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Business of Home Podcast
The First Lady of Textiles: Celebrating 50 Years of Design with Christine Van Der Hurd
01:16:50
The remarkable life and career of legendary textile and rug designer Christine Van Der Hurd.
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- [00:04]
Dennis Scully
This is Business of Home. I'm your host, Dennis Scully. Every week I'll be speaking with leaders and innovators from all corners of the home industry. My guest this week is Christine Vanderhoord, the founder of the iconic textile and rug studio Vanderheerd. After graduating from Winchester School of Art, Christine moved to New York in 1977 and quickly immersed herself in the city's creative underground. Spending time with Robert Mapplethorpe, Annie leibovitz and the Studio 54 crowd. She began her career designing prints for fashion houses like Yves Saint Laurent and Liberty of London. Her work soon caught the attention of design legends like Angelo Dangia and Jack Letter Larson, leading to large scale commissions for custom rugs and textiles. Over the course of her 50 year career, Christine has collaborated with some of the most distinguished designers in the industry. In 2024, house and garden honored her with its lifetime achievement award. I spoke with Christine about what it was really like arriving in New York in the late 70s, how she learned to speak up for her business interests while working alongside her husband, and why designers like Kit Kemp and Rita Koenig bring her in not just to source, but to help shape their most important projects. This podcast is sponsored by Lally. For over 20 years, Laloy has been a leader in the home textile industry by upholding the highest standards in craftsmanship and customer service. See the newest collections of Laloy rugs, pillows and wall art at Vegas Market this summer from July 27th to the 31st. Showroom appointments are highly recommended and you can make yours today@laloyrugs.com that's L O L-O I rugs.com and don't forget to follow Loloy rugs on Instagram and TikTok. And now on with the show. I feel like that summer that you arrived in New York in 1977 was a particularly hot summer. You coming from the farm in Dorset at the time. Right. Not used to those temperatures.
- [02:32]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah, I have a lot to say about that. That was very, very shell shock. But because my first trip to New York was in January 1977 and I'd gone there to sell my designs, it was then that I fell in love with David. And New York, let's say New York first and then David, you know. So it was five months later that I packed up my house and put everything in my 2cv and headed for London and got on a plane and went to New York.
- [03:10]
Dennis Scully
Now tell me about, tell me about some of the missing details in there in that. Weren't you married Just a few years before to some poor farmer who, I take it, gets abandoned in this story.
- [03:24]
Christine Vanderhoord
A little, little unfair. When I left school I went to a foundation course and then subsequently to Winchester to do a textile degree. And Charles was actually a restorer in my father's antique shop. My father said, well, why don't you teach Christine how to drive? So I got these driving lessons in his little green Mini, dashed around London and I was actually quite shy, still am. And sort of our relationship started when I was really young and it progressed from when I was mid art school until when I dramatically left for America. I haven't felt good about it. But that's the way life is, isn't it?
- [04:14]
Dennis Scully
Yes. You were so young and you thought because he taught you to drive that he would be your partner for life. But it didn't work out that way and life on the farm didn't seem like it was for you. And we should talk about, I mean you went to school at the lyce from a very young age, if I recall. Right.
- [04:36]
Christine Vanderhoord
So I was the Lisa from the age of 4 to 18. And you know, my parents didn't speak French and they were advised by some extraordinary uncle of mine, one of my father's 15 brothers and sisters. He had, he was a headmaster at a boys school and he said, best education for Christine is to have a French education, at least speak a language.
- [05:02]
Dennis Scully
Easy for him to say, never mind you being a young four year old showing up and suddenly, suddenly being immersed in having to learn French pretty quickly.
- [05:11]
Christine Vanderhoord
It was terrifying and it was, I think that was really gave me the resilience that I have had in my life. So, you know, it was a challenge. It's interesting because when I left school they all looked at me and I said, well, I'm going to art school. And they thought I was mad. They thought what, you know, 19, what is it, 68 or something. They thought what are you going to art school for? Because they all sort of thought they were academic and goodness knows what. But actually I seem to be the last man standing because there's just none. I don't know where anybody else is.
- [05:52]
Dennis Scully
None of them have succeeded. You've left them in your wake. Well, so what, what made you think that art school was the place for, for you? What, what had you been discovering about yourself over those years?
- [06:04]
Christine Vanderhoord
It was, wasn't even almost a question, I think, you know, my mother had brought me up with fabric. It always been part of my life. I used to go shopping with her, we used to go to Liberty's. We used to go to Harrods. She made clothes and she was a good seamstress. So she'd take me along there and I'd look at the fabrics and help her. And then she, you know, make these amazing creations. So it was a natural. I was obsessed with patterns and actually the feel of cloth. You know, there was all of the liberties at the time, you know, these silk charmeuses and tana lawns and voils, even exquisite, exquisite fabrics. And then I was surrounded, I suppose, by textiles at home. You know, there was the verdure tapestries, there were the Bargello weavings that were on the upholstery. So that was around me all the time. So I grew up with that. It's not what. Not necessarily the path I took, because antiques were very heavy for me. I found them overwhelming.
- [07:14]
Dennis Scully
You did. So that was actually a little much for your taste.
- [07:17]
Christine Vanderhoord
It was too dark. It was just too heavy and too dark. Subsequently, as you know, I changed. I mean, and that's my direction. So, you know, Winchester. My degree was mainly in printed fabrics, but I was questioned by my head of department, Mrs. Rendell, at the time. Remember her?
- [07:40]
Dennis Scully
Whose name is burned into your mind?
- [07:42]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah, that's right. She got very cross with me. She was going, you know, Christine, at the end of first year, you must do woven textiles. And I'm going, I. I don't want to do woven textiles. I want to do printed textiles. Because I wanted the gratification of seeing an instant colour on a fabric. I didn't want the weaving process that it was going to take days and weeks to complete a piece of cloth. It had to do with, probably because I chose the finest yarns to weave in, which did take months to finish a piece that size. But I did have a battle with her. And at the end of my first year, it took the three months to convince that I could do a print that continued the next two years with print. And I don't regret a moment of it. It was absolutely the right decision because it gave me the grounding for where I went after that and subsequently to go into weaving.
- [08:43]
Dennis Scully
And so you come out of school in 1973, roughly, if I recall.
