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Michael Taylor (born Earnest Charles Taylor, January 30, 1927 – June 3, 1986) was an American designer best known for creating the "California Look" of interior design. One of Architectural Digest's "20 Greatest Designers of All Time” and "Interior Design Legends". Taylor was noted for his rooms of airiness and light with a prominent use of natural forms and the color white.[1][2] In 1956, he founded his design company, Michael Taylor Interiors, Inc. Under Michael Taylor Designs, he manufactured his own designs and in 1985 partnered with Paul Weaver to develop and market interior and exterior furnishings to the wholesale design trade. Taylor worked continuously until his death in 1986.
Born in Modesto, California in 1927, Michael Taylor moved with his family to the northern California town of Santa Rosa in 1933. There, his childhood was greatly influenced by his maternal grandmother who imparted on him an affinity for natural forms by taking him on daily hikes. It was here that the seeds of Taylor’s design philosophy were first planted, with his interest in the arts shining through even at a young age. Where other young boys collected baseball cards, the young Taylor collected bits of porcelain. However, despite an obvious penchant for aesthetics, his parents wished him to become a doctor. A dream they held onto for years and that he nearly lived out.[3]
In 1944, Taylor dropped out of High School, where he played football and was active in theater, to join the U.S. Navy. He served as a Navy paramedic until he was discharged in 1946.[4] That experience, however, soured Taylor on the idea of becoming a doctor. Instead, he moved to San Francisco where, in 1947, he enrolled at the Rudolf Schaeffer School of Design. It was there that Taylor learned what he called "the secrets of color."[3] Over time, he became very close to Schaeffer, who referred to him as “his dear Michael,” and who set him up as a partner in a fledgling design company with Frances Mihailoff, a prominent designer in San Francisco at the time. A mere four years after entering the Rudolf Schaeffer School of Design, Michael Taylor was already a partner in an interior design business at the age of 25.[3] Their partnership was so fruitful that they both decided they could make it on their own. In 1956, Michael Taylor began his own interior design company.
After dissolving his partnership with Frances Mihailoff, Taylor set up Michael Taylor Interiors, Inc. on Sutter Street in San Francisco in 1956. Working for prominent San Francisco families, Taylor's reputation grew quickly. What was, at first, a clientele of San Francisco Bay Area socialites soon expanded to Los Angeles, Miami and New York. International acclaim followed and Taylor soon started working abroad as well.[3]
In 1985 Paul Weaver, former Director of Marketing and VP of McGuire Furniture, approached Taylor with a plan to develop and expand the nascent Michael Taylor Designs product line offered by Taylor's interiors company into a new entity. Michael Taylor Designs Inc. was officially incorporated on August 5, 1985. After Taylor's death in 1986 Weaver assumed full control and over the subsequent 24 years greatly expanded the product lines, established nationwide sales showrooms and developed the Taylor brand into one of the most recognized luxury products in the home furnishing industry.
Paul Weaver operated Michael Taylor Designs until its sale in 2009. Michael Taylor Designs continues to operate showrooms in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and New York.
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