Notes on Decor, Etc.

Book excerpt: Interior design legend Paul Fortune opens his design portfolio and shares his inimitable worldview in this monograph-cum-memoir. Arriving in Los Angeles from London during the 1970s, Paul Fortune gradually made his way as a graphic artist, art director of music videos, and even nightclub owner. But with the renovation of his own now legendary Laurel Canyon house in 1978, Fortune's career as an interior designer was born. Fortune Design Studio, based in Los Angeles, has been operating since 1982, enjoying the patronage of discerning clients worldwide, whose ranks include Marc Jacobs, Sofia Coppola, and David Fincher. Exhibiting a distinct style widely recognized for its integration of refinement with lived-in comfort, Fortune's designs are uniquely geared toward accommodating the history and material integrity of each chosen venture. In Notes on Décor, Etc., Fortune--a natural raconteur--not only documents his favorite of these timelessly elegant projects but also his life and times as a designer, an expatriate, and an Angeleno in a one-of-a-kind chronicle that Architectural Digest, in its 2018 AD 100 list, describes as, "A tell-all monograph-cum-memoir detailing significant projects and stories from Fortune's peregrinations through the beau monde."