- [08:48]
Christine Vanderhoord
I left Winchester in 1972 and I promptly got married in 1973 to my farmer. And I was out there, you know, I'd already started selling designs even from art school. You know, they'd come and visit some of the big fashion houses in London. You know, it was quite 60s, you know, with that sort of time. Mary Quant Et cetera, Bieber, and they'd send their buyers to look at our collections at the degree show, etc. And so when I left art school, I trailed the streets of London, and very quickly, because I spoke French, that was an easy one for me, although terrifying when I think back. I booked my plane ticket and made the phone calls and made appointments in Paris, and I literally charged this huge portfolio of designs, you know, to people like Saint Laurent and Christian Rojard and Dorothebis and Daniel Esther. And I used to sell the designs on paper to these fashion houses. And then I decided I'd try Como. And that was fascinating because, you know, the Italians, I mean, you imagine the early seventies Italians with Ecco mantero Cantoni. There was such fantastic fabrics being done so for fashion. So that was all part of the process. So I was doing all of this, even though I was married to my farmer and coming up to London and doing that. And then I got introduced. This wonderful designer called Leslie Poole introduced me to Peter Osborne and Anthony Little from Osborne and Little.
- [10:43]
Dennis Scully
Sure.
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Christine Vanderhoord
So that's when I first did my fabric designs for home furnishings. And it was sort of just before I left for New York.
- [10:54]
Dennis Scully
And the trip to New York originally was a sales trip? Yes. And who were you planning to see and what were you thinking that trip was going to be like? It ended up changing your life forever. But what did you imagine at the time was going to be happening?
- [11:11]
Christine Vanderhoord
It was exciting. It was terrifying. At that time, there were a lot of agents going out to America to sell designs. And so I'd had an agent during those two or three years, and I thought, well, I can do this myself. I'll go. So I went with this friend, Ros Bell, and she took me around and introduced me to some of the houses that were buying fabrics. And I remember, I mean, it was just a whole different dynamic. I mean, getting to New York, it was like January 1977, it was freezing cold. But I was so excited. I just. I just. Walking down Broadway, that's where a lot of the fashion people were, like 42nd street and all of those big buildings. I loved the Americans. You know, it was just like they were so exciting and, you know, they were encouraging and. And that's all part of the whole ethos that where it went, it was sort of like seduction in a way. And then actually, funnily enough, I was taken to Henry Bendel's as this store on 57th street, where it was by a girlfriend. And she just. She showed me this shop and I thought, wow, this is just amazing. I've never seen anything like this. And everything was new, like pearl paints. And you know, there was. I was so excited by it. And then I knew David, my future husband. I known him from England and he'd moved to America about five or six years previous to that. And halfway through the trip I called him and he said, do you want to come out? Well, the rest was history. That was it. We fell in love. And five months later I flew back to live.
- [13:08]
Dennis Scully
And you arrive in that terribly hot summer of 77 and it was the. Was the New York City blackout, right. And the Son of Sam and all of that swirling around. And David Herd says so he says, come and live with me.
- [13:26]
Christine Vanderhoord
Oh, yeah. I mean, it was prearranged. It was like that was it, you know, did I know that I was going to stay? I'm not sure at that point, you know, I was so euphoric, excited by life and what New York was giving me, even just from the first days of being there. But yes, I mean, coming into New York, into that heat and, you know, there was a. We were in a walk up apartment, so, you know, he had to clamber my cases up.
- [14:00]
Dennis Scully
Yes, he lived on the fifth floor. On the fifth floor, right.
- [14:02]
Christine Vanderhoord
And you know, there was a bath in the living room. You know, that's what those little crazy apartment. Well, I have to say that didn't last more than five months, I discovered. Fabulous.
- [14:17]
Dennis Scully
You couldn't tolerate that for very long.
- [14:19]
Christine Vanderhoord
No, I found a great apartment on East 11th street, which was a duplex. So we promptly moved into that, I should think, in October of 1977. And you know, that was the beginning of that whole downtown meeting people and gradually getting to know that neighborhood full of antique shops and interesting artists, et cetera.
- [14:45]
Dennis Scully
Well, and tell us a little bit about some of the artists that you came in contact with, because it's a who's who of the time.
- [14:53]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah, so we opened. Actually before we opened Modern Age, we opened a shop called Eastbourne Galleries. And it was extraordinary shock. I mean, David had already started shipping importing to the states, sort of 19th century furniture and objects. And one day he saw me reading this book on Art deco. And he looked at it and he said, but, you know, I can see some of these pieces when we go to Europe. So he, you know, said, I'm really interested in seeing how these pieces would sell in the States. So Eastbourne Galleries was born out of really art deco furniture. And we carpeted the place in green ast Turf, which we got ABC Carpets. But before it became the real abc, we had fabulous jewelry, Lucite pieces and costume jewelry as well as. But we bought it probably places like English town or the 26th street flea market. And then all of the beautiful ceramics came from Europe and, you know, the bird's eye maple cocktail bars and dining room sets. And so that's where the bug came with David and me for bringing in designer furniture, because at that point, Susie Slesson wrote an article on us. And then all of the designers used to come shapes down to come and see us. And one of them was Bobby Metzger, who subsequently commissioned me to do some textile work with him. So that was my first real introduction, Bobby, into the interior design world of America. So meanwhile, I was still designing my fabrics, selling them to various houses in New York. And then I met Angelo Dongia through Billy Weaver, who was his side. Right hand side. And he was so flattering and loved what I did that he put me on a retainer. So I actually ended up by doing a lot of work for Angelo.
- [17:08]
Dennis Scully
Well, so. And initially, did you know who Angelo Dongia was or you had no idea?
- [17:13]
Christine Vanderhoord
No, no. So we know, we're talking about. Well, I met him in 1978, I would say, and he was absolutely charming, gushing, very friendly man. And, you know, he used to have these wonderful parties where there must have been everybody and everybody, but I didn't know who they were. His mother was always there and she was a great cook and, you know, that. Very friendly, very Italian, you know, and it was special. So, you know, we were very much encouraged to do unusual designs for him. You know, he didn't do the norm. It was very, you know, beautiful, modern, modern work. It wasn't at all with very clean lines. That's how Angelo had. And, you know, he did the Halston showroom and.
- [18:04]
Dennis Scully
Sure. No, no, no. And did all of these spectacular rooms that were so timeless because they were so clean. Right. And they weren't heavily adorned. So he says, listen, I'm a decorator and I want to put you on retainer. Custom fabrics for me for projects.
- [18:22]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yes. So I did. I did woven fabrics, printed fabrics. And the last things I did was a collection of several collections of sheet designs for JP Stevens through Dongia. And so he. You know how that was a big time for printed sheets, late 70s, 80s, that everybody had a printed sheet except for me. Exactly. Like white sheets. But yeah, it was amazing because I knew I had some money coming in. You know, that was really so.
- [18:59]
Dennis Scully
And was that a Very profitable business. I mean, when you were selling your textiles to these fashion houses, was that good money at the time or considered to be good money?
- [19:08]
Christine Vanderhoord
No, surprisingly, I earned a really good living.
- [19:11]
Dennis Scully
You did?
