Clodagh, who appears to have dispensed with the encumbrance of a last name, is a curious mixture of qualities: she is clearly very determined, good at business, does not suffer fools gladly and may even still have the vestiges of the Irish temper she claims to have conquered. Yet her life and her work have been dedicated to achieving calm and promoting the importance of simple human kindness. Well ahead of others who translated their own lifestyles into signature design businesses, Clodagh was one of the first designers to create a total ‘look’ based on her own personal philosophies. Her showroom on lower Broadway, where we interviewed her, is a lovely space showcasing pieces that emphasize the grace of organic, non-linear design and natural materials.
Is that your dog sleeping on top of the desk over there?
No, he belongs to one of my designers. We were a five-dog studio now we’re a two-dog studio. I had two dogs. One lived to be 24 and one lived to be 19. I found one in the street. He was just sitting there whimpering. I was jogging and I just ran on. Then something clicked in me and I turned around and ran back and said ‘Do want to come home and have breakfast with me?’ He was the one who lived to be 24.
You were a fashion designer in your home country of Ireland. How old were you when you came to live in this country?
That’s one question you can’t ask. You can’t ask my age or the size of my waist.
Bronze objects from the Congo stand in front of the Espen Eiborg painting.
Stoughton Outlan’s ‘Flat Casting #16’ hangs above the ‘Bolacha’ coffee table made from recovered Tamburiuva wood.
Wooden sticks from Africa once used for sculpture, are now sculpture themselves, destined for a Manhattan apartment.
Oh. I always ask people’s ages. Okay, so what month were you born in?
I’m a Libra. Totally. We’re good people. We’re always balancing out other people’s lives and then if it gets a bit too smooth we give it a sharp dig with our elbow and unbalance it and then we start balancing everybody out again.
Do you drive yourself crazy by seeing two sides to everything all the time?
No. I drive other people crazy by seeing both sides, particularly if they come in whining. I say ‘Look, O. Henry said there are always two sides to every question. Let’s first look at the other.’
A painting by Espen Eiborg, ‘Feldspar’, was part of an exhibition held in the showroom last spring.
The massage chair was custom-designed by the spa expert herself, Clodagh.
A large soaking tub, also designed by Clodagh for her Spa Collection.
Do you have a large family?
I was the youngest. I had a brother and a sister. They are up in the sky, with the dogs. I have two children, one in Amsterdam and one in Dublin and another child who also is up in the sky. I have a grandchild in Amsterdam and two grandchildren in Ireland and step-grandchildren. The family got very small and then expanded again.
Have your sons followed creative careers?
My youngest son started out as drummer and then he started designing bars and lounges and now he’s retired from that and he’s doing fine art. He’s been an artist-in-residence in various places. And my other son runs an advertising agency in Amsterdam.
Feng Shui seems to be an important part of your design process. Can you tell us a little about it?
I opened the company here in 1983 and I found a feng shui master without knowing anything about feng shui. I believe in zero degrees of separation. If something needs to find you, they find you. I understood [it] immediately. Feng shui informs design, it is not design itself. Think of energy, we’re all energy. It is about placement of buildings, where a building is embraced by its land, and it also enhances relationships, and it enhances sex, and it enhances money. So if you’re doing a store, where you put the cash register is extremely important.
What if that collides with practicalities?
Well, there are cures. A lot of feng shui is about opening up opportunity and prosperity.
Through the archways: The office area of the showroom seats some 20 staff designers and architects, and one sleepy little Pomeranian.
A lot of the pieces in this showroom are immensely solid …
That’s to do with me, actually. I like things that are immensely solid. I was brought up in a family where there was polished mahogany that you couldn’t touch, there was silver that you had to polish, there was crystal that was extremely valuable, that they were afraid would be broken and I never want to be in house like that again. I feel a house should support its inhabitants. Durable, low maintenance, don’t worry if dogs, cats, children go flying around.
How much pleasure do you derive from the practical aspects of design?
I go by a quote, which I love. Ann Lee of the Shakers said: ‘Don’t make something unless it can be useful. If it can be useful, why not make it beautiful?’ So I don’t design wildly decorative things. When I grow up I’d like to maybe do some large outdoor sculptures. I like working on a very large scale.
A view of the showroom.
L. to r.: Stone mortars and pottery bowls from ‘Chile’ line the showroom;
Hanging lamps designed by Peter O’Kennedy (Clodagh’s son) illuminate the showroom space.
What do you do to decompress after work?
I love to cook. I’m vegan and it’s actually very useful to be able to cook. When I travel, I usually get a cook book [from the country where I’m traveling]. I also try to get into a kitchen [there] and into the markets because I believe if you see the belly of a country you understand a country better. My husband is an omnivore, so he has his side of the kitchen.
What made you decide to become a vegan?
I think I was a closet vegetarian and then I went to see a movie that turned me into a real vegetarian. It started with an autopsy. That was the opening scene. And then we went out afterwards and Daniel [my husband] said would you like a hamburger and I said ‘No, I have decided to become a vegetarian.’ It was a little bit like when you see Damien Hirst’s work and you see the pigs sliding by each other. You realize that pigs or cows have the same set of organs as we have, so basically you’re eating yourself. You’re eating a feeling, loving creature. I was brought up in the west of Ireland, in Oscar Wilde’s old home, where I was born. We had this old Victorian house that Oscar Wilde’s father had built. We had chickens and geese. I used to remember that the goose that had been chasing you would suddenly land up on the New Year’s table, and I didn’t like that as a child.
