India Hicks
Think you’ve got a lot on your plate? Try juggling India Hicks’ workload, which includes designing two jewelry lines, being a mother of five, duties as CNN’s royal correspondent (not to mention, she’s 678th in line for the British throne), blogging for her own lifestyle website and photographing stunning images of the Bahamas.
Sound tough? You wouldn’t know it from just speaking with Hicks, who doesn’t seem to be scrambling for even a second. Instead, she’s got a cool, calm demeanor that’s a reflection of the laid-back island life that she’s cultivated and brings to the world through her website and home collections. Cool as a sea cucumber, we chatted with Hicks while she was working on her latest book, a Rizzoli tome to be released next year (she’s already got two under her belt, Island Life and Island Beauty), about giving the world a peek into her Harbour Island home.
India Hicks at HSN
Fashion Trends Daily: There are great little nuggets of your life on the site mixed in with the product descriptions that make the shopper feel as if they are buying something very personal. It’s a lovely touch. Is this something that was a very conscious choice ?
India Hicks: I wanted to have my fingerprints all of the products. I wanted to give birth to the collection as it were, I didn’t just want to put my name on it. It the same with the web site. It is my life, it just felt to me that everything I’ve done is very personal.
FTD: In the past, you’ve had collections with Crabtree & Evelyn, Pottery Barn, West Elm and now HSN, is it different designing a collection that’s just for your own brand as opposed to a collaboration?
IH: For 16 years, I’ve had my own island life. I made my own life, so that is so important to me. But, I think I offer an alternative view to island life: it isn’t your Tommy Bahama hibiscus island life. It’s a low key, softer version.
Love Letters pendants
FTD: And one of the most popular branches of the India Hicks line is your jewelry collection, which is beautiful and personal thanks to the fresh take on monograms. Where did you get the idea to update monogram jewelry?
IH: I think the world is in such a strange axis, financially, emotionally we are all being pushed to our extremes. We’re trying to accomplish so much more at a greater pace and we’re all looking to return to something that feels personal and comforting and the initial is a very small way that we are able to do that.
FTD: It’s a small touch, but it makes a big statement.
IH: Something as simple as a love letter makes [life seem] more personal.
FTD: In addition to the Love Letters collection, you also have a line of fine jewelry.
IH: The Love Letters are clearly the collection that’s most accessible, so everybody is able to afford a piece. And it’s a slightly more sophisticated way of wearing your letter. I began a fine jewelry collection and I fall in love with each piece that I create because of the workmanship.
India Hicks with her late father, David
FTD: Does your father’s work influence your own designs?
IH: My father’s extraordinary archive is so strong that it does inevitably lend itself to the world of design, so its hard to ignore it and I felt that I’ve done 16 years establishing myself as me, so there’s no harm now in touching on it now.
FTD: What’s next for India Hicks?
IH: Everybody asks me what is next. The e-commerce site is quite a lot of work: I edit, I art direct, I take a lot of the photos. So between that, designing, five children, CNN, the guest houses on the Island and Sugar Mill [The Harbour Island boutique co-owned by Hicks and Linda Griffin], there’s quite a lot.
For more information, visit www.indiahicks.com.
Images courtesy India Hicks