- [19:12]
Christine Vanderhoord
I really did. And it wouldn't have gone on that way. I don't think it could have gone on that way because things changed so much with the cost of living and the price of what you were getting as a design. And then agents would have been taking a big cut later. But since I never continued with agents, I used to get the money straight out. And, you know, that was. It was so exciting. I loved it. And so I was sitting there doing my paintings and meeting, you know, interesting people. Julia McFarland worked with Dongya and she opened Ad Hoc with Judy Ashton Klaas on the corner of. Just near Bloomingdale's and then subsequently on West Broadway. So she was a really good friend. And Richard Giglio, who is a fantastic designer as well, he did a lot of the more whimsical designs for Dongya. So, you know, we were a whole crowd of people, interesting people, you know, designing and enjoying life downtown.
- [20:23]
Dennis Scully
Well, and do I recall Andy Warhol and Mapplethorpe were showing up and I.
- [20:28]
Christine Vanderhoord
Mean, yeah, so that was. So in 1981, we opened Modern Age on Broadway and that was a very big decision, business decision. I'd had Anna. Anna was born in 1980 and Jasper was born in December 1981. And we realized that staying on 26th street with Eastbourne was not going to work. We were doing a lot of lacquer work on this furniture. So we were having amazing colours sprayed and it was slightly becoming more modernist. So we were actually like Paul McCobb and George Nelson and we were actually taking pieces, American pieces by that time. So, you know, David said, I've got this opportunity. There's this auction house that is closing and the owners want to re rent it and I think we should do it. So we did. And opening Modern Age was the best thing we could have done. It was Broadway. You had Union Square with the factory up the road. You had Warhol, Mapplethorpe, all of these people strolling backwards and forwards, them coming to 50, 50, which was next to us in Modern Age. And, you know, they would come in the store and, you know, they chat. Warhol was very quiet, he wasn't too chill. Yeah, Never chatted, but looked around with his dark glasses on, etc. And Robert was more forthcoming and he had the gallery space that showed his work. Robert Samuel Gallery above. So that was an extraordinary thing for us. So David and I would go upstairs and, you know, can you imagine? There I am from London and I'm looking at these photographs as these full naked men. And I love photography even then. But I hadn't started my collection at that point. So I'm going like, I'm not sure that I could do this much as they were probably two or $300 at the time.
- [22:37]
Dennis Scully
Well, that was the thing. You were on the ground floor of the Robert Mapplethorpe early days.
- [22:42]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah.
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Dennis Scully
Yes.
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Christine Vanderhoord
And so.
- [22:43]
Dennis Scully
But the images were a little. I mean, they were pretty striking.
- [22:46]
Christine Vanderhoord
They were really. Yeah. But you know what? I would buy one today if I had the money, but I don't have the. So that's that. Not for one, not for what they cost today. He did beautiful flowers, though, but he wasn't exhibiting the flowers at the time, so. Yeah. And, you know, with 50 50, there were Isaacson, Mark Isaacson and Mark McDonald, and it was Eric. They were four partners in that shop. And we were sort of like a family between modern age and 50 50. And then there were all the other antique shops in that area. So, you know, it was a special time.
- [23:24]
Dennis Scully
And I feel like Modern Age was a bit of a gallery, a bit of a store. There were collections sort of coming in and out all the time. And what were you. What were you showing or doing in there?
- [23:38]
Christine Vanderhoord
So up until that time, I was painting, painting, painting, painting the fabrics. And I was also. I'd started to do some small interior design projects where I would do a lacquered screen, for instance, or etched glass table. In fact, I'm in An American Psycho with my. I can't actually believe it, but my name is mentioned in American Psycho with an etched glass ice bucket.
- [24:07]
Dennis Scully
Really?
- [24:07]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yes, really. I nearly died when I found out. But anyway, it was so. It was like early 80s somewhere there. And it was just at that point, it sort of happened at the same time that I realized that the carpets were missing in what we were selling. And I also had this extraordinary architect signer who came in and she said, her name's Martha Fellowes and her company was called MC Squared. And she said, do you know my father's. I didn't know. She told me if it was her father, but it was like, there's these publishing company in Florida that I need carpets for. It was her father, Harcourt Grace Yovanovitch. And that was pretty, you know, powerful. And I. She commissioned me to do these four carpets. So that at the same time, as I was also doing, you know, my first Collection of carpets, I think was around 82, 83. And people were coming into the store and looking at the carpets and beginning, the commissions were beginning to come in. And you know, that, that was when I really changed, actually painting fabric designs and started doing the carpet designs and.
- [25:31]
Dennis Scully
That begins to be become where suddenly so much of your work goes. And it sounds like people discover you. And you mentioned Henri Bendel earlier. I mean, and that comes and becomes a great big commission and a major turning point for you as well.
- [25:46]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yes, yeah. I mean, modern age changed as well. So as those years, those beginning years started. 82, 83. One of the major moments was when Peter Noel came into the gallery as a Florence Knoll, Knoll International.
- [26:04]
Dennis Scully
Yes. And he was the son and.
- [26:06]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yes, he was the son. And he came in wearing a chilby cashmere coat, smoking a cigar. Remember him so well. And there we were. And he goes, you know what, I have a great idea. I mean, we didn't know him from Adam, you know, he goes, and he sat down, he says, I want you to meet Dino Gavina to, to David. And that was a pivotal moment. So it was like modern age having shown designers like, you know, our vintage pieces, our mid century pieces, and then people like Tom Dixon, Ron Arund, Danny Lane, the glass designer, which we were showing, you know, we did some exhibitions, we would. Then David went off to Italy to meet Dino and we brought in this extraordinary, extraordinary furniture, you know, Carlo Scarpa, Marita Oppenheim Brancusi, fabulous pieces. And my carpets started to work with these, with this furniture. So our clients were like commissioning me to do carpets and at the same time buying the furniture. So that's that little part of that story.
- [27:22]
Dennis Scully
And I feel at the time there wasn't a lot of contemporary rug work being done. Right. I mean, it was all, I feel like it was all sort of these oriental rugs was all the big scene. But you tell me.
- [27:37]
Christine Vanderhoord
Well, interestingly enough, there were only two major, I felt two competitors. One was Vazoski and when the other one was Edward Fields.
- [27:47]
Dennis Scully
Oh, right.
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Christine Vanderhoord
And they were very, very 50s, 60s, 70s. It was very, you know, these bold designs and they were all tufted and I think they had manufacturing in America, so if there was anything to compete against it, it was them. But they weren't really competition because my designs were very different from anything that they would do. And I think that's what attracted me to a lot of the clients and subsequently to where I got the commission for Bendales.