Clodagh’s showroom is mix of her designs and the work of craftsmen that she has chosen to represent.
Staff meetings and daily lunch gatherings are held at this oversized dining table in the rear of the showroom.
Do you drink alcohol?
Oh yes! I’m Irish! [laughs] My husband is French, so he likes good wine.
How did you get your start in this business?
I started my business when I was 17 so I didn’t know what the hell I was doing really. My parents wanted to shove me in to mathematics and classics, because that was something I did very well in school. But I had a bad riding accident and was on my back for almost a year and I thought life’s too short. I saw this ad that said ‘Why not be a fashion designer?’ I borrowed £400 from my mother. My father locked me out and my mother supported me. My father wouldn’t let me home. Look, I’m the child of downwardly mobile aristocratic Irish! How about that? They sold antiques to put us through school. Nobody went into ‘trade’ in that kind of family.
This curvaceous ‘Double Chair’ made from Mvule wood by Belgian designer, Marc Rampelberg, stands in front and center in the showroom. Tucked in the corner are ladders from the Dogon tribe of Africa.
L. to r: Abstract ceiling fixtures by Stephane Pagani (above) hang from the showroom ceiling.
Part of a carefully edited presentation for one of Clodagh’s spa projects.
Do you ever go back?
Yes I do. We bought a 300-year old cowshed in west Cork, which we are converting into a family reunion place. It’s going to be fabulous. We’re a very tight family. We all love each other a lot … but we’re all geographically undesirable – ‘GU’.
Do you travel a great deal?
Yes, I have traveled extensively. I’m a good traveler and I don’t get jet lag. I figured out it was a very useless thing to have, so I just told myself it was stupid. I get off the plane and go into the rhythm of whatever is going on. And don’t even use the word. Nobody, I think, fully understands the importance of words and the vibrations of words, how it can be bring down your energy. Words do hurt you.
Clodagh and her staff make use of the open seating for frequent updates.
China dishware is stored below the dining tables.
‘Pass It On’ hanging fixture designed by Peter O’Kennedy is reflected in a bronze frame mirror.
Designers at work.
What key words are you listening out for when you interview clients?
Usually it’s to do with relationships. You’ll hear somebody’s breath catch and you know there’ll be a back story there.
What do you like to read?
Like my fellow countryman, Oscar Wilde, I’m a simple person, I like nothing but the best so I read everything! I read books on color therapy, herbs, poetry and novels. I’m reading fewer novels at the moment. I really love Yeats and Garcia Lorca because I learned to speak Spanish when I lived in Spain. And I love Verlaine.
Clodagh is involved in a grass roots charity for the Samburu tribe in Kenya. The money from the bracelets goes straight to the mothers who make them and helps pay for education, teaching materials and clean water.
Clodagh during the interview process.
Where is The Container Store when we need it?
Any fantasy projects ?
I think I’d like to do a hospital … I’ve spent enough time in them!
Although you run quite a sizeable business, you do seem to have established core of calm here.
I ran into a person who had been at boarding school with me, and I really liked her. I said ‘You were so great at school, I remember the way you were. Do you remember me at all?’ and she said ‘Yeah, yeah … you were skinny and bad-tempered.’ And I thought ‘Oh. I’d better do something about that.’ I had a very short fuse when I was younger. But I’ve got over that by studying Buddhism and meditation and trying to live my life being mindful of other people.
Does New York suit you then?
Oh yeah absolutely! I feel like I can get stuff done here. Living in the south of Spain, I just said to my husband one day, I have to leave. I don’t enjoy being Sisyphus. I like fast track.
But what of Buddhist detachment in the very ‘possession-based’ materialistic business of interior design?
In our particular projects we have people get as little as possible. I hate clutter. I’m working on what I call silent design, so the place is supportive and you don’t quite know why you feel so great in it.
A collection of antique wooden vessels and a circle light designed by Peter O’Kennedy, upon an altar table that was designed by Clodagh.
A selection of lamps from the ‘Chelsea’ and ‘Primitive’ collection gather together in this showroom corner.
What do you find ugly?
Overstuffed design. One of my clients here, I went out to see her house and she opened the door and she had a beautiful, sleek haircut, a fabulous Armani suit and behind her were all these drapes and Austrian shades, things on every table. So I said to her ‘Why do you look so unlike your house and your house looks so unlike you?’ I mean you wouldn’t see somebody meeting you in a hooped skirt would you? And yet they’re doing this Disney-esque reproduction stuff.
What was her response?
Oh I stripped her house and she loved it. Now I’m doing her Palm Beach apartment. She got it immediately.
Home works in progress.
A model of a house in the Hamptons – Clodagh is both the architect and designer.
But you can never really eliminate some annoyances. What else gets to you?
My son has a lovely thing: IANYB … I Am Not Your Brain. When people come and ask you something that they actually haven’t thought about. I really have no patience for that. If you want to ask me questions, think about it first please.
