An event hosted by Country Life at WOW!house is one of the highlights of a programme that features some of the biggest names in interior design. Antique furniture, textiles and treasured collections bring both mood and interest to a space. Yet creating interiors with a sense of the past doesn’t only require a deep understanding of history — but also colour, craftsmanship and texture.
It was that creative challenge that attracted designer Alidad to his profession more than 40 years ago. This year, his huge contribution to the interiors world will be celebrated with an invitation to create the Legend Room at WOW!house, the biggest and most inspiring design event of the summer, held at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour. Alidad is creating the room in collaboration with the historic textile, wallcovering and passementerie specialist Watts 1874, founded by the Victorian architects George Frederick Bodley, George Gilbert Scott and Thomas Garner, which has worked at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire and Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire.
Raised in Iran, Alidad started his career at Sotheby’s, where he specialised in Islamic art and textiles. After setting up an interior-design studio in 1985, his work caught the eye of Min Hogg, founding editor of The World of Interiors magazine, and he gained a reputation for creating highly layered schemes inspired by his interest in 18th- and 19th-century European art and architecture, as well as a host of other styles, including Islamic design, .