the formality- going back to Arts and Crafts, I appreciate it for its asymmetry; its imperfections are perfection. The best designs are subtly paralleled against themselves. You have to take yourself out of anything that informs or inspires you. It has to come through your filter—if not, you’re just design plagiarising. Good designers—and there are many out there- know how to take these things from the continuum of the aesthetics in art and design and fashion them into unique interiors. A good designer is ultimately a curator.

Image credit: Barry Dixon

mydeco: What inspires you?

BDD: I get so inspired by the different regions— from Moscow, to Beijing, to New Haven and the Caribbean. You get so inspired by your projects—one thing begets the next. As a kid I moved from continent to continent—India to South Africa—and you collect these life experience that help to shape and define your filter. The more you know about the world the more you cross pollinate. The aesthetic worldwide is always a hybrid of the natural world. Design harnesses the exterior elements and brings them inside. To me, the best designers, like Fortuny, manipulate the elements that make up the natural world. He knew how to harness the four natural elements– earth, wind, water, and fire– and put them on fabric. And that’s why everyone loves him.

Image credit: Barry Dixon