Carina ClaassensWe chat to Heather Moore, designer and owner of much-loved decor brand Skinny laMinx, about who inspires her, her favourite item in her home and her top decor tips
What’s your top tip for anyone wanting to be a designer?
I’d suggest getting off the computer and start making things with your hands. That’s the best way to figure out what your style is all about.
Interior of Heather Moore’s home
Favourite item in your home right now?
On an outrageously hot New Year’s Day this year, I went shopping for a rug for our newly-renovated apartment, and still can’t believe how lucky I was to find a beautiful and very unusual kilim within about five minutes of looking.
Your guilty pleasure?
Roast beef flavoured potato crisps (I’m a vegetarian!)
The super handy, not to mention stylish, Alexander Sack in Concrete Breeze
Favourite restaurant, coffee shop or café?
Just around the corner from our apartment is The Power & the Glory cafe, which manages to transition daily from a breezy, fresh breakfast spot to a noisy bar at night, attracting all ages. It’s the perfect meeting spot, all day long.
If you weren’t a designer what would you be?
It changes all the time, but essentially, I’d like to be somebody who is really, really good at what they do. I’ve just watched the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, so this week, I’d choose to be a disco-dancing backing singer with an enormous voice and platform heels.
Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
I think I’ll be inspired forever by the way early-to-mid 20th century designers and architects used colour and shape to re-imagine the way we live. My heart starts racing whenever I page through my decor books from the 1950s and ‘60s and see those simple materials, beautiful shapes, open spaces and extraordinary colour combinations.
Skinny laMinx scatters and upholstered Mid-Century Modern chair
If you could do one thing to lift a room, what would it be?
Add plants or flowers.
What’s the best thing you ever bought?
I wish I could say that our two sweet kitties were sent to us from heaven, but we did pay hard cash for both the Siamese and the Burmese cat. Worth every penny.
What decor rule needs to be retired?
Why, oh why, did anyone ever give a scatter pillow a karate chop in the first place?
Skinny laMinx scatters in various fabrics and colours
What’s your most indispensable decor accessory?
Great lighting is what it’s all about.
What’s your dream project?
I’m working on it right now: a complete renovation and overhaul of the Skinny laMinx shop in Bree Street, Cape Town! Although, in my dream, I’d have an unlimited budget, and I’d take over the shop next door, and open a cafe too!
What has been the highlight of your career?
Of course, opening a shop in Cape Town’s top shopping street has been a definite high point, but there have been so many others. I thought my head would pop off when we were first featured on the Design*Sponge blog in 2008, and I nearly fell over when, upon my first visit to NYC, I was stopped on the street to ask if I was Skinny laMinx!
An upcoming major highlight, and something we’re super-thrilled about, is our exciting DIMENSIONAL fabric collaboration with Heath Ceramics, launching in October.
Your decor style in three words?
Simple, considered, chic.
Instagram, Twitter or Facebook?
Instagram is my favourite, for all the aesthetically-pleasing fun and friendliness (with witty memes too).
