As David Collins Studio turns 40, we speak to Iain Watson, CEO and Simon Rawlings, Chief Creative Officer, about their four decades of era-defining work.
Only a handful of design studios can measure their peak in decades. Yet 40 years separate the legendary Pierre Koffmann restaurant La Tante Claire and the Georgian at Harrods or Tre Dita in Chicago. In the decades between, David Collins Studio transformed the global design scene: names like Pétrus, J Sheekey and the Wolseley are hugely important milestones in London’s dining evolution. The Blue Bar and the Connaught Bar defined how a generation socialised. Café Rouge transformed the high street. Iconic names such as Café de Paris, Bergdorf Goodman and Cunard read like a design Hall of Fame. All are stages in a company story that seems inevitable in hindsight, but is the result of decades of reinvention, innovation and design excellence.
As the studio turns 40 (which, characteristically, they are celebrating with an exhibition of their charity, the David Collins Foundation), we sat down with the studio’s CEO Iain Watson and CCO Simon Rawlings to talk about the projects that defined the studio’s journey and, in doing so, changed the design world.
La Tante Claire (1985)
The design of Pierre Koffmann’s celebrated Chelsea restaurant is one of the studio’s foundation stones, establishing many of the motifs that continue to define them, from gorgeous lighting to an instinctive feel for hospitality.
It all began when Koffmann’s wife saw a home David Collins had designed in the society bible Harpers & Queen. “Something in it resonated with her, and she said: ‘Can you design a restaurant?’” says Iain Watson. “That was a great leap of faith from Pierre Koffmann and his wife.”
The Art Deco-inspired space was an immediate success; a contemporary reviewer described it as ‘the most beautiful room in London’, and it opened doors for the young design studio. “Pierre Koffmann was very influential in that period,” says Rawlings. “It led to David Collins creating Harveys for Marco Pierre White and cemented David as the go-to restaurant designer.”
Café Rouge (1989)
“There always used to be this conversation: ‘Where do you go to eat something at three o’clock in the afternoon in London? Where can you go to have lunch at 11.30am?’ There was nowhere,” says Rawlings.
It was during this period, in the late 1980s, that David Collins met the businesswoman Karen Jones, and the phenomenon of that would be Café Rouge was born.
“It changed everything,” Rawlings says. “It turned London from being a city with some stuffy restaurants and bad cafés into somewhere you could go and feel slightly glamorous at 11 o’clock, four in the afternoon or late at night.”
Café Rouge had a transformative effect on the country’s relationship with restaurants. At their height, there were more than 120 outposts, always with an emphasis on engaging with the community. “We were opening restaurants every 10 days, from Brighton to Aberdeen,” says Watson.
And while the concept was rooted in the French café, it wasn’t a Disneyfied vision: “Everything was authentic. It was a real poster, a real antique chandelier from the flea markets,” says Rawlings. “Nothing was reproduction. It changed the landscape of dining.”
John Barrett at Bergdorf Goodman (1996)
In the 1990s, the studio began to build long-standing relationships with clients in the United States. An American client had seen La Tante Claire, and commissioned David Collins to work on her and her husband’s Manhattan apartment (the studio would go on to design multiple homes for them). This led to further residential commissions – and then a game-changer: the entire top floor of Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue – a commercial project for the hairdresser John Barrett.
“It was converted into this incredible salon, with views over Central Park and was very successful,” says Watson. “And certainly, having Bergdorf Goodman on your project list opens doors.”
The salon lasted for about 20 years without changing. It was the salon that created Jennifer Aniston’s Friends look (the “Rachel Cut”), and it’s where the title of Plum Sykes’ book Bergdorf Blondes came from. In other words, it wasn’t just any salon – it was the salon.
“It was a real step change,” says Watson. “It was big and complex in terms of services, budgets, everything – but it gave us the confidence to take on more work. We went on to other projects in America with people like Liz Claiborne and Victoria’s Secret retail – huge projects.”
The Blue Bar (2000)
Alongside restaurants and bars, David Collins Studio are known for designing iconic bars – and the Blue Bar (famously, Madonna’s favourite bar), which opened at the Berkeley in London in October 2000, is a good example of their cultural impact.
