Column: The Crowd: Decorative Arts Society celebrates L.A.-based designer

The setting was ultra-chic.

The club dining room at the posh Newport Beach Country Club had been transformed into a sophisticated salon on the classic theme of blue and white Oriental porcelain.

Each of the round dining tables in the dining room were adorned with individual porcelain vases sporting white-on-white summer blooms of hydrangeas, roses, stock and lilies.

The appropriate crystal, flatware and china supported the summer theme. It was all in recognition of guest of honor, Mark D. Sikes, a Los Angeles-based designer who had come at the invitation of the Decorative Arts Society (DARTS).

It was the organization’s end of the annual “lecture season” luncheon, and Sikes, who has earned an international reputation as a designer of note over this last decade, came to Newport with his partner Michael Griffin, to share their story of glory. It is quite a story.

Sikes and Griffin met while working for Pottery Barn.

Each man devoted some 20 years to that organization, with Sikes rising to a senior executive design position with the company.

Then, about a decade ago, it was time to leave. The pair first settled in San Francisco and then moved to Los Angeles where they bought a home in the Hollywood Hills.

Sikes went to work decorating the home, top to bottom, his life-long passion. The preacher’s son from the Deep South, raised and influenced by a fashion-conscious mother who, as Sikes put it: “Dressed far too expensively for a preacher’s wife.”

“I was the kid who always knew all of the design trends, the celebrities, the fashion and tastes of the current day and I was the consummate observer of every detail in every house, every fashion — anything to do with design,” Sikes said.

Oddly, Sikes claims he never set out to be an interior decorator. It just happened, and it happened due to the creation of their Hollywood Hills home that he created for himself and Griffin.

Neighbors noticed and then they talked. Soon people were asking for a tour. Then, they were asking Sikes to design for them.

Sikes and Griffin would open a design firm and business would flourish over time.

Today, in addition to a full-scale roster of architectural design commissions, the pair have launched a ladies ready-to-wear line which is being managed by Griffin.

Major client commissions from celebrities including writer and director Nancy Meyer would put Sikes on design radar.

He shared a story with the DARTS audience on how the director met him, and eventually hired him to do her daughter’s new home.

“Before we opened our design firm, I was doing store windows for a design house on La Cienega Boulevard,” Sikes said. “I was there actually in this one window placing objects and corresponding fabrics when I noticed two women had stopped to watch. I came out to say hello.

“One of them asked me for my opinion on fabric, which I gave her and it turned out to be the fabric of choice she and her daughter had just selected for the daughter’s new home. It was the beginning of a long association and friendship with Nancy.”

Sikes’ full story was brought to life for the luncheon crowd with help from noted Orange County interior design and architectural publisher Susan McFadden of California Homes Magazine.

McFadden interviewed Sikes on behalf of DARTS as the crowd listened with attention to his every detail as the decorator shared excerpts from his bestselling decorative book titled, “Beautiful.”

The handsome book was presented to all in attendance in a blue and white stripped canvas tote. Another detail, another touch of class.

Chaired by the amazing duo of Ann Dennis and Mary Anna Jeppe, the luncheon event attracted some of the best and brightest of the Newport social scene.

Sandra Ayres, Linda Phillips, Maureen Madigan, president of DARTS, Cathi Bledsoe, Bonnie McClellan, Carolyn Garrett, and Madeline Hayward were among the glitterati.

Major supporters of DARTS Hyla Bertea, Julia Argyros, Barbara Glabman, Laraine Eggleston, Shelley Rigg and Kim Donahue also were front and center.

Emceed by Madigan and Dennis with a little help from community leader Hyla Bertea, a very special announcement was presented to the crowd.

Bertea took the microphone and offered a little story.

“I went up to Julia Argyros to thank her for her incredible, generous donation of $200,000 to DARTS,” Bertea said. “Julia was surprised and said, ‘I didn’t donate $200,000.’ I was taken aback. How could I make such an error?”

“’I donated $250,000!” responded Julia,” Bertea said.

The crowd went wild.

Argyros served as honorary chair of the event, making a very significant contribution. Funds donated by Argyros and others, including proceeds from DARTS dues and fees collected from the annual designer lectures series, are distributed to local nonprofits on an annual basis.

2017-2018 organizations supported by DARTS funds include American Red Cross, Breast Cancer Solutions, CASA Youth Shelter andCaterina’s Club, among others.

Established in 1995, DARTS invites community-minded women and men to support the organization participating in its annual series of five lectures featuring noted designers, architects, historians, landscapers, artists and writers in all fields of the design and decorate arts.

This support in turn funds the deserving nonprofits in the Orange County community.

Design divas spotted in the luncheon crowd were the chic Barbara Bowie of Big Canyon, Lisa Argyros, Ronnie Allumbaugh, Toni Berlinger, Judy Brady, France Campbell, Janet Curci, Elana Donovan, Brenda Eastman, Marion Hartwich, Marion Palley, Judy Slutzky, Ardele St. George, Nancy Wynne and event sponsor Stuart Winston of Lugano Diamonds, Newport Beach.

To learn more about DARTS, visit decorativeartssociety.net.

B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.