With surreal chandeliers and sculptural furniture, designer Barlas Baylar makes the most out of minimalism
“The best thing that happened to me is that I did not go to design school,” explains Barlas Baylar, the soft-spoken 40-year-old founder of Hudson Furniture. “I don’t design within the boundaries. Functionality isn’t my first thought—people are always saying, ‘Barlas, don’t forget about
Mr Gravity!’”
The schools he did in fact go to—in London and New York—were far more grounded: His undergraduate degree is in finance, and he holds an MBA in marketing. Baylar’s full-throttle mix of down-to-earth management and let-it-rip artistry helps explain his breakneck, three-year ascension from novice furniture salesman for Tucker Robbins to burgeoning design guru.
These days, Hudson Furniture manufactures its bespoke offerings in its own New York City workshops, but when it opened in 2004, “I didn’t have the funding to actually build the pieces,” Baylar recalls. “I was giving people sketches and wood samples—‘Look, here’s what I am capable of’.”
Still, the enterprise was, in his recounting, an instant success. His first client was Burberry, his second Tommy Hilfiger, both of which commissioned his massive, live-edge-cut walnut tables for their flagship store displays.
Then came the celebrities. “There I was, so nervous, a fish out of water, and Jennifer Aniston walks in,” he remembers. And the door has been swinging open ever since—Tom Ford, Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas are among his clients.
(This story appears in the Jan-Feb 2016 issue of ForbesLife India. To visit our Archives, click here.)