Alidad is an award-winning interior designer, world-renowned for his opulent yet supremely comfortable interiors. He has overseen the architectural restoration of Buscot Park, part of the National Trust, as well as numerous homes for private individuals all over the world, including Beirut, Vienna, London and Paris. He established his eponymous studio after working at Sotheby’s, where he was the youngest departmental director for Islamic works of art and textiles. His style is inspired by an idyllic childhood spent in the ancient, rich and mysterious land of Persia. Invariably his rooms combine a mix of antique, vintage and modern designs, with colour, pattern, texture and scale combined, evoking the faded beauty of 17th- and 18th-century textiles and interiors.
If I were a CAR, I would be a 1932 Daimler 40/50 Double Six Sport Saloon. I am not really a car person; in fact, I have a Toyota Prius which has been mistaken for an Uber before! However, the Daimler Double Six makes me want to be a car person.
If I were a FABRIC, I would choose to be one from the 17th-century. Having started my life in opulent surroundings and having managed to survive the 18th- and 19th-centuries, I would reappear in modern days, still as relevant and beautiful as I was in the 1600s.
If I were a FRUIT, it would be from my native Persia [Iran], where we have a type of melon which no one else has. So I would be a Persian melon: once tasted you’ll never go back!
If I were a CITY, I would choose to be Constantinople [nowadays Istanbul], when it was a melting pot of different cultures. My whole life has been about bringing different things together, from when I was at Sotheby’s to becoming an interior designer. I enjoy celebrating different cultures and to have lived in Constantinople at the height of its power would have been absolutely fascinating.
If I were a SHOE, I would like to be a men’s patent black-tie pump; it’s my link to the 18th century.
If I were a BOAT, I would love to be the steamboat from the 1978 film of Death on the Nile. It might encourage me to slow down and relax a bit.
www.alidad.com
Instagram: @alidad_ltd
@athomewithalidad