- [28:21]
Dennis Scully
As you got into the, into making all of these Custom rugs. What did it involve as far as your production and how were you learning about how you were going to have all of this made? Tell me a little bit about that.
- [28:36]
Christine Vanderhoord
The very first pieces I made were through a woman in, in the uk. So Judith found was actually a fellow textile designer and she tutored at St. Martin's which was, you know, fantastic because she had started doing these small tufted carpets. They weren't very big. And then I asked her, you know, Judith, would you consider building a frame and making some of my carpets? It was so at the beginning, Dennis, it was like, you know, very tentative. So she made the first, I want to say half a dozen, but certainly realized that she couldn't possibly undertake what we were suddenly getting all of these commissions and at the same time I had like a manufacturer walk into the shop. I think I'd got publicity, that was it. I probably got something in around one of the magazines they'd seen me and they, they came in and they said, you know, we can make these. And they were a manufacturer from the Philippines. And that's how the more, you know, I could do my production and make any size, you know, was I wasn't limited to by 6 by 9 carpet or an 8 by 10 carpet. I could do a shape carpet, I could do a huge carpet. And so we do collections and show them at modern age. And then slowly but surely, when you're in a store, everybody walks in and that's where you meet your interesting people, you know. So then I had another manufacturer walked in and said, look, we want to set up a manufacturing plant in New Jersey. We want you to come and choose all the color yarns and we will set up the frames and are you interested? So I thought, well, why not? What was fantastic was as I could actually go there and work on the canvases, you know, they would stretch the canvases and at that time the carpets were tufted. So it's very different from a hand knotted carpet, which is what we specialize in today, hand woven and knotted. But we got these very, very big commissions and you know, that was so exciting and I could just enjoy creating them myself. I wasn't tufting them because I couldn't possibly do that. But I didn't ever love tufting. I wasn't in love with the texture of a tufted carpet or the way it was made. It was stiffer, you know, just didn't have the value for me that a knotted carpet would have.
- [31:19]
Dennis Scully
Well, and explain briefly the tufting process and what's different From a hand woven carpet for people that don't fully understand.
- [31:29]
Christine Vanderhoord
Okay, so with tufting, you have a piece of fabric stretched on a frame, and then you draw the design that you want to on that canvas on that fabric. You either have. In India, there's two kinds of guns. There's an electric powered gun, or there's actually a hand held gun where you literally just shoot the little thread of yarn in. So you're not actually knotting into this into a warp, you're actually doing it into a base fabric. So there's no way of actually keeping that yarn in other than latexing the back. So you have to glue the back to make sure that the thread doesn't come out. And when you've done that, you then put possibly a canvas on the back of that to keep it clean and uniform at the back. So the glue that they were using wasn't great. So, you know, after a while, that latex was disintegrate. It was a means to an end. I could get my designs onto that canvas and make them into a beautiful carpet. But my passion was definitely looking for some other medium of making those carpets. So that's when I ended up going to India.
- [32:55]
Dennis Scully
And so tell me about that. So how did that evolve and what opportunity made that possible for you?
- [33:01]
Christine Vanderhoord
My best friend was Barbara Hett and her husband, Graham Hett, who was head of. Who subsequently came head of ABC Carpets. And he introduced me to another carpet person. As one does the carpet people meet the carpet people. And he took me to see his showroom, which I remember thinking, oh, God, this is awful. But he also invited me to come to India. And this was in 1991, September. And it blew my mind. I mean, I was just like, this is it. This is it for me. This is where I want to be. This is what I want to be doing. It was such a gut instinct, you know, that I wanted to be part of this, this culture and enjoy these people and see my things being created there. And they're actually, funnily enough, thinking about it, they kind of convince me into doing as carpet people do. Oh, you've got to do like half a dozen in a 6 by 9. You may be sort of 4 in an 8 by 10, and then 2 in an 8 by 12. And so, you know, being young and naive, I did that. And, you know, I think I really learned my lesson because I realized that, you know, I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to have multiples of exactly the same carpet in different sizes. I wanted each one to be created or at least have a choice to be able to make a color change or make it bigger or smaller or adapt it for the space. So that was actually a very important moment for me. And also I spent a lot of money, you know, I of making these carpets. They were a very fine knot count at the time. They were over 200 knots, 240 knots, I think a square inch. And so that was, you know, expensive, beautiful and expensive. And I still have one or two.
- [35:11]
Dennis Scully
Of them, which is 240 knots per square inch.
- [35:15]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah, they were high. We do up to 200 now seldom, but we do do it. We do make them. But so that it was an interesting lesson, but I stuck, started doing the diaries. So I was making some diaries and I probably made at the time, they were probably, I don't know, three or four hundred dollars to make a diary, a wool diary. And you know, I did do 20 diaries of the same design. So these were all learning learning curves, learning lessons, but realizing that. And I was, you know, beginning to get my commissions in a lot more by the late 80s, early 90s. And you know, I absolutely never did that again. I never went back and reordered that.
- [36:03]
Dennis Scully
Many carpets and put all of your own money into it the way you did.
- [36:06]
Christine Vanderhoord
Exactly. And I've always, that's what I've always done, Dennis. I've never had money from anyone else. I've always put my own money into it.
- [36:20]
Dennis Scully
We're taking a quick break from the show to remind you about Leloy. This spring, Laloy launched two exciting collaborations. Discover bold modern rugs and pillows from their new collection with Jeremiah Brent. And don't miss the latest season of Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines. Fresh designs you'll love. Explore both@loloirugs.com that's L O L O I rugs.com and follow Laloyloi Rugs on Instagram and TikTok. And now back to the show. Well, so, so tell me how the business evolved from there. Once you, once you learned that you really were much more interested in creating much more custom work than just having an inventory of different sizes of the same pattern. As you were saying, how did the demand for your work evolve and how did you go about setting a course?
