David Hicks - The Most Influential Interior Designer of the 60s

David Nightingale Hicks (25 March 1929 - 29 March 1998) was an influential British interior designer born to Herbert Hicks and Iris Elsie Plattern. He was born in the small village of Coggeshall, in Essex. After his schooling at the Charter House Public School he advanced his studies in art and design at the Central School in London.

He established his career as an interior designer by decorating his own house in London in the year 1954. With his outstanding design styles he has influenced both fashion and home designers. David Hicks became the celebrated interior designer of the era with the excellent interior design works he created out of his love for graphic colour combinations. On 13th January 1960 he married Lady Pamela Carmen Louise Mountbatten at Romsey Abbey, Hampshire, England.

As a renowned interior designer, David Hicks' best works include the living room designed for American cosmetics diva Helena Rubenstein, the first apartment for Prince Charles at the Buckingham Palace, a yacht for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, works for Okura Hotel in Tokyo and a night club on the QE2 ocean liner. His most ambitious work can be seen at Belle Isle, Fermanagh. The interiors for the design sets of one of the classic movies of the time, "Petulia" by Julie Christie in the year 1968, remain one of his most prestigious works.

In 1967, he continued his work as an interior designer in the USA, designing apartments in Manhattan for international clients. During this time, Mark Hampton, a budding decorator, was his partner in New York. He was greatly admired for the dynamic colour combinations he used for his interior design works. His remarkable interior designing works with striking colour combinations include scarlet curtains, maroon walls, purple carpets, vermilion sofa, pink cushions and cherry-red chairs. He was also skilled in photography, paintings and sculpture-making, all of which added much to his ability in interior design.

When he found a lack of products on the market that he could use, he started designing patterned carpets and fabrics on his own. David Hicks Ltd started making wallpaper, fabrics and linens. During the 70s and 80s, his career as interior designer became greatly established and shops were opened in fifteen countries around the world.

The extraordinary garden he created at Oxfordshire was one of his most striking creations, where he spent his last years. David Hicks, the successful interior designer of the 60s died of lung cancer at the age of 69. He 'lay in state,' in the coffin made as per his precise instructions found from the ground floor room of his garden pavilion.