Change Of Scene

Having switched from fashion to interior design, Wondaland founder Alice Keswick invites Rachel Duffell into her striking home on The Peak

Fashion is out and interiors are in for Alice Keswick, founder of fashion label Wondaland, and it’s proving a fruitful choice. Since the former model and fashion designer turned her creative hand to interiors, she has worked on properties for Merlin and Laura Swire on The Peak and in Shek O, and on Nick Buckley Wood’s colonial mansion on Chatham Path, Mid-Levels. But her distinctive creative talent shines brightest in her own home.

“My style is quite English eccentric with a bit of Art Deco,” says Keswick. And walking into her house on The Peak—which she shares with husband Archie Keswick, heir to Jardine Matheson, and their two daughters, Coco and Grace—is much more like entering a cosy home in England than a typical Hong Kong abode, filled as it is with generous natural light and timeless furnishings, and enhanced with a dash of the fantastic.

Keswick studied womenswear at Central Saint Martins in London before she and Archie moved to Hong Kong, where she spent time designing for Japanese denim label Evisu before starting her own brand. The couple then moved to Vietnam for four years, during which Keswick set up a studio and workshop where she did all her production for Wondaland.

Nods to the couple’s fond memories of Vietnam appear throughout their home. Along with antique furniture from the South East Asian nation, there are handmade lacquer accessories and pieces of furniture from friend James Lowther’s The Lacquer Company, which works with designers from around the world and highly skilled Vietnamese artisans.

When the couple’s girls came along, Keswick took a break from Wondaland. Reluctant to return to what she calls “the relentless pace of fashion,” she set out to follow her “actual passion,” interior design.