"Timeless and under-decorated, her rooms combine carefree Caribbean culture with British colonial form and formality."
The cover of India Hicks: Island Style (Rizzoli, $45).
The cover of India Hicks: Island Style (Rizzoli, $45).
Photo courtesy of Rizzoli.
Architectural Digest.
India Hicks served as a bridesmaid at the 1981 wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles, who is India's godfather and second cousin. As of 2012, Hicks was 678th in line to the throne (source):
India Hicks served as a bridesmaid at the 1981 wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles, who is India's godfather and second cousin. As of 2012, Hicks was 678th in line to the throne (source):
"The 1981 wedding party. From back, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, Diana and Charles, Edward van Cutsem; front: Lord Nicholas Windsor, Clementine Hambro, Catherine Cameron, India Hicks, Sarah-Jane Gaselee and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones."
Photo copyright Getty Images.
"Same place, same pose... but two very different stories: Why Kate and William's official photo points to a happier future than Charles and Di" by Polly Dunbar for Mail Online.
Daily Mail U.K. (April 30, 2011).
An independent spirit, Hicks was expelled from Gordonstoun for hosting boys in her room. [Her cousin Prince Charles was miserable at this Scottish boarding school, which has educated many royals.] Hicks has never married her longtime partner David Flint Wood, with whom she has four children. [India adopted a fifth, a local teenaged boy, after his mother died.] " 'At the moment marriage is not something I need particularly, and I do see many crumbling all around, often after a very few years,' "she told the London Evening Standard ["Runaway Bridesmaid" by Marianne Macdonald, March 29, 2004] more than ten years ago. The article hints that her upbringing by nannies and the wedding of Charles and Diana may have influenced her. " 'We helped her get dressed. She was in jeans and tiara, the TV next to her, and she kept shooing everyone away so she could watch it. Now, as an adult, looking back, I think she was so young. So young! ' "
Photo copyright: Dolce Magazine.
"Life of I: India Hicks" by Simone Panette.
Dolce Magazine (May 28, 2013).
This assured photo of India Hicks contrasts with the infamous picture taken of a Lady Diana Spencer, who unknowingly wore a see-through skirt while working as a teacher of young children before her marriage to Prince Charles:
"Diana – then, in 1980, a kindergarten teacher at the exclusive Young England school in Pimlico, London – keeps a close hold on two of her students in one of the first shots of the future princess, which would also be among her first controversies. The backlit Diana didn't realize her skirt was transparent."
Credit: REX USA.
"Princess Diana: Images We Can't Forget" by Cara Lynn Shultz.
People Magazine (June 23, 2011).
An independent spirit, Hicks was expelled from Gordonstoun for hosting boys in her room. [Her cousin Prince Charles was miserable at this Scottish boarding school, which has educated many royals.] Hicks has never married her longtime partner David Flint Wood, with whom she has four children. [India adopted a fifth, a local teenaged boy, after his mother died.] " 'At the moment marriage is not something I need particularly, and I do see many crumbling all around, often after a very few years,' "she told the London Evening Standard ["Runaway Bridesmaid" by Marianne Macdonald, March 29, 2004] more than ten years ago. The article hints that her upbringing by nannies and the wedding of Charles and Diana may have influenced her. " 'We helped her get dressed. She was in jeans and tiara, the TV next to her, and she kept shooing everyone away so she could watch it. Now, as an adult, looking back, I think she was so young. So young! ' "
Photo copyright: Dolce Magazine.
"Life of I: India Hicks" by Simone Panette.
Dolce Magazine (May 28, 2013).
This assured photo of India Hicks contrasts with the infamous picture taken of a Lady Diana Spencer, who unknowingly wore a see-through skirt while working as a teacher of young children before her marriage to Prince Charles:
Credit: REX USA.
"Princess Diana: Images We Can't Forget" by Cara Lynn Shultz.
People Magazine (June 23, 2011).
Hicks has noted that her relationship with her famed father was difficult, although she is thankful for their time together, and she has found her own style in the Bahamas. “Everything I do is understated. Everything my father did was overstated” is a quote from Dolce Magazine ["Life of I: India Hicks" by Simone Panette (May 28, 2013)]. A successful businesswoman who has created collections for Crabtree and Evelyn and HSN, Hicks designs jewelry and sells beauty items and accessories on her website, indiahicks.com. She began a modeling career working for Emilio Pucci, a friend of her parents, and wrote her first book, Island Life (2004), with David Flint Woods. Ralph Lauren wrote the foreword to that tome:
Image via Amazon.
The next few images are from Hicks's forthcoming book:
Image via Amazon.
The next few images are from Hicks's forthcoming book:
"Hicks furnished the dining room of her Bahamas retreat with a table and chairs she purchased in New Orleans."
Photo: Miguel Flores Vianna.
"To streamline the appearance of her library, Hicks organizes books by color."
Photo: Miguel Flores Vianna.
"An inviting hammock is located outside the property's guesthouse."
Photo: Miguel Flores Vianna.
"The tablescape from the New Year's Eve party Hicks . . . hosted . . . to ring in 2014."
Photo: Vince Klassen.
"The sitting room is anchored by a boldly hued sofa."
Photo: Miguel Flores Vianna.
"India Hicks' lush Bahamas garden."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"Tropical breezes beckon. India, who mostly eschews air-conditioning, loves to live outdoors."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"India, partner David Flint Wood, and their daughter Domino relax. Behind them looms the property’s imposing Bismarckia palm tree."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"India shares a laugh with Domino, who was named for the 'Bond girl' in the movie Thunderball, which was filmed in the Bahamas."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
India Hicks with one of her sons.
