India Mahdavi Wants Her Dreamy New Line for H&M Home to “Spread Beauty” | Architectural Digest

Bold hues have always enraptured India Mahdavi—so much so that they have become a hallmark of the Paris-based architect and designer’s chic interiors. (Her recent golden revamp of Sketch’s gallery in London is poised to become as memorable as her all-pink iteration.) A new range of ceramics and textiles—a collaboration between the designer and H&M Home that launches online and in select stores on April 28—is yet another exploration of her fascination with color’s mood-influencing power.

A follow-up to the Swedish brand’s 2021 partnership with Diane von Furstenberg, the India Mahdavi x H&M Home collection captures the designer’s desire to democratize her work and “make it accessible to everyone,” the designer tells AD PRO. Mahdavi, who has previously joined forces with retail behemoths like Monoprix, recognizes that many of the objects she has designed in the past were produced in small batches, inevitably translating to steeper prices. But it is important to Mahdavi that her vision transcends the luxury realm, and that her oeuvre is marked by flexibility and “abolishing borders.”

The H&M Home debut, then, is a way for Mahdavi to “spread beauty on a large scale,” she says, with affordable, joy-inducing pieces in bright, mix-and-match shades like lilac, tangerine, lime, and royal blue. In planning the collection, Mahdavi hand-picked European manufacturers from H&M Home’s suppliers with a special reverence for craftsmanship.

There are plates, bowls, ripple-rimmed mugs, and pitchers, as well as placemats, cushions, and even a blanket and rug. All promise to imbue living spaces with an inviting cheerfulness and handmade sensibility. Some of these creations showcase an organic gradient palette, made up of soft pinks and yellows that “melt into each other,” points out Mahdavi. “Many people are scared of color, but this is an easy way to approach it.”

Along with such striking tonal combinations as chartreuse layered over peppermint, there is a feel-good floral pattern and a blurred checkerboard motif. Mahdavi drew her first sketches for the series during lockdown, and that era’s pervasive uncertainty manifested in her designs. “Everything was so foggy at the time, so the out-of-focus print is a reflection of that period and where we still are now, where we don’t see the future sharply,” she explains.