Shelley B. Starr Designer and Founder of Moura Starr.
To meet Shelley Starr is to fall in love. Elegant, charming and strong, Ms Starr is a leader in home furniture design. Her internationally recognized luxury brand of home furnishings is as timeless and beautiful as the designer herself. To walk into a Moura Starr showroom and speak to Ms. Starr is to be surrounded by the sublime.
I interviewed Shelley Starr in her showroom in Los Angeles in the prestigious Pacific Design Center on Melrose Avenue. Entering a long black corridor to the main reception desk, lighted by crystal chandeliers, I felt as though I was entering an elegant home and I wanted to move in! A perfectionist with a keen sense of detail, quality, craftsmanship and balance in her design, Ms Starr’s home furnishing designs are unique. We sat down on a black linear corner sofa that was both austere and comfortable. Covered in a black velvet corduroy I felt myself slowly nestling in, my hand wanting to continuously stroke the fabric like the soft, silky coat of a cat. And I purred inside. A black lacquer and glass coffee table completed the vignette. It was round with a difference. Though stationary and solid in colour the table had movement and flow like a tide pool. When ask about the inspiration for its design, Ms. Starr, with a glint of passion in her blue eyes, recalled how she was in the dessert and drew the lines of the table in the sand. When I remarked on a dinning table in the showroom window with the raw and rustic look of a tree cut through the center, she gave me a window into how she experiences the world. When looking at a waterfall one day she watched the water cascading between two rocks and saw the design for a table. “I see structure everywhere I go”, she remarked obviously delighted by the world around her. “I love the use of fine materials and the idea of creating something without limitations…which is why Moura Starr is so unique and unlike other furniture companies.” Ms. Starr’s inspirations are her experiences, her travels around the globe and what matters to her in her life now, today. Since first meeting Ms. Starr in 2006 in New York City at her SOHO showroom her design has evolved, yet is unmistakably distinguishable as her own. Defined by both a construction of the materials she uses and the natural beauty of the materials themselves, one foiling the other as they overlap creating sideboards and tables, beds and chairs. Each time one looks at a piece one notices something new in the details: the texture of leather on wood; a fur hide juxtaposed to gleaming steel; the slats of wood like an accordion cascading over the hard lines of a black lacquer coffee table in the shape of an “L”; the manner in which a sofa gently curves back inviting you to sit down. Like Ms. Starr herself the designs of the furniture are at once complex and very simple, strong, yet subtle, daring yet modest, masculine, yet with moments of a light demure femininity that is as momentary as the whisking away of a strand of hair from her mouth or the feather pattern whispering in the fabric of a hard lined chair.
Ms. Starr left business school to travel, explore and embark on her personal journey to becoming a designer. Her foray into the world of design had a very home spun and modest beginning. She started by sewing pillows on her living room floor. With little money she was only able to purchase six fabrics. In order to stretch her “portfolio” of pillows she hand dyed the fabrics in several colours. Fourteen years later with 267 employees worldwide Moura Starr owns its own manufacturing, distribution, import and export business and the showrooms: two in New York City; one in Los Angeles; and one in Jeddah. All the furniture is handcrafted at the Moura Starr factory.
Ms. Starr’s rise in the design world has not been without her challenges, defeats and struggles. With uncompromising independence, drive and a sense of responsibility Ms. Starr’s growth of the Moura Starr brand is like that of Howard Roark, the protagonist in Ayn Rand’s 1943 novel, The Fountain Head. As an individualist, refusing to genuflect to a culture of collectivism, Ms. Starr has found herself struggling against society as she refuses to go with the “norm”. Yet, growing an evergreen brand never comes without struggle. The Moura Starr collection is a luxury brand with a classic look. Though evolving each piece is a collectable work of art that transcends trends and eras. Moura Starr is the haute couture house of home design.
Home is very important to Ms. Starr, not only as the embodiment of powerful design that fills a space and gives it completion, but also as a mother of a young daughter, Sophia, and wife. Home is where Sophia and Ms. Starr work on late night art projects; where Ms. Starr enjoys cooking while her husband fixes a cocktail; where she bakes something for her daughter. Family surrounds Ms. Starr, from her mother as friend and confident to her gorgeous husband whom she adores, to her little princess Sophia who is the obvious shining star in her life. It is not easy balancing a life with so many demands: wife; mother; businessperson; designer; woman. Her secret is to compartmentalize her time and concentrate on one piece at a time. To spend time with Ms. Starr is to know that she is hard on herself striving to always be the very best and proud yet modest about her accomplishments. Yet, like her design there is always something that you miss at first glance. Behind the beauty and strength is also an innocence that is the spell of her charm. A giggle about treating herself to a new handbag (and the screwball comedy that went along with the purchase), her faith in the world, her loyalty and humble admiration for other people’s being, whether it be patience through love or success in the worlds of business and art.
Both Moura Starr and its founder Shelley Starr are one-of-a kind that demand admiration.
Sandra Caryl
LA Underground January 2010.
http://www.mourastarr.com/press_selected.php?id_press=109
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