Persian-born, Swiss-educated, and London-based, the interior designer known simply as Alidad is very much a citizen of the world. Or, as he himself puts it, a little more self-deprecatingly: “I belong everywhere and nowhere - and I rather like that.”
Fir cones and fruit lend a seasonal touch to the mantelpiece in the drawing room. Skirted table draped in an Alidad for Pierre Frey fabric; lampshades in Les Indiennes prints; mirror, Brownrigg.
Whichever way you phrase it, this cosmopolitan nature is key to his layered, hyper-eclectic approach to decoration, where Louis XV chairs and Flemish tapestries jostle with 19th-century English furniture, antiquarian prints, and Middle Eastern patterns - all in a single room.
Custom sofa in a Pierre Frey fabric; Victorian side chair (left) in a Colony fabric; tapestry, 17th-century Flemish; Aubusson rug.
It's assembled with a scholarly eye, as you might expect of the former head of Islamic art and textiles at Sotheby's; indeed, Alidad describes his path to becoming a decorator as a case of searching around to find something similar to do, having surrounded himself with antique fabrics for so long.
In the dramatic dining room, a celebratory meal is enjoyed by candlelight-even the chandelier is lit with tapers. The table is set with a variety of glassware, from antique Chippendale to contemporary Mexican. Alidad designed the dining chairs; 19th-century English dining service; Italian wrought iron-and-gilt wood chandelier; custom hand-painted and embossed-leather walls.
This festive season is the time of year when his apartment, deep in the heart of Mayfair, comes into its own - a warm retreat from the gray drizzle of a London winter. After all, the way we celebrate Christmas now feels very Alidad: a lived-in, familiar amalgam of traditions from a diverse range of sources, among them ancient Rome, 19th-century Germany, and 1930s America, when the Coca-Cola company popularized the modern-day image of a jolly, white-bearded Santa Claus.
The apartment's red-and-gold palette provides an ideal holiday backdrop. Outside a powder room, a hallway is lined with a Kirkby Design faux suede trimmed with gold braid from Turnell & Gigon; vanity in Crema Marfil stone; 20th-century Italian plaster relief of Nero.
When Alidad is in town for the holidays, he loves to invite groups of friends for supper in the intimate, candlelit dining room, commissioning a seasonal centerpiece by the florist John Carter to complement the hand-painted vines that trail across his embossed-leather walls.
This cozy apartment has been his base since the 1980s, and it represents his earliest work as a decorator: specifically, the red-walled library, a “very masculine” space, like something out of a Sherlock Holmes story. (A study in scarlet, you might say.) The walls - and ceiling - were painted with a pattern that evokes Islamic geometry, and then the layering began: antique prints, neoclassical busts, a cross-legged Buddha, and, of course, dozens of cushions and throws in mismatched fabrics, antique and modern.
Alidad awaits guests in the library, where oversize Christmas stockings hang from the 19th-century marble mantel. Custom sofa in a Colony fabric with Turnell & Gigon fringe; William IV rosewood bergère (rear left); Victorian slipper chair (right); green lamp, Vaughan.
Dominating one wall is a picture of huge-turbaned plenipotentiaries, an oversize copy of one in Istanbul's Topkapi Palace; opposite it hangs a portrait of Alidad himself, painted in this very room by the fashion designer Victor Edelstein.
A custom headboard with gold braid trim creates grandeur in the bedroom. Bedcover, 19th-century suzani; lamp, Vaughan; framed costume design by Léon Bakst.
This seems somehow appropriate, because Alidad's high-end work has certain affinities with couture: intricately tailored and catering to an exclusive (and largely anonymous) clientele. It also looks beyond the transient fripperies of fashion to a more timeless concept of elegance: “When I'm decorating a room, I want it to look as if it's been there for a long time,” he says, “and as though different generations have added their mark to it.”
Walls in panels of Romo linen and Kirkby Design faux suede with studded braid work; circa-1825 walnut chest; 19th-century French mirror; Victorian stool in an Alidad for Pierre Frey fabric. Circa-1840 Victorian secretary, Merchant House Antiques; 19th-century armchair.
In keeping with this ethos, the apartment's decor has been subtly refined over the past few decades, rather than revamped wholesale - even when the ceiling came down in three separate places due to water damage emanating from an upstairs apartment, he was loath to move out and redecorate. For the man who belongs everywhere and nowhere, then, this must feel a lot like home.
This story was originally published in the November 2017 issue of Veranda.
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