Celebrating 23 years as the founder of her eponymous London design firm, Tara Bernerd ties much of her success to the relationships she’s fostered along the way.
Though her career path took a winding route, Bernerd has cemented herself and her firm as a preeminent force in the industry—working with the likes of powerhouse brands such as St. Regis, Six Senses, Four Seasons, Belmond, Rosewood, and more.
“This has been an incredible journey,” she says. “Each job spilled into something else, and each one has been a backbone to what I’ve learned and what I do today.”
She’s also quick to point to her multidisciplinary team—which has grown to 55 hailing from countries all over the world—a design-savvy group whom she refers to as the “navy seals of design.” Bernerd adds: “Building hotels is a team job. Our great honor is to take our experience and palette and work with the owners and operators to bring life and soul to these properties.”
Here, she reflects on her life and career milestones.
Where did you grow up?
Tara Bernerd: My childhood was in London. I say that with a little hesitation because, since my earliest years, my parents traveled extensively and we spent half our lives in Europe. Since a very young age, a mixture of France, Italy, and Switzerland were an enormous part of my life. Then, one of my parents [moved to Switzerland]. But I’m a Londoner. I was born in Central London and started working in London. Because of the way we were raised, there’s a huge part of me that has always felt like a European Londoner.
Bernerd’s parents: Susan and Elliott Bernerd
How did your parents influence you?
TB: My father worked in the property development industry. He had a very creative outlook, and as a result, I grew up around people who were creating districts and areas—not just buildings—and therefore great architects. Richard Rogers stamped a big part of my life on a personal note, and as I grew up I understood what he was doing. I say the same of Norman Foster. They were very much around. Although I have never worked with my father, he certainly made an enormous imprint.
My sister and I share a close relationship with both my father and mother. My mother is a glamorous and exciting person who threw herself into charity work and worked for decades for Barnardo’s, which is a big children’s charity in the UK for which she used to be the chairperson.
What were you like growing up?
TB: I have vibrant memories from when I was 10 years old. What happens in your family influences you. We were not the Brady Bunch, but we did all stick together. I’ve always been passionate. In my teens, I wasn’t aware that I would end up doing what I do. But I did everything with passion. I loved my friends. I have always been considered outgoing, but I’m a little bit shy as well. I was fiercely independent, I pushed boundaries, and I was happy. I was certainly creative and very particular at things. I had a design aesthetic in my mind. I did incredibly well within the arts, but it wasn’t only the creative side. That passion, love, and earnest enthusiasm to people, the passion for traveling, the celebration of discovering new places and absorbing them was always in me.
How did that passion translate in your schooling and first jobs?
TB: I went to the Francis Holland School, a very good English all-girls day school until we had the option to go on to do A-Levels. I chose to leave school a little earlier. I didn’t go on to get a university degree, so I had to go to work. My parents had dreams of me going to the Sorbonne in Paris. If that wasn’t happening, I was out. At that point, there wasn’t a specific move to go into design. I did an apprenticeship at Vogue for a short but incredibly insightful period of time. After six or eight months, I ended up in a job in one of the well-known PR companies of the time, (which shows like Absolutely Fabulous were probably based on). Those were the first jobs that led me into working in property development. Property led me back to the creative side and toward design, and then I put the three together.
Hayley Sieff, Jenny Halpern Prince, Tara, and Tamara Beckwith Veroni in 2010
What did you take from those experiences?
TB: I’ve run my company for almost 23 years. The experience for someone of 16 or 17 years old leaving school is a very different period of assessing what you are learning from work. As much as Vogue sounds fantastic—it is a leading brand and it’s no joke—you do learn about real life and getting your act together. There’s no parent waking you up because you’re late for an exam. You are in the office, you are suited, you are answering phones, taking messages, and being responsible. Even though I wasn’t going to be a publisher or a journalist, it taught me to understand people and not to take anything for granted.
These jobs were part of my roots and were a foundation for my career. [Each] spilled into something else and each one has been the backbone to what I’ve learned and what I do today in their own way. I wouldn’t throw those years away working in development, because I understand the developer’s mind. I understand the business side. We work today with those very people—whether it’s the ownership of the hotels we’re privileged to do, or the condominiums and buildings we put up globally. That experience was invaluable. Then, slowly, I pushed and broke down boundaries to get into the creative side and the design side.