The bar was in an original panelled room, designed by Edwin Lutyens and brought from the old Berkeley Hotel, which had been located elsewhere. “The Lutyens panels were the only bit of the original hotel that had been brought here, and they were this funny orange-yellow colour,” says Rawlings. “For most of the design process, the bar was green. Then, in one of his moments of crazy expertise and insight, David said: ‘I think it should be blue.’ And so it was.”
The bar, with its blend of heritage and Modernism, would become hugely influential. “At the time, the Blue Bar was the only bar to really become a brand,” says Rawlings. “They had a CD – the only compilation Madonna would allow one of her songs to appear on – and they even had a candle.”
It also marked a change in the way the possibilities of hotel bars were perceived. “There were very few people in the world who would spend that sort of money building a bar with just 20 seats – but it was a new beginning,” says Rawlings. “It showed how hotels could reinvent themselves and leverage that reinvention across everything else. You get people into a cool bar and suddenly the rest of the hotel feels different, full of new energy.”
The Wolseley (2003) and The Delaunay (2011)
In 2003 and 2011, Corbin & King launched the powerhouse duo, the Wolseley and the Delaunay – restaurants which transformed the capital’s social landscape. And as they had with J Sheekey, Corbin & King turned to David Collins Studio to design them.
The Wolseley was wildly successful when it opened its doors in 2003. The favourite haunt of the great Times restaurant critic A. A. Gill, alongside Kate Moss, Elton John and so many other of the era’s luminaries, it became London’s first £10m-turnover restaurant – and it remains one of London’s most successful restaurants, unchanged from their original design – a longevity which Rawlings describes as “built into the DNA of who we are”.
Where the Wolseley, as a former car showroom, bank, and noodle bar, had been a major renovation project inspired by the grand cafés of Vienna and central Europe, the Delaunay started life as an empty concrete shell – hard to believe when entering what is now a space so seemingly rich with heritage and pedigree. “The best compliment we receive is that people assume it has always been there,” says Iain Watson. “That is exactly what we set out to achieve.”
The London NYC (2006)
Following their design for John Barrett at Bergdorf Goodman, Blackstone asked the studio to design a whole hotel. “It was the ultimate creative opportunity, with so many amazing things to work on: restaurants, bars, lobbies, spas,” says Rawlings. “They gave us two hotels in America to design: London NYC and London West Hollywood.”
“It was a step change for the business,” says Watson. “The London NYC hotel had 550 rooms – that’s big by any hotel standard.”
At the time, New York hotels were in thrall to the über-cool Philippe Starck look. “This was a different direction: taking ideas from the Carlyle and other classic hotels, but modernising them,” says Rawlings. “It had the sensitivity of London service – and then Gordon Ramsay – so there was this whole string of Britishness through it, which was quite lovely.”
There were unexpected design moments throughout the hotel – metallic wallcoverings in the rooms, ivy cascading down the facade; rotating walls in the restaurant to differentiate mealtimes. “These things weren’t happening anywhere else back then, and people embraced it,” says Rawlings. “Guests loved the hotel.”
It wasn’t just a defining moment for the hotel industry; it was a seminal moment for the studio, leading to the addition of a New York office and the confidence and discipline to work on large-scale commercial projects globally.
“The key is that when we enter a new market – whether Hong Kong or Thailand – the level of the first project sets the tone for the brand. You need to enter with the right calibre of project,” says Watson.
The Connaught Bar (2007)
When David Collins Studio transformed the Connaught’s American Bar in 2007, the goal was to create a space deeply connected to the hotel’s heritage while offering something entirely new. “We wanted a series of rooms that were architecturally linked, drawing inspiration from around the hotel, so they wouldn’t feel alien to the building,” says Rawlings. “The panelling was modelled on the gridwork of the original, and the ceiling motifs and mouldings were taken from elsewhere in the hotel.”
The team stripped away dated 1980s panelling and commissioned Paris-based artist Pierre Bonnefille to create shimmering wall surfaces inspired by the Irish landscape. “We wanted the DNA of unexpectedness – the clubbiness – of embossed furniture with a wonderful patina,” Rawlings recalls. Vintage car parts were referenced for the architraves; Harry’s Bar informed the flooring, and Savile Row tailoring subtly shaped furniture detailing.
“On paper it should never have worked. If you put all these materials together, you’d think, ‘What a mishmash.’ But we brought it together and made something extraordinary.”
