Cannes Film Festival is once again upon us — a timely reminder that some of the best interior design projects are film-sets. From the four-poster dreams of fairytale castles, to the eery perfection of Patrick Bateman’s New York apartment, there are endless cinematic design schemes that have become icons of contemporary popular culture. Piercing this convergence of reality and fantasy with our own creativity, Topfloor has seen its rug designs featured in films, such as 2007 thriller Sleuth. Creating a fictitious world, production designers use carefully curated interior and design items to create a look void of ambiguity that provides a visual insight into the atmosphere and mood of the storyline.
The symbiosis of these two visual outlets — film and design — is a two way street, and when it came to our 2014 Jazz Age collection, design director Esti took great inspiration from the Jazz Age and Art Deco style, reinterpreting it for the contemporary interior. Each of the six striking designs is named after an equally memorable Hollywood star.
Fashion designer Tom Ford studied architecture at Parson’s School of Design and his meticulous sense of space and eye for detail are evident in the 2016 crime drama Nocturnal Animals, which he directed. Like any professional interior designer, Ford apparently filled 3 ring binders with cuttings and sketches from which he culled just the right locations, furnishings and objects to capture the dark and often violent mood of the film.
Another film director who has inspired a 21st-century obsession with film aesthetics is Wes Anderson. Known for his love of symmetry, pastel hues and flawless uniformity, the über-cool creative has produced a string of cult classics since the launch of his career in 1992. His latest release, Isle of Dogs, was celebrated with an immersive London exhibition of the film’s model sets, complete with a pop-up ramen noodle bar. Fans and critics alike recognise the genius in his approach to taking real life and using poetic licence to embellish and enhance it, and queues for the exhibition itself could be found trailing through London’s West End.
Although his work in stop-motion has received wide acclaim, it is Anderson’s hyper-stylised live-action pictures that have proved to be a catalyst for social media users’ love of precise styling and monochrome art direction. Must-watches include The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). One of the best Instagram accounts out there is @accidentallywesanderson. Racking up an impressive 355k followers in under a year, the vibrant feed is bursting with photography of real life locations that give visitors a taste of what life would be like if we lived in one of Anderson’s films. Below is one of our favourites, why not give them a follow and find your own?