Tuesday 30 June 2015

School of Style



Post magazine does a shoot every Sunday... Can't remember a time when I've seen a better shoot by this incredible team:
 
Photography & Art Direction: Olivier Yoan
Styling: Cheryl Leung
Hair: Tristan Waikong
Make-up: Karen Yiu

Models: Vadim, Adrien and Timur at Models Genesis accompanied by Jean Gorguet 
 

Monday 15 June 2015

Decorator to the stars Martyn Lawrence Bullard on making small look big

A really good interior is something that's curated and makes a cultured blend of things, says the interior designer and reality TV celebrity. 


View of singer Cher’s bedroom seating area. The sofas, covered in raw silk were designed by Martyn Lawrence Bullard. The wall hanging is a Burmese late 19th-century tapestry woven with pure gold thread.
Photo: Martyn Lawrence Bullard

Martyn Lawrence Bullard's 250-page glossy interior design tome, Live, Love and Decorate, with a foreword by singer Elton John, provides a peek into the domestic lifestyle of the rich and famous.

It features the glitzy homes of celebrities such as singer Cher and former Jimmy Choo chief executive Tamara Mellon, as well as the tastefully appointed homes of Hollywood stars Edward Norton and William H. Macy. Bullard has also created earthy and stylish mansions for singer Kid Rock, actress Pamela Anderson and Ozzy Osbourne.

"Most of my clients end up becoming friends - it's about having a connection. You have to have a connection with your client from the start, to get a good result," says Bullard, who was in Hong Kong recently.

"If the feeling isn't there, I don't think you can understand each other and create a beautiful space. I don't have a signature in my design style. I want my design style to be your design style. I want it to be what you love because I'm decorating for you. So it's really about understanding your clients, you have to get into their heads, work out their design dreams and become the implementer; make it happen."

Cher's Indian-inspired bathroom.
Photo: Martyn Lawrence Bullard


The debonair British-born designer, with his signature tucked scarves, manicured salt-and-pepper stubble and designer jackets, is a celebrity in his own right (Bullard is part of the cast of US reality TV shows Million Dollar Decorators and Hollywood Me) catering to wealthy clients with velvet-gloved ease and brass-knuckled get-the-job-done spirit.

The decorator to the stars didn't aspire to or study for the role he now performs. He went to Hollywood 23 years ago for the same reason millions of others do - in the hope of becoming a star. "I was going to follow my father's footsteps - he had been an actor and an opera singer - so I put myself through drama school, buying and selling antiques and objects on the side, for theatre stage sets. Then I thought, right, I'm going to go to Hollywood and become a movie star. So I moved to Hollywood … I didn't become a superstar. I sort of flailed around, trying to get bit parts here and there, and eventually I got cast in a movie - a very small part, but it was ever so meaningful at the time."
It's a blend of cultures that makes any space - a room, a house, a city, a country - interesting
Martyn Lawrence Bullard

I proffer the old adage that there are no small parts, just small actors. "Well, I was a very small actor then, my dear," he says with a notable English accent he's not shaken off despite living in LA for more than two decades.

"I became friends with the producer and his girlfriend (I think she was, at the time) and they ended up coming to my little flat one night. They loved what I had done. I didn't have any money then, so when they asked me to do their house - of course, I said yes. It was kind of a Casablanca, Moroccan vibe."

It's a vibe that he continues to spread with his homes dotted with 18th century Tibetan monk sculptures, antique French apothecary jars, mother-of-pearl inlaid trays, garden sofas upholstered in Zanzibar from his fabric collection, glass lanterns from the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul and Tibetan tapestries woven in pure gold thread.

Singer Kid Rock’s Malibu home featurs a lot of Indonesian-style woodwork. Photo: Martyn Lawrence Bullard


But can most residents in Hong Kong, with flats the size of Eva Mendes' closet, relate to this?

"I love small spaces - there's something cosy and wonderful about them. One should never be restricted by space; it's all about dreaming big. Just because you have a small apartment doesn't mean you have to live in a white box with a couple of chairs. It's about being inventive."

And invention means bringing elements of the outside inside. "Colour is a really important tool and can turn a small space from a white box into an amazing jewel. I always tell people to experiment. It changes a space. A great trick with a small space is rather than just painting the walls, paint the whole thing. If you put [the same] colour on the ceiling and the walls, you create this extraordinary cocoon effect. It makes everything feel bigger."



Bullard says he's lucky that his work both for television and for his international clients often takes him overseas in search of antiques.

"I've kind of got out of the tourist traps and discovered amazing new worlds. Little villages in Jaipur, off-the-beaten paths in Istanbul, deep in the arteries of Europe and Asia you find these little gems."

In Hong Kong, he found similar treasures in Hollywood Road.

"The antiques stores, those little streets with a fish market and then there was a trendy pop-up store, and then there was a deserted former restaurant I think where people were getting tattoos. It was mad but amazing. I mean, what a fabulous feel of life."

The Los Angeles home of Martyn Lawrence Bullard (above and below) has a well-travelled vibe: Indian lanterns, 19th-century Turkish tables, Peruvian mirrors, and vintage Indian textiles, all spun with a 1920s-style glamour. Photos: Martyn Lawrence Bullard

He was also struck by the city's mixture of very modern and ancient.

"Being in Hong Kong, I've seen everybody wants everything to be very new. There's no room for vintage here, it's all about brand new and sparkling. But the reality is a really good interior, or really good space, is something that's curated and makes a cultured blend of things. And I think more so than ever it's a blend of cultures that makes any space - a room, a house, a city, a country - interesting."

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 04 June, 2015, 1:56pm

P. Ramakrishnan

Sunday 7 June 2015

We. Are. The. Won


So we got this in the mail!

Congratulations! You've won a prestigious APEX Award for the following entry in APEX 2015, this year's APEX Awards for Publication 

Excellence: Entry Title: Galaxy Magazine, Summer 2014 Award: Award of Excellence To: P.Ramakrishnan, Anne Lim-Chaplain, Joanna Hor Barnes Category: Magazines, Journals & Tabloids - Custom-Published





Monday 1 June 2015

Anupam Kher in Hong Kong

It's not every day that you have a cuppa tea with a legend of stage and cinema - earlier today I did! Well, all right, he had the tea. I sat back in awe and ate up all his quotes!

Indian actor Anupam Kher landed in Hong Kong on the eve of his performance at the Jockey Club Auditorium, for his one-man show, Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai.

Engulfed in memories of classic Indian films he's starred in - and the American, English (yes, there's a distinction!) and even Chinese film he's appeared in, the actor was in fine form during the chat. A beguiling interview laced with humour and a self-awareness that only someone of his stature could have, cannot wait to watch the man perform live. 


Full chat with the actor, to appear later on in SCMP. Until then, some snaps here from earlier today.

Dino Busch, the bril young German photographerm captured him on his camera for some fab portraits - also in print soon. My pics here reveal... why I write and don't take photographs!

Meanwhile, those in Hong Kong, do check out his show:

Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai with Anupam Kher

Tuesday, 2 June, 2015
Venue: Jockey Club Auditorium, The HK Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Kowloon, HK
Time: 7.30pm-0pm
Tickets: HK$200-HK$650
Buy online: www.cityline.com


Anupam Kher at the Island Shangrila in Hong Kong