Anouska Hempel Quotes

Anouska Hempel

Profession : Actress

Birth : December 13, 1941

I feel that, historically, the Art Deco period has the most resonance for me. As a person, it has to be the plucky Clara Bow, the heroine of American silent movies of the 1920s. She embodied feminine dressing mixed with men's style. All this then evolved into the exquisite style and simplicity of Coco Chanel.

Anouska Hempel

I'm never short of inspiration. There are always new ideas - and new adventures.

Anouska Hempel

I'm not an interior decorator; I'm a designer, and that includes the architecture. The package must be strong and controlled, the rooms aligned, and the windows positioned to make sense with the furniture. Fluff it up, and you've got big trouble.

Anouska Hempel

I like people. Listen, if you're a hotelier, if you're a creative person, and you're working with the things that I do, then you have to like people; otherwise, you simply can't get anywhere.

Anouska Hempel

England used to be known for making beautiful things. Then we became the rag trade, known for our street fashions, which were picked up around the world. I want us to be recognized for quality. We have the hands to make the clothes. What we need is the motivation.

Anouska Hempel

The champagne tastes the same if you're sitting bolt upright or sunk back into a sofa, so you might as well be upright, because you look better.

Anouska Hempel

Design, refine and repeat, and keep learning all the way along. It sounds bland and pedestrian, but in fact, it's the reverse.

Anouska Hempel

Unless a design is infused with a personality - and by that, I mean mine or someone else who really understands what design is all about - it will never, ever have any mystery.

Anouska Hempel

I always like to read something romantic about the place I'm visiting.

Anouska Hempel

Work's a way of life. It's the way you live; it's what you do, and it's how it is. It's not work. It's a lifestyle. It's life. It's what one does. You can't not work.

Anouska Hempel

I really should have been a pharaoh - do you know that?

Anouska Hempel

It is not me who is to be noticed. It is my work.

Anouska Hempel

Never let anyone go home feeling bad at night. You can bark away during the day, but you must always put that right.

Anouska Hempel

The building I most admire is the Doges Palace in Venice, both by day and by night. Looking at it from the lagoon, it resembles a floating kilim carpet. I love all the bridges which connect houses, people, gardens and palaces. I also love moats to isolate yourself. A ha-ha for secrecy, as in every English country garden.

Anouska Hempel

'It can't be done' is not a phrase I recognize.

Anouska Hempel

When building in a place that already has a dominant style, it's important to behave yourself. Look around; refer to what you see. In the mountains above Salzburg, I saw charming chalets and wildflower meadows. The chalets are cozy - I don't do cozy. The meadows are in a soft disarray - I don't do soft, and I don't do disarray. I do order.

Anouska Hempel

The architect who first inspired me to follow this profession was Sir John Soane and his Regency home; well, his three homes, now a museum. The place is like an encyclopedia of paintings, antiquities, furniture, sculptures, and drawings.

Anouska Hempel

I buy the best fabrics from small mills in Italy. That is the basis for my clothes.

Anouska Hempel

Comfort? If a choice has to be made between style and comfort, style wins every time.

Anouska Hempel

A house must be bedded in the landscape. They both have to work together. In and out, every view from a window has to be sensational. Every view into the house must be the same to ensure continuity.

Anouska Hempel