Across the pond, he’s a living legend, a man whose highly ambitious and – to some – unorthodox career has seen him take the RH (formerly known as Restoration Hardware) brand from flogging fly swatters and garden gnomes on the cusp of bankruptcy to amassing an international portfolio of his ‘gallery’ concept megastores in just a quarter of a century. ‘I got to know Stephen Gordon who had founded the company. I never thought it was a great concept because it was all built on these kind of knickknacks and discovery items with a tiny bit of furniture, but I knew they had X amount of new stores, a relatively new, well-positioned retail footprint and I thought I could reconceptualize it and turn it into a premium home brand,’ Friedman explains. ‘Everybody told us it was impossible, it couldn’t be done, so on and so forth. But we like to say, “We’re looking for a few good people who don’t know what can’t be done.”’
And that he did. Think Harrods if only for homewares and drenched in ecru and aureate shades; Selfridges for interiors but filled with ever more sumptuous dining experiences; the Conran Shop on souped-up and splendiferous steroids and you’ll be at the heart of what the RH world is.
Now, the capital is getting its own gold leaf-licked RH treatment, taking over an 18th-century Palladian mansion once owned by the 1st Earl of Darnley that finds itself on an impressive corner of Burlington Gardens. It’s neighboured by Bond Street titans, Savile Row stalwarts and backs up against the RA. Now that’s hot property… ‘It’s going to tell a story and I think we’re doing a good job of amplifying that story, respecting what was here. But that’s what we look for [in our properties]. And this [one] happened to be in the middle of Mayfair…’
RH London’s sprawling suites prove the perfect setting for its dreamy interiors
Mark Seelen