It was thrilling, last month, to receive a call from Margaret Russell, the Editor in Chief of ‘Architectural Digest’, telling me the secret news that I had been selected by the magazine as one of the 100 greatest designers in the World……

Secret that is until Margaret’s recent dazzling party at the Guggenheim Museum on 5^th avenue in New York, for the other 99 nominated. Every dec was on hand to celebrate, from the greats like Stephen Sills and Juan Montoya to David Collins and John Porson, the other Englishmen on the 100 list. It was wonderful to see my beloved friend Aileen Mehle, whose ‘Suzy Knickerbocker’ column was required reading all the years I lived in Manhattan, and Martha Stewart who so sweetly had me on her show when my autobiography “Redeeming Features” was published, and Mario Buatta who used to come to my ranch in Arizona a lifetime ago.

My partner, Colette van den Thillart who’d flown in from Toronto where we are setting up a North American office, turned heads by wearing a velvet dress printed with the glistening stones of a grotto, appropriately surreal in such a setting as the Guggenheim 100.