Theme of the month: Anouska Hempel

Anouska Hempel

‘Romantic places? I live in them all the time. Anywhere the trade routes have passed or the trade winds have blown – that’s my territory. I can dream myself into a desert tent playing footsie with Genghis Khan, or a military tent planning strategy with Napoleon. Wherever my imagination finds itself that’s where my rooms begin.’ – Anouska Hempel 2014

Anouska Hempel, Lady Weinberg is a whirlwind of energy whose activities encompass interior, yacht, garden and textile designer, actress, model, hotel design and management (she is credited with inventing the boutique hotel concept) as well as a host of other enterprises that would leave the majority of mere mortals standing. A true visionary, Hempel’s work is celebrated in a glorious new book by  Marcus Binney and published by Thames & Hudson.

Hempel’s style is dark, glamorous (in the true sense) opulent, rigorous and very highly disciplined; it is not for the faint hearted. A room of hers may include museum quality Elizabethan portraits which form a backdrop to a collection of 17th century Chinese porcelain vases arranged on a battered canvas trunk standing on an Indian rug that was hand painted by prisoners in the 18th century.

Her own yacht, the distinctive, black-sailed Beluga 1, is a 28 metre traditional Turkish Gulet which may be chartered when dates are available. The yacht has been described as “an incarnation, as if it sailed in from a myth”

Her own country home of 30 years, Cole Park in Wiltshire, is the epitome of her style from the perfectly manicured gardens to the multi-layered interiors. This is where Hempel entertains; together with her husband, financier Lord Weinberg, she is famous for her generosity, hospitality and joie-de-vivre. Their guests are fortunate indeed.

Anouska Hempel by Marcus Binney is available from Thames & Hudson:  Highly Recommended.

“Anouska Hempel, Lady Weinberg, is of Swiss, German and Irish ancestry. She grew up in New Zealand, arriving in London in the mid-1960s after extensive travels. Here, she established herself as a leading designer renowned for her sophistication and style, creating hotels and interiors as well as sensational gardens, clothes and food. Her practice, Anouska Hempel Design, works extensively in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Middle and Far East.

Marcus Binney studied History of Art and Architecture at Cambridge. His interest in interiors grew from writing articles for Country Life, which were subsequently published as The Great Houses of Europe and became a 39-part television series. His other books include The Ritz Hotel London, In Search of the Perfect House, The Women who Lived for Danger and Secret War Heroes. He is Architecture Correspondent of The Times.” – Thames & Hudson