Star Power

‘I am not comfortable coming into a house and imposing my aesthetic. That’s a dated concept. . . . What I do is a craft that is about what people specifically need.’

Michael Smith

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Occasionally, an interior designer comes along who captures the imagination of national and international design magazines. Michael Smith, a Newport Beach native, is the latest to do so.

It’s impossible to look at interior design magazines published during the past few months and not see his work for Richard Gere, Cindy Crawford and Rob Reiner, or read about his 5-month-old store in Santa Monica, Jasper.

Smith’s Santa Monica penthouse/loft has been photographed seven times for various publications. What makes the 31-year-old a hot designer for the 1990s?

His classical-design grounding with a modern, eclectic bent.

“I like contemporary design, but in its purest form it’s too pared down and qualitative,” he says. “Most people aren’t that one-dimensional. I like contemporary design that looks a little used or worn.”

He offers an example of how he mixes styles with the colors he uses: “Different shades of yellow and green are the colors most susceptible to fashion, from lime green to avocado green to dark green. And the same thing with yellows. Whereas blues are always timeless.”

Michael Smith will speak Tuesday at Edwards Newport Cinemas in Newport Beach as part of a decorative arts lecture series.

Smith says he has been training for his career his whole life. “I always liked history, fabric, houses,” he says. “Being a decorator is a great fusion of everything I’m interested in.

“Orange County has been an important part of my training. I had great mentors there. When I was 16 I worked at Cannell and Chaffin in Newport Beach and learned a lot from all the designers. That was important because I learned from a variety of people, not just one person’s vision.”

Smith also credits designer Gep Durenberger of San Juan Capistrano for help, especially his advice to study at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

“Orange County has really been incredible to me and continues to be so since my parents still live [in Newport Beach]. My mother is an artist, so she influenced me also. When I was growing up, she had organic things in the house like baskets of shells under the table. At the time it embarrassed me because our house wasn’t like my friends’. But I learned from it.”

Smith says that his clients are smart, successful people who spend a lot of money to personalize their houses. Gere’s important Southeast Asian art collection was incorporated into his house. Smith says he enjoys working closely with a person such as Gere, who has his own style “vibe.”

Smith believes everyone has a particular style, and one just needs to be comfortable and confident enough to trust it. He sees his role as “polishing up” what the client already has.

“What I do is like portraiture,” Smith explains. “I want to create houses that are portraits of the people who live there. I am not comfortable coming into a house and imposing my aesthetic. That’s a dated concept. It’s like people who dress head-to-toe in one fashion designer label.

“The interior design process is very cerebral. It isn’t just get a pretty sofa or a pretty rug. We think about how the people are going to live, from the most exalted concept of whether it’s incredibly beautiful to ‘Is their 4-year-old child going to destroy it?’ The house has to be comfortable because no one sits around in their house in a Chanel suit all day long. What I do is a craft that is about what people specifically need.”

Smith says he isn’t interested in creating the conventional design that was so popular in the ‘80s: by-the-book country French and English modern.

“There was a time when designers and architects knocked out the same thing time and time again,” he says. “People are too sophisticated for that now. They don’t want a predigested, thematic kind of approach to decoration anymore. Many people are now comfortable with their own taste, while in the ‘80s they felt they needed someone else’s validation through a ‘look’ or a ‘name.’ ”

Home design magazines “show good designs and good ideas, so people get educated and know what they like and want,” he says. “And there are no secrets anymore. You can find style books on anything from Micronesia to Finland. If you have an affinity for any of it, it can be put into your house.”

Smith’s lecture begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Edwards Newport Cinemas, 300 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. It’s part of the second annual series of programs on the decorative arts to benefit New Directions for Women, a nonprofit organization providing addiction treatment. The cost is $150 for five lectures.

Other speakers include Sotheby’s Carol Elkins, who will lecture on jewelry collecting; Nancy Goslee Powers will discuss California gardens; House Beautiful editor Margaret Kennedy will talk about design trends; and Mary Lou Boone will discuss porcelain. (714) 673-1714.