Although he has been designing interiors professionally for only a few years, Pierre Yovanovitch already knows exactly what defines his ideal client: “A willingness to trust, a willingness to express oneself in one’s home and a capacity to let me do my job.” The young Parisian was creating ready-to-wear clothing for Pierre Cardin when he began working on a redesign for his own apartment. “One thing led to another, and I was designing flats and houses for some friends,” he recalls. He prefers interior design because “houses are more concrete and complex. They are a much more important part of life than clothing. My taste for independence led me to start my own business in 2000, rather than work for somebody else.”

An entrepreneurial spirit and the trust of friends turned clients—who then recommended Yovanovitch to their friends—quickly launched his new career. He now runs a six-person design firm. Initially inspired by late-18th-century French and Swedish styles, the designer was soon “led to certain forms of Neoclassicism and Modernism, like those of British designer T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings and the French architect Pierre Chareau,” which greatly influence his work. “I like to use materials that suggest both luxury and sobriety,” he says. It’s a philosophy that proposes “opulence and restraint at the same time—to create a magical place that is always a neutral backdrop for beautiful objects.”

Pierre Yovanovitch

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