How did you get into the design and development business?
TB: I knew I couldn’t just walk into an architecture firm and take a job. I’d worked, I’d gone back to school and studied film (another curve ball). But there was imposter syndrome because I didn’t have an architecture degree.
I found a property in Battersea. I had designed some other properties, and slowly saved and got a loan to buy an old warehouse and the airspace for the roof. I had everything in my mind I wanted to achieve. I could see it finished. I engaged young architects because I needed that architectural skillset to draw everything up—which I’ve since then taught myself. The property was fantastic. It sold considerably well to a filmmaker, and it won awards. That was the catalyst, where design had met an understanding of the property. It wasn’t frivolous—it was layered in concern and responsibility to get it right. That led to different, smaller design jobs. Then, I was introduced to John Hitchcox at YOO.
The study in a private London home, 2015
How were you involved with Hitchcox and that residential (and now hotel) brand?
TB: At the time, Philippe Starck and John Hitchcox had created YOO, and I was very much a part of that early journey. YOO was a groundbreaking company. It was one of the first ambassadors of the necessity—the value—of design in buildings. That might sound strange because we’ve seen design in buildings forever. We can look back at Claridge’s and the great artisans that worked on hotels back then, the historic design. But property developers used to say, ‘Location, location, location.’ YOO shifted that to ‘Location, location, design.’ It was an incredible time. No one had titles in the office—everyone was called partner. I was a young designer—embraced, accepted, and petrified of Philippe Starck. I traveled with him because I was responsible for supporting all the different styles for the new buildings, but also meeting ownership to find new locations, be it in Asia or the U.S. That’s where I first met [real estate investor] Aby Rosen. I never missed a beat to listen and to learn.
What drove you to start your own firm?
TB: The last years with YOO, I wanted be a little fearless and to step out on my own. I had one architect to make sure my drawings were properly executed, and one assistant-slash-aspiring designer. I left and set up Tara Bernerd & Partners and enticed them to join me. It was agreed that I could take them with me. I didn’t do it because I wanted my name on the door. In fact, it wasn’t at that point—I changed the name 10 years ago. I wanted to do a mixture of everything I now fundamentally believe in. I wanted to bring design and creative into a business, which meant condominiums and buildings. I had a dream all my life to build beautiful hotels. It’s not lost on me that it was there because I was very privileged to travel all over the world and stay in incredible hotels. But my huge dream was to end up working with the hotels.
What were the early days like?
TB: I quickly realized it was complicated to get an office because you needed to show a legacy of work. I ended up finding one that happened to be leased to a very old friend of mine, Tamara Mellon, who cofounded Jimmy Choo. Then I had two jobs come in. They couldn’t have been more different, but both represented the splitting of the atom of what we would be about. One was for Tony Pidgley, who passed away a few years ago. He was a huge mentor and probably the biggest developer in the UK. I won a commercial residential project that was an old telephone exchange in Crouch End near Alexandra Palace [in London]. They wanted me to do a huge designer process and rename it, which is why I called it the Exchange.
Soon after, my dear friend David Tang, who’s also no longer with us, introduced me to [art dealer] Jay Jopling. Jay was doing the first White Cube gallery in Hoxton Square—and asked me to work on the interior design of his offices and all the private areas. The projects couldn’t be more opposite. One put us at the forefront for quite large property deals. The other one put us at the forefront of edgy London, current and happening.
Lucciola restaurant, located in the Hari Hong Kong, 2020
Looking back, did you know what you would be able to create with your firm?
TB: I still don’t! Every minute was either head down into the design, the projects that were coming in, meeting the people, getting a couple more people in the office. Now, my internal meetings are high level, with a team of directors and head of resourcing to go over 15 projects globally, five new inquiries, three real ones. Even now I don’t sit back too much and think, ‘Look at this,’ because I never take it for granted. I haven’t lost that.
Is there a project you feel put your firm on the map?