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Set with the tropical bounty of pomegranates and pineapples, a table is covered by one of the versatile, washable quilts India designed for HSN."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"David designed it, and India decorated the inside. Now painted pink and white for Domino, it has gone through several renovations as the hangout for her older brothers." [See the house in its red-white-and-blue iteration below.]
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"Domino reads in the doorway of her candy-colored playhouse."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"David had it made for India, whose late father, designer David Hicks, loved all things Egyptian. The obelisk is one of her most prized possessions, along with a folding travel clock given to her at birth by her godfather, the Prince of Wales, and artwork by her children preserved in the scrapbooks she keeps."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"When India was designing her Island Living line for HSN, she heard the voice of her late father, designer David Hicks, saying, 'Good taste and design are by no means dependent upon money.' The collection reflects her philosophy. 'Rather than live in an over-decorated house, I like a home with a lived-in feel, highly personal effects around me, and a slightly sophisticated edge—but very family-oriented,' she says.
Motifs for her washable quilts (dachshund Banger poses on one, above, on India’s bedroom terrace) come from the ocean where she swims. 'They don’t need to live in a bedroom,' she says. 'I use them as blankets for picnics on the beach and wrap the kids in them in front of the TV.' ”
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"Bougainvillea adds a jolt of color to the mostly quiet plant palette."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"A candlelit table on the terrace is adorned with seashells and delicate frangipani blossoms."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Model, Designer India Hicks’ Home in the Bahamas" written by Rebecca Christian.
"Our home has evolved over time, layer upon layer, into a truthful representation of who we are. It is not a status symbol and certainly lacks pretension. Hibiscus Hill was built in the 1950s, but we endeavored to make the villa look like it was built in the 1850s. The house sits on three acres of rolling garden that stretch inland from the top of the dunes, with jungle on two sides and a valley of coconut palms on the other. The site looks out over the distant rooftops of town to the harbor and the setting sun."
India and Domino at play.
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
'
"When we originally saw the house, peeking in the windows together, it was love at first sight. David remembers that I said simply, 'It feels like home.' That was in 1996. During the next fifteen years, we have enjoyed transforming Hibiscus Hill."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
"Wherever possible, David and I removed the original cement, tile and glass and replaced them with the softer and more natural materials of wood, paper and straw. In the dining and sitting rooms, we overlaid the floors with wood, using some unusually large fir planks that are a foot wide and, in some cases, sixteen feet long. We stained them a dark oak shade, although they now boast an aged patina of their own.
The dining room, with antique furniture, bespeaks hospitality by way of pineapple table lamps and a bronze ice bucket as centerpiece."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
"Travel is one of our most effective sources of inspiration, and we found a large quantity of our furniture, including our dining table and chairs, in New Orleans. Almost all the rooms in the house are decorated in fairly muted tones, offering a respite from the brightness outside. That is, apart from the odd moment when we broke the rule and painted a staircase bougainvillea pink, upholstered a sofa in dusty watermelon and painted a study in screaming fire-engine red.
Classic Caribbean low-key style mixes with a French antique mantel and mirror."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
"Our two studies express different styles: his and hers, decorated without compromise. Hers, the red office, took four coats of gloss to cover the drywall. His is the more predictably masculine study, where the atmosphere is something like a captain's cabin on an old schooner. The mahogany-stained bookshelves and the flush brass door handles were purchased from a boat chandler.
David's study, in mahogany and Brazilian ipê, charts a masculine course with its zebra-hide safari chair, sailboat model and seascapes."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
Veranda.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
Veranda.
"My famed interior decorator father, David Hicks, was renowned for using almost any available flat surface to create what he termed 'tablescapes.' This inheritance has become something of an obsession in our house. The center of our sitting room is dominated by a mini-museum of disparate and eccentric objects.
In India's study, a sketch of her mother."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
Veranda.
"A traditional cotton canopy dresses the four-poster bed named after her grandfather [Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India]."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
Veranda.
"The bedroom walls are covered by hand-colored tropical bird prints, found in London and dated 1820. They reinforce the feeling of a period plantation house. We cherish the original floor tiles, manufactured by Cubans and brought to Nassau in the 1950s.
An unprecious blend of furniture in a breezy guest bedroom."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
Veranda.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
Veranda.
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
Veranda.
An unprecious blend of furniture in a breezy guest bedroom."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
Veranda.
"We try to give the rooms of our four children a strong sense of individuality yet never drift too far from our DNA: a combination of international lives, classic British taste, including its eccentricities, and the traditions and flavor of the Caribbean."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
"Jenga, the family's macaw."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
"India's travels on safari in Africa inspire her to set a formal table outside in the open."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
"Domino's antique bed nestles in a nook amid hand-colored English prints."
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
"India's desk holds one of her favorite mementos: a rose from Princess Diana's bridal bouquet. (India was one of the flower girls at the royal wedding.)"
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
India Hicks on left (arm bent with hand behind her head) before 1981 wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles.
"The girls wore scalloped dresses with yellow sashes by Emanuel, and carried baskets of yellow roses and wildflowers. Fashion editor Suzy Menkes wrote in the The Times that they looked like 'they could have been plucked from a Victorian child's scrapbook.' "
Photo: Lichfield/Getty Images.
Editor: Lauren Matthews.
"Felix, Amory, Conrad and Domino's playhouse, designed by their father and painted red, white and blue after the Union Jack." [An earlier version of the playhouse that later is painted pink.]
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna.
"Inside India Hicks' Bahamian Home" by India Hicks.
India Hicks with one of her sons.
Hibiscus Hill, the Bahamian home of India Hicks, David Flint Wood, and their children.
Photography by Colleen Duffley.
"Our home is a storehouse of family history, a living archive that holds the treasures of our personal life. It speaks of where we've been, who we are and the distinctive style cultivated by our journey together." - India Hicks to Veranda.
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