- [37:20]
Christine Vanderhoord
Well, I think I'd already By like late 80s, I had my own studio design studio in New York. It was on University Place. And Modern Age was also exhibiting the carpets, but for all the bespoke. So they would sell the carpets that were hanging in the store but all the bespoke was coming into the design studio. So it's very much like it is today. We just met these different people, you know, interior designers would come and see us. People like Jed Johnson, David Kleinberg, you know, so it was a wonderful time. Bobby Metzger. But it was also, I was just thinking about this in, you know, also the 80s was a very difficult time. So there were a lot of changes. There were a lot of people who we lost. So thinking about that, it was positive and it was exciting and positive, but it was also frightening at the same time. You know, all of these wonderful people within the design world leaving us. So, I mean, I just, I remember they would come up and see us at the, at the showroom and the designers and we'd have parties there and I'd get commissions and I'd go off to India again. And I was doing a lot as well. I was keeping up with the etched glass cushions. We're doing a lot of cushions, pillows, as you say in America, you know, even curtain fabric. We certainly weren't. We still weren't doing any printed fabrics. That happened much later. And we were doing applique and all that and bringing people in. We were getting write ups. And I think probably a little bit later I did have somebody help me go out and recruit some of the bigger jobs that I got. But it was James Mansour who was buying a lot of the furniture from Modern Age. He was a visual merchandising with Les Wexler for the limited store planning. And he saw my carpets and he commissioned me. That's when he commissioned me in 90, I think it was around 1991, to do Henry Bendel's. And that was magical moment. I mean, I was given free reign to do these art deco carpets, which is what the look of that store was. It was, you know, it had that lalit frontage. It had moved to 50 to 5th Avenue. And you had people like Marie Paul Pele and Francoise Catroux that were asked to, you know, to participate in the design. And so that was, you know, a very exciting time. And then actually Jim also then commissioned me to do all of the carpets for visual display for all the limited store planning. So it was all the limited store structures, what was it? Victoria's Secret? Yes, Victoria's Secret. So I was doing all the carpets and David was doing all the furniture. So it was an amazing time, amazing combination. And so, you know, that gave me a really stable background to continue with what I was doing financially.
- [40:51]
Dennis Scully
Well, and I'm assuming As you say, I mean, I'm assuming at that point there must have been an awful lot of revenue coming in to this business. And I don't know how much you had really thought about putting structure around your side of the business and hiring people. I don't know if you had much of a team in the early days.
- [41:13]
Christine Vanderhoord
Well, it's funny because I was thinking earlier today, this was a big decision that I made when we opened Modern Age and the carpets started coming. You know, I started designing the carpets. David said to me, you know, these carpets have to come through Modern Age. And I remember thinking, no, I don't think that's a good idea. My mother had always taught me to be very responsible for myself. And, you know, she'd always said, christine, a woman has to have their own bank account. Forget having these shared bank accounts. So David, you know, was sort of saying, well, you know, you'll get a commission. And I'm going, I don't think so. So determined as I was. I mean, I remember us having a huge falling out over that. But I got my way. And yes, I build all the carpets and I would. If Modern Age sold one, they would get their percentage of it.
- [42:12]
Dennis Scully
They would get a commission, not you.
- [42:14]
Christine Vanderhoord
Right.
- [42:16]
Dennis Scully
That's how that's going to work.
- [42:18]
Christine Vanderhoord
So that's what happened for the rest of my time with Modern Age. It was until we closed in 2003. Yeah, I was my own person and I moved from University Place into studio actually on 11th street, which became part of. We had an 11,000 square foot space on 11th street above Jack Lenore Larson in that building was fantastic. And I had a, you know, a great studio there. And then from there I moved to Worcester street and that subsequently, you know, was where I ended up. So, you know, there was a. And then by that time I had a team of four people, I would say we had a great crew of people who I was working with.
- [43:07]
Dennis Scully
Well, and as you were just mentioning, I mean, Jack, Leonard Larson was a contemporary and someone who I assume you knew. And I don't know if you were influenced by him or he by you or what you thought of each other.
- [43:19]
Christine Vanderhoord
Well, at the beginning, I first met Larson when he came to visit my degree show in London. So I sort of knew him a little bit. I was kind of quite frightening.
- [43:30]
Dennis Scully
Is that right? Because you thought he was. He was such a big.
- [43:33]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah, I used to sell him designs in the early when I was still doing the fabric designs. And yet his aesthetic was exquisite, you know, beautiful, beautiful textures and colors. His you know, very neutral tones. And. And I love what he. He did love what he does. But there were, you know, a lot of, by that time, a lot of other designers coming in to play with what we would. Where we were going with the carpets and we were getting were bigger commissions, really. You know, people like Baya Bendabel, which actually I'd met when we did Bendel's, hired me to do this Lutyens property in Malate, Minnesota, was a massive house where we literally, I should think we did 30 carpets throughout the house. And then people like Paul Fortune, we were working with him. He was a very old friend of mine from London days and he was living in la and he would come to Clamton, New York, and we'd play and work and do all sorts of fun things. And he was at that time really establishing himself as a great interior designer. So he was giving us a lot of work. And Pentagram was another. Jim Bieber, who worked at Pentagram, was the director of interiors there and architecture. And we got some extraordinary Neutra house in la. Fantastic jobs in Connecticut and Colorado.
- [45:13]
Dennis Scully
Well, it's funny you mentioned about Paul Fortune, and I hope that listeners remember Paul Fortune's extraordinary work because he was really a giant at the time. And to our. Remember correctly that in the. In the early days, he didn't have any Leibowitz living in his basement or something. And didn't you. Didn't the two of you become friends?
- [45:38]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah, so that was. Well, I first met Annie and I want to say 1980, I think. Anna was with us. She was probably nine months old, and we went to stay with Paul and Annie was in. In the basement and we met her. And I remember, you know, I was absolutely blown away by Annie then. And Paul was really interested in taking Polaroids and Annie took these Polaroids and there was this huge fireplace that Paul and a couple of friends sat on and Annie took these photographs. I remember that really well. With six or so years later, she moved to New York and came into modern age. And, you know, was looking around and, you know, we sort of rekindled our friendship. And I don't know what it was, but I think I needed a press shot. I think that's what it was. I needed something for pr. And I don't know how I had, you know, courage to ask her. I said, annie, do you think you could take a photograph of me for my priority to show people? And she. She ended up by doing three photo shoots and took the most amazing, amazing photographs of me. And I was probably about 35, I think, at the time.
- [46:59]
Dennis Scully
Oh, how fantastic.
- [47:01]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah. I mean, they were so special. I have them today. And, yeah, we became friends, and I think she probably was the one that. It sparked my collecting photography today. You know, I just. I love photography. I'm obsessed with it. So, yeah. So Annie. And then I helped her. How the hell do I pay Annie to take some photographs? That was like, no, but she was so generous, and she said, look, you know, can you help me out, do a few things in the. In. In my new apartment? And, you know, I helped her source a few things and did some carpets for her, and she had some models lay out on some of the carpets, and she took great photographs, and it was an amazing time and very special.
- [47:49]
Dennis Scully
Yeah, yeah. No, that's extraordinary. I'm sorry that she could never convince you to buy any of those early Robert Mapplethorpe photographs.
- [47:58]
Christine Vanderhoord
I do have, which is wonderful, is Annie gave me a photograph that's printed for one of her. Her first book, I think it is, that Robert took of Annie. It's beautiful. And he gave it to her just before he died. So he printed six, I think. And I was so lucky to be the recipient of one of them. So I'm forever grateful for that. Yeah.
