The Design 100

Perhaps creating a home away from home in places like Mexico City's boutique hotel Condesa DF is Mahdavi's way of making the home she never had during her childhood, which she spent following her Iranian father and Egyptian-Scottish mother to 11 countries around the world. Or perhaps the richly detailed interiors she created for the New York City club APT, which evoke a French professor's pad, are her way of channeling her original dream of working in film. Whatever her inspiration, the Paris-based Mahdavi, 46, whose work has been described as "sexy chic," is flying high, crafting airplane interiors for NetJets and giving the same attention to detail and love of sensuous lines to her collection of sofas, chairs and lamps.