TB: There have been moments that are big breaks. We’ve done some incredible hotels and some magnificent projects. The first hotels mattered. And there are a few stepping stones that led me here. I have to mention both Aron Harilela [CEO of the Harilela Group, owner of the Hari hotels] and [hotelier] Jason Pomeranc. I’d been working for some time, done some work for Blackstone, worked on huge projects across the UK and in the hotel industry in Switzerland. But Jason and Aron, in a sense gave me that first London-centric boutique hotel [formerly the Belgraves, a Thompson Hotel, now the Hari London]. I continued to work with Jason and Aron; they saw what I was about and that was a moment.
A wave of our projects were now surfacing, and our work was beginning to be seen, after taking years to build. I got a call from Four Seasons and Chris Norton—a legend in the industry—which opened the door for me to Four Seasons. We continue to work with them, including on the Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale in Florida and that partnership opened doors to brands like Rosewood and Belmond. The other brands we work with continue to be part of my working life. We don’t leave the people we were with, but we’ve gained new collaborations. We’re now working with Neil Jacobs and Six Senses. I’ve always thought my work was my passport to life. I still believe that.
Talk about your team culture.
TB: We have the most incredible team and caliber of talent. We’re a big gang with people from all over the world, a fantastic mix of nationalities and cultures and design warriors. We have a WhatsApp group called Design DNA. Usually it’s when we’re all traveling or away—even people on their holidays are posting, be it a pot they’ve seen in Greece, a thatch roof in Spain. We’re all constantly looking, inspired, and communicating. There’s a nice camaraderie in the office, and some very sincere friendships. Two lovely relationships have blossomed—even a wedding for one of them.
A Tara Bernerd & Partners team get together
What about your relationships outside your work life?
TB: Family is so important to me. I have an incredible sister, who I am extremely close with, and 11 nieces and nephews whom I have rich relationships with. My rock is my husband, Tommy. We travel as much as we can, and the happiest days are with him and my stepson, Robert, on what we call our family road trips. Relationships are precious to me, and I have also cherished and felt that my team members are an extension to my family. My friends—each one of them knows exactly who they are—are also central to my life. These days, I now include a number of my clients also as dear friends.
What draws you to Milan?
TB: Italy’s been a forever part of me. Half my life I wished I were Italian. I always wanted to learn Italian, which I’m doing now. It was injected into me from bougainvillea in Portofino as a young girl to the flavors and the taste. I’m talking as much about design as I am about food. Design took me to Milan, which is exquisite. The architecture is magnificent—it’s alive and it’s buzzy and it’s energetic. It is the hub of all creativity. We see fashion come out of there. We see designers, from architects to furniture, come from there. The city has drawn me in for years. I have been blessed that I’m able to work there and spend a lot more time there. Because I live in Switzerland, that time can be considerable. It’s a very simple drive or train ride, and I’m able to get to the city quickly and easily.
Tara shopping in one of her favorite Milan spots
What are you working on in the city?
TB: I’m working with Gruppo Statuto, and of course, Neil on the Six Senses on Via Brera. In the time I’ve been able to spend there with the project, I’ve designed two private homes. I’ve learned about the artisans and the furniture factories people run on the outskirts of Milan, a 40-minute drive. I started learning and peeling back the layers of Milan. When you’re engaged in a city and working there, you learn and feel it in a different way.
Your theme for this issue is the New Dolce Vita. How is Milan evolving?
TB: There is so much going on. Hotels are opening, and designers are there. The furniture fairs are incredible. It’s a glorious time. This isn’t even [including] what’s going on in the fashion world. The beautiful life is what we associate with Milan, but this beautiful life is like no other. There’s energy and you feel alive there. No doubt all eyes are on Milan, and they should be. There is so much going on there, and in Italy at the moment. I’m not the first to say it. The idea of celebrating a beautiful life in this new way is exciting and very much deserved.
What’s a piece of advice that still resonates?
TB: There’s a thing they teach you to cross the road when you’re a kid: Stop, look, listen, think. I would say it applies today in everything. And then keep moving. It’s a mixture of my caution, which is the stop, look, listen, and think, not letting fear get in the way, to keep going.
This article originally appeared in HD’s November 2024 issue.