Since it opened back in 2007, the Connaught has remained one of the world’s most respected bars. “They were adamant there would be no launch party, no PR,” says Rawlings. “It was word of mouth – ‘so-and-so had a party there last night’ – that built it up. It grew in a quieter, more subversive way.” As Iain Watson concludes: “It was the right bar, in the right hotel, at the right time.”
Harrods Food Halls (2017-2021)
Between 2017 and 2021, the studio unveiled their spectacular reimagining of the four iconic Harrods Food Halls: the Roastery & Bake Hall, Fresh Food Hall, Dining Hall and Chocolate Hall.
“Harrods was going through a shift from food being gifting to food being a major part of the business,” says Rawlings. “So, we worked hard to put together a proposal that re-identified what each of the rooms would be.”
Moreover, this had to be delivered within the existing infrastructure (the rooms . “We weren’t allowed to build anything to block the space – English Heritage wouldn’t allow that,” he says. “We had to respect the rooms. They were built as halls; they had to stay as halls.”
The Dining Hall was the most challenging. Originally the Meat and Fish Hall, one can still see the metal rails around the perimeter where turkeys would be hung at Christmas.
“We wanted to create an incredible dining hall – a real haven. But we weren’t allowed to touch any of the walls, so everything had to go through the floor,” says Rawlings. “We made versions of the original lights, but with a real emphasis on illuminating exactly where you sit.”
With people travelling or shopping alone in mind, they set out to create a softly illuminated marble square for each place setting to give each individual their own personal space – “evoking candlelight,” explains Rawlings. “That was incredibly challenging in a space where you couldn’t touch the ceiling. It was a real exercise in precision lighting.”
Café de Paris, Monaco (2023)
The Café de Paris in Monaco is probably the most famous café-bar in the world – and the most successful. “If you live in Monaco, you come here two or three times a day. It’s an extension of your home,” says Watson. But by the 2020s, it was tired and in need of renovation. “They decided to completely rebuild it, add a second level, and create a grand café that felt as if it had always been part of Monaco’s social scene.”
The connecting factor for the newly imagined interior was the central bar with an atrium and glass ceiling above, with an otherworldly version of a classic French brasserie chandelier spanning the two storeys.
“We were adamant about authenticity,” says Rawlings, describing how the studio found French artisans still producing brasserie chandeliers, and manufacturers for the zinc bar who supplied French cafés. The studio also retained the original Zodiac glass screens that had once surrounded the room. “We put them back-to-back to create screens between the booths, illuminating them so they became part of the DNA of the new Café de Paris. People recognised the old within the new.”
“People would walk in and say: ‘This is fabulous. I don’t remember it being this fabulous,’” says Watson. “It didn’t feel alien in the Monaco streetscape. People instantly fell in love with it.”
Cunard: Queen Anne (2024)
When Cunard set out to design Queen Anne, its first new ocean liner of the 21st century, it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine luxury hospitality at sea.
David Collins Studio would play a pivotal role, responsible for most of the ship’s iconic spaces, from the Grand Atrium and the signature Britannia Restaurant to the outdoor Pavilion and many other restaurants and suites – 18 areas in all. “The brief,” says Lewis Taylor, design director at David Collins Studio, “was to create interiors that blended luxury, elegance and modernity while paying homage to Cunard’s rich maritime heritage.”
The Grand Atrium is a prime example. The striking, triple-height lobby is the undisputed heart of the ship, its sweeping staircase, polished walnut handrails and inlaid marble floor evoking Cunard’s Golden-Age heritage while being rooted in the grammar of contemporary luxury design. The atrium’s landmark kinetic artwork by Ian Kirkpatrick was the result of a ship-wide collaboration between the studio and the art consultancy firm Double Decker.
The Pavilion is another Queen Anne landmark designed by the studio – a daytime outdoor beach bar which transforms into a cinema at night, with a colour palette of navy blues, sun-bleached yellows and coral pinks that was directly inspired by vintage Cunard menu cards discovered by the studio at Cunard.
The Britannia Restaurant is the ship’s signature dining room. “We’re used to creating restaurants with around 100 covers,” says Taylor. “The Britannia is 1,200 covers. The challenge is how to create intimacy. How do you make every single seat feel special? We wanted guests to feel enveloped in the space, not overwhelmed by it.”
Taylor concludes: “This project was about more than just designing beautiful spaces. It was about creating a sense of wonder, of discovery, of being part of something truly special. And I think we’ve achieved that.”