Designer Kelly Wearstler is bringing Hollywood glam back

The world was seemingly waiting for Kelly Wearstler. The glamour of old Hollywood, the daredevil approach to creation and the mixed use of all things fabulous and grand had vanished with the end of the antecedent golden Los Angeles era. Someone had to revive what was the most magnetic time of the previous century and someone had to remind the world of the sultry allure and magical charm of elegant glitz.

Wearstler emerged on the uber-minimalist scene of the '90s and brought back that Hollywood Regency style with a little extra drop of noir for good measure. Wearstler is that ultimate Los Angeles designer who seems to be able to do it all: she's a mum, a wife, an interior designer and a celebrity.

And then there are all the businesses: her immaculate Melrose store in Los Angeles, an all-encompassing online store, plus collaborations with some of the most interesting brands in the business including The Rug Company and Lee Jofa wall coverings and fabrics. Not to forget the applauded hotel designs she did for the Viceroy Hotels and Resorts and the restaurant design for Bergdorf Goodman's 8th floor BG in Manhattan.

A long way from home the designer clicked her heels, put in some serious graft, and slowly built her empire.

Born in a small beach town in South Carolina, the glamour-inducing designer was first and foremost inspired by her mother - a closet interior designer and antique dealer who would often paint rooms new colours while Wearstler was at school. Today she quotes Peggy Guggenheim and Doris Duke as her ultimate style icons: two women who have believed in beauty and surrounded themselves with it, collected art and travelled the world - not unlike Wearstler who carries a camera and sketchbooks with her all the time, finding inspiration moment to moment.

"I'm curious. It's in my nature," Wearstler explains. "My process is fuelled by a love of history and art and I think museums and libraries are the best places to go for inspiration". She even collects vintage, out-of-print and contemporary books and brings back bags from New York's Strand bookstore - partially accounting for her more than 2,000 titles.

"I believe it is imperative for artists and creators to stay curious. You have to keep that hunger and continually educate your eye," she says. Diana Vreeland, ex- editor and glam woman-around-town, used to say "the eye must travel". Wearstler does exactly that - forever on a trip to Paris seeking inspiration and she does so while blogging about her various experiences and multifarious finds as inspiration for her evangelists.

"I do not have a favourite era or movement. Every movement and time in history inspires me," she says. "There are specific nuances and design details that each era of art has to offer. The juxtaposition and sexy tension created through mixing different movements is what [influences] my aesthetic most."

Although Wearstler has been credited as "the presiding grande dame of West Coast interior design" by her style has evolved over the last few years from ultraglam to a more layered approach: detailing in chromes and bronzes all the way to combining 20th century French furniture into her interior creations.