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CELEBRATED MODEL AND DESIGN AFICIONADO INDIA HICKS NAMED HOST OF THE SECOND SEASON OF 'TOP DESIGN'

Posted on 04/15/2008 by RealityWanted in Top Design

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Bravo's hit series "Top Design" is back with a new season, a new look in high-definition, new producers and a new host. Celebrated fashion model and design aficionado, India Hicks, will host the interior design competition series and world-renowned designer Todd Oldham returns as the contestants' mentor. Jonathan Adler will reprise his role as head judge along with Margaret Russell, Editor In Chief of ELLE DECOR magazine, and interior designer Kelly Wearstler as series judges. "Top Design," produced by the Emmy-nominated Magical Elves ("Project Runway," "Top Chef") is currently in production and is set to air on Bravo in third quarter 2008.

The second season of "Top Design" will follow professional designers as they live together in a decked-out loft, compete to create the "Top Design," and a chance to win a $100,000 cash prize and a four-page editorial showcase in ELLE DECOR magazine. The stakes are high and eccentric personalities and creative egos combine to fuel the competition, all while the contestants are being critiqued by some of the most influential names in the design industry. "Top Design" was Bravo's highest series premiere ever, averaging 1,387,000 adults 18-49 and 1,859,000 total viewers and the first season averaged 1,152,000 total viewers.

"Top Design" host India Hicks, is the daughter of famed interior decorator David Hicks and Lady Pamela Hicks. Born in London, England, she was named in honour of her grandfather, Lord Mountbatten of Burma – the last Viceroy to India. Her godfather, HRH Prince Charles, chose Hicks to be a bridesmaid in his wedding to the late Lady Diana Spencer in 1990. Over the past ten years, Hicks has enjoyed a successful career as a fashion model, being photographed by some of the world's most renowned photographers for the industry's top fashion campaigns including Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic, and Bill Blass. In 2003, Hicks and her partner David Flint Wood published an interior design book entitled, Island Life: Inspirational Living and in 2005 Hicks published the sequel, Island Beauty. Flint Wood is the father of Hicks' four children and they currently live on a small island in the Bahamas, where they built two plantation style guesthouses. They also invested in and redecorated an 1800's building, which now serves as a restaurant and hotel. In addition, Hicks is the creative director of a successful shop where she sells clothes, bed linens and eccentricities gathered from her travels around the world. Most recently, Hicks became a creative partner to Crabtree and Evelyn. Her first collection, Island Living, was so successful that a second collection is now in production. In addition, Hicks is heavily involved in several charitable organizations including a small community school in the Caribbean to which she donates ten percent of her proceeds from the Island Living Collection and book sales.

Todd Oldham, the contestants' mentor, is a respected designer whose career spans more than 20 years. Distinguished as an innovator of accessible design, Oldham is the founder of Todd Oldham Studio, a multifaceted, full-service design studio. Originally a New York fashion designer, and the host of "Todd Time" on MTV's House of Style, Oldham's career has evolved to include all areas of design, from interior design, film and photography, to furniture, graphic art, and a collection of floral designs for FTD.com. Oldham is the author of Hand Made Modern, and has hosted HGTV's "Hand Made Modern" series of specials. In 2002 and 2003 Oldham designed his own line of dorm room furnishings for Target. He designed The Hotel in South Beach as well as Enoteca Spiaggia, a restaurant collaboration with James Beard award-winning Chef Tony Mantuano, to open in South Beach in 2008. Other projects include a 400-page monograph on the life's work of artist Charley Harper published by Ammo Books. In October 2007, Oldham became the Design Creative Director for Old Navy. In his latest design endeavor, he turns his creative eye to carpet, collaborating with Durkan Hospitality to produce a series of flexible and versatile floor coverings. The first collections of the aptly named T.O.D.D (Todd Oldham Designs Durkan) series launched at the Hospitality Design Expo 2008 in April.

