Ashley Louis David Hicks is a British interior designer, author, photographer and artist. He was born on 18 July 1963, in King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill, London. He is the son and second child of David and Lady Pamela Hicks
Hicks has designed interiors in Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He also has a fabric line for Lee Jofa and furniture lines. Hicks is the grandson of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Hicks says his first decorating experience took place when he was 15 or 16 years old when he decorated his room in a checkered black-and-white motif.
Everything in his room had to be either black or white, including the ceiling and carpet. Influenced by his father, Hicks studied painting and fine art, graduating from the Bath School of Art and Design and training with the Architectural Association School of Architecture, in London. He then worked briefly for his father’s interior design house, before establishing his architectural firm, designing interiors and furniture.
In 1997, Hicks began designing furniture at the Gem Palace in Jaipur, India. His first piece was his interpretation of a Greek Klismos chair, based on a 1920s drawing by an architect. The chair is rendered in Burmese teak, with a seat made of interwoven straps of saddle leather. He describes the chair as “far more like the ancient Greek ones in its construction, than the Neoclassical revivals”.
When Hicks initially designed in India, he designed under the moniker of “Jantar Mantar”. Hicks explains, “It means abracadabra, also hocus pocus, and is local slang for the Jaipur Observatory.” In addition to interior and furniture design, Hicks produces various lines of fabric, wallpaper, and carpeting—some under the “David Hicks by Ashley Hicks” brand and others under his own name. Licences to his fabric and wallpaper collections are held by GP & J Baker; the licences to his carpeting lines are held by Stark and Alternative Flooring.
In 2002, along with his ex-wife Allegra, he wrote Design Alchemy, which provided an overview of the interiors and products they designed. Hicks also produced a series of Allegra Hicks shops as well as a collection of home accessories that were sold in these shops. In 2017, Hicks published his first book on his own work, Details, which also serves as a sourcebook for his inspiration; published by IDEA Publishing, it sold out within a month.
Hicks began photographing historic interiors for Cabana Magazine in 2016, ranging from a derelict glass factory in Murano, Venice, to grand English country houses like Houghton and Althorp. In 2018, Buckingham Palace: the Interiors with photographs and text by Ashley, was published by Rizzoli, as was his review of his work, Rooms with a History: Interiors and their Inspirations, 2019. He also photographed the historic interiors of Knole for a 2021 book on that great house.
His new collection Marmo and Marmosaico Collections for Bisazza at Milan Design Week 2024 was displayed. A series of new decorations from the Marmo and Marmosaico Collections, made with marble mosaic tiles, designed by English designer Ashley Hicks and the architectural studio Autoban, founded by Seyhan Ozdemir Sarper and Sefer Caglar. The English designer was inspired by 14th-century Syrian fabrics and the decoration of a 1930s Art Deco London palace to create Haddon, Eltham and Alma Tadema.
Available in two colour variations and made with marble mosaic tiles, the patterns recall classic geometric motifs, with a timeless elegance, and a strong reference to the charm of the bygone ages. The architectural studio Autoban has also designed four new decorations: Mesh and Padlock, for the MARMO Collection, and the Bliss and Beat for the MARMOSAICO Collection. In a contemporary style, the texture of each pattern comes from a harmoniously arranged and repeated selection of precious marble and geometric figures, which convey a sense of movement and continuity on the surfaces.
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