PROFILE
American
BOY
Jonathan Adler is the poster boy for design that’s tasteful and fun – and his new Notting Hill shop brings him a step closer to world domination. Absolutely meets him Wo r d s P e n d l e H a r t e
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nterior designers aren't generally known for their sense of humour. They're more often pictured in monochrome with sour faces and snooty attitudes to people who can't differentiate between countless shades of grey. The minimalist types wouldn't create a peacock lollipop holder, say, or a ceramic basset hound for your mantelpiece, nor a candlestick shaped like a small cowboy. But there’s a lot of humour in Jonathan Adler’s world. The New York-based potterturned-interior designer and retail genius is loved throughout the States for his quirky and knowing designs that combine easy aesthetics with knowing nods to midcentury design and popular culture. His motto is ‘classical foundation, playful punctuation’ and with a background in semiotics as well as ceramics, he’s well positioned to create pieces with both style and irony, his clear aesthetic sense ensuring that everything is colourful and appealing as well as clever. Though when asked to
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describe his own style, he simply says: ‘preppy potter’. Meeting him in his new Westbourne Grove store, he’s a neat, dapper figure with a warm, American smile. ‘I’m a total Anglophile,’ he says. ‘I have a British husband.’ This is his second UK store (the first is in Chelsea’s Sloane Avenue) and Adler has a particular thing for W11. ‘Notting Hill is one of my favorite neighbourhoods in the world.’ Do we shop differently on this side of the pond? ‘I think so. Brits understand patina like no other people on earth and, because of their sense of history, buy things that they’re going to love forever.’ The shop, predictably, looks fantastic. It’s hard to take it all in without thinking that behind Adler’s cheery façade there must be a relentlessly driven brain, because every single thing in this vast display of homeware, from sofas to rugs, vases and teapots to handbags, mirrors, cushions and cocktail cabinets, is designed by him. And still he refers to himself, modestly, as ‘a potter’, as if he were a lone figure with a wheel and a kiln, rather than an international
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