"Top Design's" lead judge, Jonathan Adler, is known for a design aesthetic which pairs modernist forms with bold colors and groovy graphics. Since receiving his first order for pottery from Barneys New York fifteen years ago Jonathan Adler's eponymous company has grown to become an internationally recognized lifestyle and home furnishings brand offering tabletop, bedding, bath accessories, furniture, rugs, pillows and lighting. The company motto, "If your heirs won't fight over it, we won't make it", reflects Adler's commitment to impeccable craftsmanship and panache. Jonathan Adler has seven company-operated stores nationwide as well as a thriving consumer website. Through its wholesale division, the company sells its groovy home décor in over 1,000 locations worldwide. Additionally, Jonathan Adler is one of the country's leading interior designers, working on luxury residential projects as well as large-scale commercial projects, including the celebrity hot spot Parker Palm Springs hotel.

For 19 years, "Top Design" series judge, Margaret Russell has infused ELLE DECOR with a distinctive sense of sophistication while preserving its mission to inspire designers, architects, and homeowners with the best in interior and product design. Eight years ago, Russell was promoted to editor in chief of the magazine she helped found, which is the largest of 23 ELLE DECOR editions published around the world. In addition to overseeing ELLE DÉCOR, Russell is committed to promoting the design community through charitable work both locally and nationally. She co-chaired the opening gala of the Winter Antiques Show for several years, which benefits East Side House Settlement; she is an honorary chair of the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, in support of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; she served as a trustee of DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS) and co-hosted the charity's Dining by Design events for nearly a decade; and she recently joined the board of God's Love We Deliver. Russell lectures frequently on interior design and the decorative arts, and is a regular guest on numerous television programs. Stewart, Tabori & Chang published Russell's first book, Designing Women: Interiors by Leading Style Makers, and So Chic: Glamorous Lives, Stylish Spaces was recently released by Filipacchi Publishing. A graduate of Brown University, Russell began her career at Glamour magazine. She was named a vice president of Hachette Filipacchi Media five years ago.

Recognized among design aficionados and contemporary culture devotees for her enchanting take on interiors and the luxury lifestyle, "Top Design" series judge, Kelly Wearstler has fine-tuned contemporary notions of elegance since establishing her firm, Kelly Wearstler Inc., a decade ago. She is dubbed one of the design world's top tastemakers by House & Garden and honored among House Beautiful's best designers for seven years running. In addition to international resorts and hotels throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Mexico, she has designed select offices, restaurants, retail environments and residences that are frequently profiled in travel, lifestyle and business publications and continually magnetize design cognoscenti around the world. Currently, Wearstler is preparing the lifestyle and design experiences for six hotel residence projects, which are underway in Miami, Anguilla, Mexico's Riveria Maya and Vietnam. Wearstler's debut monograph Modern Glamour: The Art of Unexpected Style was a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and a follow-up, titled Domicilium Decoratus, featured the designer's former Beverly Hills residence, was published as both a deluxe, limited-edition folio and a general edition. She is a regular contributor on living with style to such fashion bibles as Harper's Bazaar, ELLE and W, and was named one of the best dressed of 2007 by Vogue. Fall 2007 marked the opening of the Kelly Wearstler boutique at Bergdorf Goodman. The boutique showcases a range of decorative home accessories designed by Wearstler exclusively for the legendary store. An extensive collection of handmade carpets for The Rug Company debuted in Spring 2008, with a fabric and trim collection for Groundworks at Lee Jofa to follow in Summer/Fall 2008. Wearstler will also design a book of fine wallcoverings with famed hand printer Cole & Son, set to debut in early 2009. Decorative pillows, throws, table linens, bedding, tabletop and more will soon join this portfolio of home products.

"Top Design" is produced by Magical Elves. Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz ("Top Chef," "Project Runway") are executive producers, and Kathryn Vaughn and Andrew Wallace serve as co-executive producers.

Bravo is a program service of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBC Universal one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. Bravo has been an NBC cable network since December 2002 and was the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts when it launched in December 1980. For more information visit www.bravotv.com.

  


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