Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler celebrates 90 years as Britain’s foremost interior designer

Fowler’s eclecticism, encompassing a love of swagged French fabrics, Regency furniture, rustic Norfolk rush mats, traditional stoneware and, above all, bold colour (tastes that flew in the face of Art Deco and the International Style), soon caught the eye of Sibyl Colefax. The wife of a lawyer and politician who lived in nearby Argyll House, she already had her own decorating business, also begun in 1934, on Bruton Street in Mayfair, and in 1938 invited Fowler to be her partner.

In 1944, the year the business moved to Brook Street, Colefax retired and sold her share of the firm to Lancaster, whose social connections to the English aristocracy and American high society opened the doors to the country’s finest houses. ‘Nancy and John’s partnership is really what everybody thinks of as Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler,’ says Burns. ‘She had such style and aplomb. He was incredibly well informed and scholarly, with an eye for detail. That’s when the business really got its personality.’

The company’s client list was — and still is — resolutely confidential, but Fowler alone redecorated parts of Buckingham Palace, Holyroodhouse, Chequers, Chevening House, Christ Church Oxford and the Bank of England, as well as some 30 National Trust properties.