LA designer Kelly Wearstler is renowned for her cool, Californian aesthetic, and her laid-back, glamorous look. Her work for the Proper and Four Seasons hotel groups, along with residential projects for clients including Cameron Diaz and Gwen Stefani, not to mention her collections of furniture, lighting and decor, have established her at the vanguard of the high-end interiors scene. So it might come as something of a surprise to learn that this year marks the first time she has exhibited during Milan Design Week, and that the subject of the show is a collaboration with the high-street homeware brand H&M Home — which is, like Wearstler, making its Milan debut.
That said, there’s nothing remotely low-rent about the 29-piece collection, or the manner in which it was shown: a full-scale immersive installation, scented by a fragrance devised by Wearstler herself, within the 17th-century baroque Palazzo Acerbi in the centre of the city, a venue that has never before been opened to the public.
For Wearstler, working with H&M was an opportunity to experiment, and a welcome chance to make her work available to a wider audience. Her skill has been to produce a varied yet cohesive range of pieces, from vases and lamps to upholstery, that blend high design with accessible pricing.
Creating a personalised and layered environment furnished with an eclectic collection of pieces, rather than one that slavishly follows a set style, is a spirit she espouses throughout her work. “Having constraints, whether it's a box size or a budget constraint, just pushes you to be more creative,” she says. “We have that all the time in our hospitality projects and even in our residential projects. We have very affluent clients, but everyone has rooms that they don't want to spend a lot of money on. You still want it to look expensive and cool, and have the same DNA as the rest of the project, so you just have to think differently.”
Even in her own home, she has to be mindful to choose a size and style of furniture that shows the rooms to their best advantage; hence her decision to design modular armchairs that sit low to the ground for her H&M line. “I live in a historic home, so the rooms are more intimate,” she says. “That's why I love low seating heights. It's more comfortable, and it really makes a room feel larger.”
Another key way to elevate a room, without necessarily expanding the budget, is to think in terms of tactility. “What brings value, and what looks expensive and rich, is having things that are really textural,” says Wearstler. With this collection, for example, that could be in the form of the bouclé upholstery, the cream linen shades of the lamps, the marble tops of the side tables, or the glossy, reddish-brown lacquer of the clothes stand. The latter is another example of Wearstler’s skill in creating a high-end look: while colour is a strong part of her aesthetic, the colours she chooses are always sophisticated, even when bold.
Her H&M collection is inspired by rituals, and it is paying attention to your own personal rituals, she suggests, that can elevate your day: “What is the ritual of your day: the chair you sit on, the glass that you grab, the mirror that you look at yourself in?” she says. “It’s the things that you do, every day, and you don't think about it, but it's there.” By paying attention to these details, and investing in pieces that bring you pleasure, whether by the way they look or the way they feel or function, you can create a home that feels more luxurious.
Lighting is key to this concept of daily rituals, whether it’s turning on a lamp or lighting a candle. The rise in portable lamps, which can be dotted around the house or carried outside to the garden, allow the flexibility to create an elevated, ambient vibe in any area of the home. “Everyone always gathers in their kitchen, right?” says Wearstler. “I have some portable lamps that I bring into my kitchen, so I can turn the other lights off and just use those; it's such a cooler vibe than having normal kitchen lighting on.
“That's kind of what we do,” she adds. “We tell stories, and we want to teach people how to live better, to be inspired, and do interesting things with design.”
The Kelly Wearstler x H&M Home collection will be available to buy from September.
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