Ashley Hicks

Personal background

Hicks was born on 18 July 1963, in King's College Hospital in Denmark Hill, London. He is the son and second child of David and Lady Pamela Hicks. He is the younger brother of Edwina Brudenell and the older brother of India Hicks, author, television host, fashion model, and founder of her eponymous lifestyle brand.

Hicks was raised at Britwell House, an 18th-century house in Britwell Salome, that served as the family's home, as well as his father's showplace. It was there that his father designed elaborate landscapes that were "virtual outdoor rooms with carefully framed vistas". During the school year, Hicks boarded at the private, Stowe School.

In 1978, the family decided to sell Britwell, their stately country house in Oxfordshire. Hicks attended the three-day Sotheby's house sale, 20–22 March 1979. After the auction, the Hicks family moved to The Grove, a nearby estate, as well as a set of rooms at the Albany, the legendary early-19th-century London apartment building in Piccadilly.

Ancestry

Hicks is the grandson of the former Countess Mountbatten of Burma, born Edwina Ashley, who was one of Britain's richest women when she inherited most of the £7.5 million fortune of her grandfather, Sir Ernest Cassel. Through Countess Mountbatten's maternal ancestral line, Hicks is the third great grandson of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. Through his maternal grandfather, the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Hicks is the second cousin of Charles, Prince of Wales. He is also the godson of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Family tragedy

Hicks used to spend family holidays at the Sligo Castle in Ireland and the Mountbatten family ancestral home at Broadlands in Hampshire, where the royal family were frequent guests. When Hicks was 16 years old, his grandfather and his cousin Nicholas Knatchbull were killed, when his grandfather's fishing boat, the Shadow V, was blown up by a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb on Donegal Bay. "I didn't go on the boat because I went to buy some cigarettes. It was a beautiful summer's day and I was with India, watching television. We had the windows open and then we heard this big bang."

Marriages and family

On 18 October 1990, Hicks married Italian designer, Marina Allegra Federica Silvia Tondato (born Turin, Italy, 20 May 1960), a daughter of physicist and musician Dr. Carlo Tondato and his wife, the former Rosy Maza, in Wheatley, Oxfordshire. They met in 1988, at the Café de Paris in London, when he was a student at the Architectural Association and she was studying art history at Sotheby's. He proposed to her over "Twiglets and apple juice at the Groucho Club" in Soho, London.

The Hickses had two children:

After their wedding, Hicks and his wife lived in a renovated building in New York City that belonged to Marc Chagall's grandson. It was near Fifth Avenue, surrounded by the lofts and studios of local artists. While the building was renovated, the interior of their home was rather low scale, lacking air conditioning. Allegra said of their home, "Although it was a glamorous address it was, for us, more about the people who lived there." They lived in New York from 1991–92. In May 2009, the couple announced the end of their marriage. Allegra remarried in June 2014 Marchese Roberto Mottola di Amato, a Neapolitan landowner and entrepreneur.

On 5 September 2015, Hicks married the American fashion executive, and now digital consultant, Katalina Sharkey de Solis (born Houston, Texas, U.S.A., 31 December 1981, née Kathryn Anne Sharkey, daughter of William T. Sharkey, CPA, and wife Rosalie) in what is cited as society's first Instagram wedding. News of their engagement was first reported in Page Six of The New York Post, which detailed that Hicks had been "introduced to de Solis via Instagram in May [2015] by artist Donald “Drawbertson” Robertson, the 'Andy Warhol of Instagram.'” Their wedding, attended by such guests as shoe designer Christian Louboutin, Vogue editor Hamish Bowles, and actress Gwendoline Christie, was held at the family's home at The Grove in Oxfordshire and was officiated by the man who had introduced them (who also served as Hicks's best man), Donald Robertson.

Today, Hicks and his current wife divide their time between London and his family's converted carriage house in Oxfordshire. They are expecting Hicks's third child (and first son) in January, 2018.

Professional background

Hicks cites his first decorating experience took place when he was 15 or 16 years old, when he decorated his room in a checkered black-and-white motif. Everything in his room had to be either black or white, including the ceiling and carpet.

Influenced by his father, Hicks studied painting and fine art, graduating from the Bath School of Art and Design and trained with the Architectural Association School of Architecture, in London. He then worked briefly for his father's interior design house, before establishing his own architectural firm, designing interiors and furniture.

In 1997, Hicks began designing furniture at the Gem Palace in Jaipur, India. His first piece was his interpretation of a Greek Klismos chair, based on a 1920s drawing by an architect. The chair is rendered in Burmese teak, with a seat made of interwoven straps of saddle leather. He describes the chair as "far more like the ancient Greek ones in its construction, than the Neoclassical revivals". When Hicks initially designed in India, he designed under the moniker of "Jantar Mantar". Hicks explains, "It means abracadabra, also hocus pocus, and is local slang for the Jaipur Observatory."

In addition to interior and furniture design, Hicks produces various lines of fabric, wallpaper, and carpeting—some under the "David Hicks by Ashley Hicks" brand and others under his own name. Licences to his fabric and wallpaper collections are held by GP & J Baker; the licences to his carpeting lines are held by Stark and Alternative Flooring. In 2002, along with his ex-wife Allegra, he wrote Design Alchemy, which provided an overview of the interiors and products they designed. Hicks also produced a series of Allegra Hicks shops as well as a collection of home accessories that were sold in these shops. In 2017, Hicks published his first book on his own work, Details, which also serves as a source book for his inspiration; published by IDEA Publishing, it sold out within a month.

Hicks is currently a contributing editor for Cabana Magazine.

Hicks has also regularly worked with various brands on product collaborations, including a bed linen collection with Frette, a candle range collaboration with Jo Malone and swimsuit collaborations with Orlebar Brown and Coverswim, as well as furniture projects with Kartell and Promemoria.

Published works