It takes a very special sort of interior designer to develop such a signature approach to his craft that he becomes synonymous not just with a particular genre of interiors, but more specifically with an actual material. Step forward Mario Buatta, aka The Prince of Chintz. One of America’s most well known interior designers, Buatta has been creating homes for the likes of Barbara Walters, Henry Ford II, Mariah Carey and Billy Joel for five decades – all of whom flock to him for his particularly flamboyant, colorful and print-filled approach to English Country house style. They love his work for it’s canopied beds and luxurious finishes, it’s plush sofas and tented dining rooms, it’s Prussian blues and lemon yellows – and it’s lashings and lashings of his favorite calling card, chintz.
“That nickname was given to me by Chauncey Howell,” he tells us over tea, having popped in to visit me with my mother and sister before racing off to a Macy’s cocktail. “He was on Live at Five at NBC News every day, and he came to the show house I’d worked on at Kip’s Bay in the 1970’s. I did this blue and white bedroom, which was way over the top. Chauncey interviewed all the decorators including me, and said, “Chintz, wince, mince, wince, prince, Prince of Chintz!” And that’s how it happened!”
Born in Staten Island, Buatta had a chequered start to his career, staring off with a brief stint at the Cooper Union studying architecture. “My grandfather built private houses and thought I would be the next architect. I lasted 9 weeks. I hated it and left and got a job at Altman’s the department store, in the decorating department. And then I went from there to Europe with Parsons School, came back a year later, and worked for Elisabeth Draper, then for Keith Irvine.” A product of his own hard graft, Buatta forged his own way, starting his own business after being fired by Irvine. “So it’s been hard work. I don’t believe in school, I mean I’m self-taught. I’ve always trained my eye, ever since I was a little boy. I knew what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. At the back of Ruth Lynford’s book, she wrote, “From the day I was 5 years old, I knew I wanted to be a decorator.” And I was the same.”
Rather than school, Buatta’s major influence was in fact his Aunt Mary, who introduced him to print, color and the joys of a slightly over the top approach. “I was fascinated with my Aunt’s house. Everything she did always had to be bigger and better than everyone else. I learnt a lot from her. If House & Garden said Mediterranean was in for the season, she would have a Mediterranean room. And then the next time, it would be Italian, and she would have an Italian room. I used to like to spend all my time at my Aunt’s house with the chintz. She would have summer chintz, and winter chintz.”
Her approach as well as that of other designers he admired like Nancy Lancaster and John Fowler all served to help form his now unmistakable aesthetic. Best described as English Country glamour, it’s a look that is always dripping in print and luxury, yet manages to remain natural and un-styled (‘undecorated, as he likes to put it,) with a wink towards excess, too. Today, five decades after starting out in the business, Buatta is still on top form as he publishes – finally – his first ever book, a four hundred page tome called Mario Buatta: Five Decades of American Interior Decoration. His self styled ‘Buattapedia,’ it shows the full glory of the Prince of Chintz’s reign. “Everyone has always laughed at it, they think its silly,” he says of his name and the reputation that it carries. “But I’m still the Prince!” Well quite!
Read our next post coming soon on Mario Buatta’s Top Tips for Decorating, Entertaining and Generally Being Chic…
Mario Buatta: Five Years of American Interior Decoration is out now
http://www.amazon.com/Mario-Buatta-American-Interior-Decoration/dp/0847840727