- [48:25]
Dennis Scully
How extraordinary. What a wonderful gift. So let's come back to the designers coming to see you in the studio, because I want to get a sense of how you feel or think that the design industry has evolved, as you were talking about earlier. And many designers of the day talked to me about how many great designers we'd lost during that period to the AIDS crisis. And you mentioned Bobby Metzger being one of them, certainly, and Angela Dongia and others. Sadly, so many of the greats and many designers. I think I've had this conversation with Jamie Drake and with David Kleinberg. Sort of wish that we had had all of that talent and all of that work to teach people and all the people that would have come through their studios and gone. Right. I mean, you sort of imagine this great pool of talent would have been built on the back of these extraordinary designers at the time. I wonder how you feel the design industry changed as a result of all of that. And what feels different about working with designers?
- [49:36]
Christine Vanderhoord
I mean, there is always going to be changes. Right, Dennis, as you people, you know, the way things are done has to evolve. I think people, you know, had a lot of integrity in those days, and, you know, I think there was a lot of attention to detail. And I feel for Vanderhoe. That's where we come in, each client is given as much time, whether they're having, you know, commissioning a small carpet or a whole project for an entire house. And I think that that's one of the things that may be lost a bit today is in the design industry that people want to rush things too fast and that it, you know, that, you know, that the look, you've got to layer it, you've got to find the pieces. You can't just bash it out. I mean, I'm being brutal here, but, but, you know, it's adding a uniqueness to an interior. It's finding that special piece. And I think that often today it's a look that, you know, gets translated rather than a build up and slowly making a beautiful interior. You can't just do an interior. You can't make an interior. It has to build, it has to grow.
- [50:57]
Dennis Scully
Yes.
- [50:57]
Christine Vanderhoord
You know, for instance, we work with Rita a lot, Rita Koenig. And I mean, I admire her and everything she does. And she has that ability to layer and to use old pieces of textile. And to me, I walk in there and I smile because I just. And her color, she's not frightened of color. So, you know, that's the other thing is people like, oh, I don't want to use any color, you know, or I'm going to use too much color. I think, you know, it's a happy medium of pattern, color, texture, layering. And I, as a designer and having lived through so many periods and being brought up by antique dealers with parents and having a brother who is quite minimal, has always been minimal as an antique dealer, but finds most exquisite objects, I'm very open to different looks. You know, everybody can't be the same. So I think that that's what I've done with directing and guiding our business. Van der Herd's business is, you know, we're not all the same. We don't want all this to have the same look. And when a client comes in, an interior designer, it's like, oh, it's not the Vanderheard look. Yes, it is made by Vanderhoerd. But we can adapt what we do for that client in each room is different. You know, we've just finished a 17. Well, we've actually finished several properties where we're doing that 17 to 20 car carpets. And all of them are different, you know. Yes, they are. Maybe they have a Van der Herd stamp because they are of very good quality. The colors are of a certain way, but one house is different from the other. One was a very Traditional Georgian house in London. The other was an amazing townhouse in Brooklyn we did with leroy Street Studio. So, you know, it's like you go from a house in Connecticut with Thorpe Design, where we had very strict boundaries. We can work with those. And I think that that's important for other young people to know, to understand that you can't. You know, you've got to work with your client. You have to give them that service. You have to be. You have to be behind it and listen. You have to listen to the client.
- [53:24]
Dennis Scully
Yeah. Well, it's interesting that you say that, because I know that you've recently just come off of a little bit of an American road show and spending time with designers, and I wonder what they were keen to know from you and sort of what you share with them about the process. I know so many people want to learn more, but tell me what that means.
- [53:51]
Christine Vanderhoord
I mean, what was fascinating is we went to Atlanta also. We were in New York. We were doing presentations, Isolde and I. And I think what was fascinating is that the designers didn't understand the breadth of a bespoke design. So to try and explain to him that we could. Could make something in any color, you know, any size, and to explain that process, it's a new kind of. Not such a. Well, it's an old concept to do fabric walling, obviously, but people today don't do it as much. And it was. That was what we were, you know, trying to explain to these people that these interior designers, that you could. You can change a room by just doing a beautiful door, and it doesn't have to be that expensive. You can do a trim on a. On a curtain, and it doesn't have to be. Doesn't have to be meters and meters of fabric. You can make the difference very inexpensively. I think that that was something that they were listening to and really learned from a lot of questions. And we also embroider over other people's fabrics, which is interesting. So, you know, we take. The client would give us a fabric of, I don't know, Raoul textiles or someone like that, and we would do some hand embroidery on it. So we would bring in some of the colors in the room that they haven't got in that fabric, because. But they love the fabric, but they need something else added to the fabric. So that's what we would do. So that was fascinating. We showed them very different types of projects. And when you do something which very, very contemporary, very colorful, and then something that is much more traditional with a twist, and they could see that one was able to do both. I don't know whether people think of us as a certain type of designer. I don't know.
- [56:05]
Dennis Scully
Well, that's what I was wondering if people had in their minds that there's, as you were just suggesting this Vanderheard look or a certain house style. I don't really know what that would be. I don't know what your sense of what you think people have in their mind.
- [56:21]
Christine Vanderhoord
I think we try and give each house that we've got anything to do with a different style, a different look, a different color theme, a different layering. I mean, there as. There's so many, there's so many areas to cover there and we can, we can be so flexible. I think that that's the thing. I'm not set, you know, I'm not set in a direction. What I'm set in is that you have to do a beautiful product and it has to be aesthetically pleasing to me and to my team and that, you know, we can make it work for whatever period that you need to make it, you know, that that interior is. So I think that that's what the flexibility for us is, is quite immense, actually.
- [57:13]
Dennis Scully
And, and as the business evolved over the, over the years, what is it primarily that people are coming to you for? What is. What has the business ended up becoming?
- [57:23]
Christine Vanderhoord
I think I feel over the. The hand embroidery has definitely grown in the last few years, but I think actually seemingly, and I didn't expect this to happen, is that we see we've been pulled into some more interiors projects. So we're not just making, oh, this is the carpet for that dining room space or this is the, the, the wallpaper for that. It. We, we will, we will be asked to do a lot more where we would be doing walling for one room and cushions and bedspreads and, you know, but really thought out, you know, we don't just go out and say, oh, well, we're just going to do that, that buy that bedspread or. And we source a lot of fabrics. We don't just use Vanderhoe fabrics when we're doing an interior project. How could we use that only Van Hoerd fabrics? We don't do, you know, wovens, boucle's, velvets, etc.
- [58:22]
Dennis Scully
Right.
- [58:22]
Christine Vanderhoord
So.
- [58:23]
Dennis Scully
So you're really being brought in to, to consult and, and, and, and to be part of the design team.
