Nina Campbell Interior Decoration: Elegance and Ease by Giles Kime

Since first she went to work for Colefax & Fowler, at the ripe old age of 19, that very British decorator, Nina Campbell, has risen (deservedly) to lofty heights and international acclaim.

Very much a Sloane Ranger - she was actually born on Sloane Street, and her shop has been at the same address, round the corner on Walton Street, for nearly 50 years - she has lived, from her birth, in a succession of elegant homes within walking distance, as has her daughter, Rita Konig, herself very much in the trade (she writes for House & Garden).

Nina Campbell's 3-year apprenticeship to her mentor, John Fowler, led to independence and almost instant success while she was still in her 20s. Her early partnership with Mark Birley in his 1963 revamping of Annabel's - London's louche and rather more elegant counterpart to New York's Studio 54 - proved both the litmus test and turning point in her fledgling career, which thereupon promptly took off. Deploying classic British style in true Colefax, floral fashion, but adding a distinctive layer of flair of her own, she soon branched out into fabrics, wallpapers and accessories, partnering with Peter Osborne and Anthony Little in their own, fledgling firm, now itself a legend.

Endowed with biting wit and an innate gift for repartee, Nina was, even then, a character. In a memorable encounter with Elena Bowes on November 18th, 2018, regarding the impending sale of the contents of 44 Berkeley Street (Annabel's has since moved next door), she engagingly recalled the following:

I remember when I had just been taken on by Mark to do the club…. I was about 19. I had never been to a urinal. I mean, why would you? And I was also trying desperately to sound intelligent. So we go into the men’s room which is beautiful because there’s this wonderful onyx on the wall and there’s a ticker tape in the corner with all the Reuters news coming in. And then there’s this wall of white porcelain urinals.

I really do find them quite unattractive… Everyone’s there. Mark’s there. The picture hanger’s there because we were thinking of hanging up pictures. I was struggling, thinking what could I add to this?  I see that there’s no loo paper holder. And I say, “Oh, you don’t have a loo paper holder here.” … I had no idea that men just peed and shook themselves dry. And of course, the whole place collapsed in hysteria. I had clearly made the most unbelievably stupid remark.  I’m quite amused that the urinal is being sold. I think if I had a huge house I might just buy one for memory’s sake.
Courtesy Elena Bowes - Nov 18, 2018

Connected to high society, internationally and in all its forms, but a highly astute businesswoman withal, Nina Campbell has now met her Boswell in Giles Kime, whose own experience as Executive Editor of Country Life, with a particular affection for interior design, stands him here in good stead. Colourful, expansive and thorough, his book is an ideal account of Nina Campbell's meteoric rise, and singular achievements, to date.

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