Love, Muriel
“Yes, David helped me decorate my homes in New York and London. Yes, he built beautiful handcrafted furniture for me. Yes, he found gorgeous linens and silks in Greece, Italy and Thailand and brought them back to transform into curtains or reupholster an odd set of chairs. Yes, he took me to antique shops in Paris and turned me on to the most exquisite Fornasetti lamps.
And then there was his infectious appreciation for the subtle beauty of every gradation of blue. When I think of David, I think of blue. Then again, when I think of David, I feel blue because I miss him! I’m always in desperate need of his advice, input and direction.
When I look around my houses in New York or London, I am struck by what an influence he has had on me. He has left his souvenirs everywhere: his touch, his taste, his flair and his blue.
He has influenced the way my homes look, of course, but he’s had a much bigger impact on my life.
Nevertheless, he showed up when I was feeling lonely and working in London for a long period of time without a single friend to drink with, gossip with or cry on the shoulder of. At that time, I saw London as a bleak, grey place, full of men-only pubs, bad food and a culture I could not appreciate or access.
Now don’t get your knickers in a twist all you Brits, because obviously I don’t feel the same way any more. But at the time, London and Londoners were foreign and unfamiliar, and my time there felt like a prison sentence.
That is, until David walked into my life – or should I say swanned in… looking dapper of course. This handsome Irish fellow with strawberry blonde hair, nerdy glasses and trademark blue suit changed my life.”
This is an excerpt of what Madonna wrote as the foreword to “Abcdcs: David Collins Studio“, the new hard-cover monography about the work of her late friend David Collins, the Irish architect and interior designer who re-shaped some of the most intrigueing interiors of the past decades, from private houses to luxury resorts.
Abcdcs: David Collins Studio, by David Collins with a foreword by Madonna, is published by Assouline next month.
Read the rest of Madonna’s touching and personal tribute on Mr. Porter by clicking here.
