Lauren wears Gather Dress ($499) Lauren, you have a successful and award-winning interior design company, Hare Interiors, and lead a team of talented female designers. What’s the most important thing you have learned about being a leader? To listen and to give the people that work with you autonomy to do what they do best. There are many roads to Rome. Over the years you have expanded your company into different areas; vintage furniture, customer-made furniture, commercial projects as well as keeping a strong residential portfolio. Was this a natural progression and what were some of the key hurdles you overcame? I love the challenge of working across a variety of interiors as I like to develop a central idea and visual language for each project. Sourcing original products and materials for each project can be challenging living in New Zealand where access can be limited. We have learnt (as a lot of kiwis do) to get creative and innovate new finishes and furniture ourselves. Although time consuming this lets us achieve a cohesiveness to our interiors we wouldn’t otherwise have. Do you have a design period that you are most drawn to? Who do you most admire in your and why? I love mid-century design but I couldn’t possibly pick one designer. Every designer I study, irrespective of period or medium expands the way I think in a different way. I am very lucky to be able to continually learn with everything I see. Does your interior style inform your personal style? Yes, definitely! What are some of your favourite interior trends at the moment? Do you see these coming through in the fashion industry too? (Is there an example in the Harris Tapper PF19 collection?) Yes, I see a lot of design mediums informing each other, especially with social media allowing greater and quicker exposure across these mediums. I don’t really follow trends so much as I think good design should be draw from the past but always remain timeless. I see a lot of the HT pieces (any of the ones I selected) that fit this bill. Who’s been a muse or mentor through your career and why? I am lucky to be in an industry where I am surrounded by lots of different creative business people who have taught and supported me.