- [58:28]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yes, interestingly. And that's evolved. Definitely involved in the last, I want to say, eight years. Yeah, it's exciting. It's really great. Yeah. Lovely and.
- [58:39]
Dennis Scully
And. And unexpected. It sounds unexpected.
- [58:41]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah. And it. It's a lot of pressure because I never compromise with myself. So I'm always looking for the right piece and always going to second guess myself. It's just my nature. Luckily, my wonderful team of Vanderbilts are there behind me, rallying me on, saying, I've made the right choice. So, I mean, that is, yeah, very important to me.
- [59:12]
Dennis Scully
Well, and today. So when did you meaningfully leave New York? You're represented at Studio 4 in New York and you have a presence, but when did you return to the UK and Portobello Road and all of that?
- [59:29]
Christine Vanderhoord
It was a very difficult time, as you know. I lost Jasper in 2009. My son and Jasper had been part of our business since 2003. He was the one who changed everything. It became from Christine Vanderhoerde to Vanderheerd.
- [59:48]
Dennis Scully
And what was the thinking there?
- [59:49]
Christine Vanderhoord
Cause we were joined. We were together, you know, and he.
- [59:53]
Dennis Scully
Said, it's no longer just you.
- [59:55]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said, that's it. You're out. But I had a studio space in London. I was backwards and forwards. This is early 2000. And he looked at me painting these designs. He'd been seeing me doing that since he was a little baby. And he said, mom, you know, what the hell are you doing now? Still painting? Well, because that's the only thing I know how to do. And he says, I'll do that on a computer for you. And that was the beginning of computer rendering. So I'd gone back to New York and then I didn't really know that Jasper was going to be joining the business at that point. He sort of landed in New York about. About 18 months later, and that was it. And everything was fantastic. And he was as charming as you can imagine. I mean, he was outrageous. And, you know, so he would charm all of these interior designers coming along. He'd get on his motorcycle and zoom uptown, downtown, wherever he had to see a client. And, you know, he kind of like said, mum, really, I don't think I need you here. So I'd met Stuart, my partner, by that. This is like 2005, 6.
- [61:09]
Dennis Scully
So he says, I've got New York covered. I don't need you here.
- [61:12]
Christine Vanderhoord
Exactly. So off I go. I don't even have a bedroom in the loft anymore because he's moved out of his studio apartment. I'm now pushed out of there and I sort of come back to London. Ish. You know, backwards and forwards, but. And so Jasper, you know, ran the studio until he had his motorcycle accident in April 2009. And then basically, you know, obviously life was a disaster. It was horrendous and I had to get my act together to get back into, you know, wanting to do anything really. And you know, it took me, you know, several years really to even function properly again. And meanwhile, if you think about it, England was new to me in a.
- [62:14]
Dennis Scully
Way because you had left it behind.
- [62:16]
Christine Vanderhoord
I left it behind and you know, maybe I'd left it on for a reason, I don't know. But like I had to learn to be with the interior design world of England suddenly new. And I was very lucky because I started off with people like Jonathan Reed who were amazing and actually Philippa Thorpe, Jenny Armit. There were, you know, a group of designers that were fantastic. David Collins and you know, I was, I started slowly, slowly, you know, building that up. We kept New York going until 2018. So really it was after 2018 that Studio 4 took the fabrics and it's a different, it's different, it's a different dynamic because I think we felt as older and I, when we went back to New York this time is just to be with the client. We need to be with the interior designer. We need to talk to them. And I think that when you have somebody in between, they can guide the client. But it's great that we could all be, I think what we established that we could work with Studio 4 and with the client and that was a fantastic assessment from this last trip. It was great.
- [63:34]
Dennis Scully
Well, and that's a wonderful arrangement. And working with multi line showrooms can be challenging when you want to get directly involved with the client. And sometimes that's not always easy to work out. I'm curious, you mentioned about sort of having to re acclimate yourself when you come back to London. What is different in the way that English designers work or approach it or even. I mean their demeanor, obviously. I mean, I just interviewed a few of them and as you know, it's a different, I don't know, there's a different energy, there's a different. But what's your sense?
- [64:13]
Christine Vanderhoord
I have to tread carefully.
- [64:15]
Dennis Scully
No, of course, of course. I don't want you to alienate.
- [64:17]
Christine Vanderhoord
No, I love my interior designers that I work with here. You know, we've got some fantastic young interior designers, you know, people like Nicola Harding. There's a new, I mean, I love Nicola and she's so supportive and we do such creative projects with her. Again, you know, there's a young woman called Alice B. Davis, who just. Young designer. Coming up on the house and garden modernist from two years ago. I think what you have between America and England, America is vast. New York is vast in itself. So your projects are going to be so much bigger and the budgets are going to be much higher. And I think that that's. If I take all the projects that we're working on that are bigger. They're not all of them, but say. I want to say 60%, 60 to 70%. The American projects will be very exciting because it gives us the scope which we wouldn't necessarily have in Europe and in England. I think that it was much more difficult for me when I came back here. It was a slowly getting to know the English design world. And I'd never really been an English person. My parents, quite bohemian and the Lysay and then going. I mean, I had summers in Spain, every summer, you know, traveling to Europe with my father and mother. So actually, I was only in England, really in the midst of the English, the Brits, really, between, you know, when I left or left school and when I left of England. So I was relearning all the different levels that you have to channel. And it's very different. America, they just accept you. They encourage you. So when I came back, it was like, definitely climbing ladders. I had to. It was hard. It was very hard. I think they've all forgotten that I came back now, because I'm definitely approved. I think they like me.
- [66:30]
Dennis Scully
Right. Well, they seem to like you quite a bit. And House and Garden is.
- [66:36]
Christine Vanderhoord
Oh, they've been wonderful.
- [66:37]
Dennis Scully
Bestowed honors on you, Patter and the team.
- [66:41]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yes, they're wonderful.
- [66:43]
Dennis Scully
And we'll miss Hatta Bing.
- [66:45]
Christine Vanderhoord
Absolutely.
- [66:46]
Dennis Scully
Tremendously. It's a loss, but I'm sure that House and Garden will continue. And Talib, I'm sure, will step in.
- [66:54]
Christine Vanderhoord
Yeah. Exciting new things.
- [66:55]
Dennis Scully
That's right, exactly. Bring a whole new energy to it, to be sure. I'm curious. I don't know that I've gotten your feelings about digital printing in the past, and you've talked about sort of the evolution of it, and I'm imagining you're not a big fan, but you could tell me, because I am having more conversations with people who were skeptical and who said, okay, it has gotten better. I can't argue that. But it's still not your cup of tea, I'm sensing.
