London-based designer Anouska Hempel (also known as Lady Weinberg) has had a very large career. Hempel, who I’m guessing has a flamboyant personality, was born Anne Geisler. She started out as a New Zealand actress before becoming a hotelier, interior designer, and London society fixture.
She has established four hotels and designed numerous restaurants and retail spaces, including six Van Cleef & Arpels stores and the Louis Vuitton flagship in Paris. She’s also designed two yachts, English gardens, and haute couture for Princess Diana.
The book, written by Marcus Binney, is beautiful, with over 400 photographs of Anouska Hempel’s interiors, architecture, and gardens.
Rizzoli sent me a copy of Anouska Hempel, which is appropriately placed on my Heywood Wakefield coffee table next to a beach stone tower and my Cathy Moynihan bird sculpture.
Photo by Marina Faust
A house at Salzburg in the half-light of dawn.
Photo by Adrian Houston
The basement bar of Anouska Hempel’s first hotel, Blakes London. Note the massive Louis Vuitton trunk and nautical-style cushion in Hermes orange.
Photo by Simon Mack
A pair of free-standing lattice screens divides the kitchen from the dining table at Anouska Hempel’s London hotel La Suite West. The interior has a minimalist Japanese feel.
Photo courtesy of The Hempel
The Lion’s Cage suite at The Hempel Hotel. Each of the 40 rooms and 10 apartments had a minimalistic Zen design, done all in pale woods and whites. The hotel was a favorite of Victoria Beckham and Michael Jackson. It was sold a couple of years ago and is now closed.
Photo courtesy of The Hempel
A kimono on a wall at The Hempel.
The attic bedroom at Anouska Hempel’s country house, Cole Park, an historic manor with a moat west of London.
Anouska Hempel, Rizzoli (December 2014)