- [67:26]
Christine Vanderhoord
Not my cup of tea. I think you can achieve some great things. And in fact, we've done a wallpaper collection digitally, because the detail in it, if we'd had to do it with a screen or rotary, it would have been very, very difficult. The tiny dots and, you know, just the detail would not have worked. There would have been problems. And also I love dark backgrounds and that was also a challenge with printing. Do I love digital? No, but because I like tradition and, you know, I come from tradition. And so it's. I think there are fabulous things being done and so I certainly would not, you know, argue it, that it wasn't a good progress and, you know, it might be. That's what people have to do. Although there are some very small workshops that do fantastic, you know, silkscreen prints. You've got, you know, Rapture and Wright, who do fabulous silk screens themselves and many, many, many others. I think that today there is so much competition. You know, whether it's a carpet or whether it's a fabric or, you know, a plane, there is so much out there. I think you have to be very brave and I think you have to be tenacious. You have to be strong minded. That's what I would always say to young people today. You have to follow your dream because that's what, you know, I've always done. I've always followed the way I want to do something. If I've wanted to do it, I've, you know, I persisted at it, even if it's a challenge. It is definitely also a less expensive way of, of producing, you know, a printed fabric or wallpaper. And you can achieve some really interesting effects. So I think that those are all positive, you know, positive notes to have on, on digital. As far as fabric, another fabric collection, that's quite hard because, well, for us, because everything is so bespoke, we are very happy to do a bespoke fabric. We can do a small yardage of most of our fabric designs. Launching a new fabric collection is always challenging for me, to be honest, because I'd like. I just like to do the one, the one piece or the one right or the one, you know, beautiful set of curtains or wallpaper for that one room. And so, you know, we tread carefully with launching new fabric collections in part.
- [70:09]
Dennis Scully
Because you see all that there is.
- [70:11]
Christine Vanderhoord
Absolutely.
- [70:12]
Dennis Scully
Sure.
- [70:12]
Christine Vanderhoord
Absolutely.
- [70:13]
Dennis Scully
And the same thing. I mean, and you and I have talked about this in the past, but I'm amazed at how many people want to continue to introduce new rug collections.
- [70:22]
Christine Vanderhoord
Oh, my goodness. I mean, that is incredible, Dennis, because, you know, every time I look in a magazine or online, you know, there's another person who has invented another carpet or rugby. It's a lot to Absorb. But, you know, if I looked at everyone and got upset about it, I would never, you know, I wouldn't be in business still. So I just have to sort of put the blinkers on and keep going at what we feel is our mission and to make. Create beautiful pieces and not try to be sidetracked by, say, the cheaper carpets. You know, there's so many less expensive carpets out there, and that's quite hard sometimes.
- [71:10]
Dennis Scully
Well, and as you were just suggesting the tenacity and just pursuing your dream and really staying with it and not being knocked off course, do you feel that that's really what has led to both your success, but also the length of your success, the time? I mean, here you are still so widely, so sought after by so many important designers of our day, and here they are not only coming to you to work on a bespoke carpet or textile, but it sounds like they really want to fold you into their projects and have you advise in any number of areas. So, I mean, what do you think has kept your eye fresh or your sensibility, one that people are still seeking after so much today?
- [72:01]
Christine Vanderhoord
First of all, you have to listen to your client and listen to what they are looking for and work with them, because that's the other thing, is that a lot of designers, they come to us, I feel, to get our opinion. It's not like they're walking in and just saying, okay, this is what I want, and we'd like to order this. It's not about that. It will be about welcome. This is the idea of the schemes of the room, and this is what makes it exciting, is that they love to get our expertise, they love to talk to us. I mean, I have wonderful young women working with me who have got an incredible sense of style, and they have trained in textiles, all of them, pretty much all of them, so that they are, you know, they're able to give that knowledge and what can be done. And they learn. We all learn, Dennis. That's the thing, is that we're always learning and inventing something new. So we love challenges. I think challenges is, well, how do we do this and how do we make it better and how do we do it for the price that the client wants to do it for? So I think that that's what makes it different and what keeps us going or keeps me going? You know, coming into a room full of smiling faces is definitely a great way to start the day, you know, and I. I always get that sense that it. That that's what I built up, that's what I love.
- [73:38]
Dennis Scully
So last summer, when House and Garden gives you a lifetime achievement award. And. And that's all very nice. Right. And I'm sure you can't believe it, but also, how does that make you feel? Does that make you feel like House and Garden is saying, well, time to wrap it up? Thank you so much, Christine. I mean, because you're not feeling that way.
- [74:00]
Christine Vanderhoord
Oh, no.
- [74:01]
Dennis Scully
At all. Right. I feel like you're just hitting your stride. I feel like. Right. You have so much to contribute.
- [74:07]
Christine Vanderhoord
I didn't think that at all. I was literally blown away. I mean, when I got that phone call, I just couldn't believe it. First of all, you know those awards are normally given to interior designers. I was a textile designer, carpet designer, rug, whatever. But I am more than that. I know that, but I just don't. I don't go around sort of blaring it out.
- [74:34]
Dennis Scully
See? And you think you're not British, but I think you're very British in that way, Right?
- [74:38]
Christine Vanderhoord
Probably. Probably. But I think. Think that. No, there was definitely not. At the end of my career, there was no planning on going and living in the hills in Spain or Portugal. And I need. Needed. It's essential to my life to see beautiful things and to create beautiful things. And also I think probably to have. I love the people, the clients. I love being able to discuss things with them. I like meeting new people. So as long as I can keep doing that and they'll keep listening to me, I will keep going. My mother was nearly 99 when she left this world, so maybe I've got a little bit more time left.
- [75:29]
Dennis Scully
Wow. I think a lot of people are gonna hear this, and they're gonna want to work with you. So, I mean, I think maybe you need to get some extra phone lines or. I don' what investments you need to make in the short term, but I think a lot of people are going to say, yes, I want Christine Vanderherd on my project.
- [75:45]
Christine Vanderhoord
Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you.
- [75:47]
Dennis Scully
But I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with you and to talk about your remarkable career and the work that you do, and I'm thrilled that you are receiving so much admiration for it all.
- [76:01]
Christine Vanderhoord
Thank you, Dennis. Thank you very much for this. This is great.
- [76:06]
Dennis Scully
Thanks for listening. If you'd like to keep up with the latest design industry news, visit us online@businessofhome.com where you can sign up for our newsletter, browse job listings, and join our BoH Insider community for access to online workshops, A free print, subscription and much more. If you have a note for the podcast, drop us a line@podcastusinessofhome.com if you're enjoying these conversations, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps others to discover the show. This show was produced by Fred Nicholaus and edited by Michael Castaneda. I'm Dennis Scully. Thanks again for listening and I'll see you next week.