Dallas-based costume designer Rob Bradford may be known for the shimmering concoctions that light up charity events such as DIFFA, but it’s his gothically cool home that really steals the spotlight.
Taking a more-is-more approach reminiscent of the most stylish Victorians, he has amassed a truly awe-inspiring collection of antiques, paintings, books, taxidermy and loving cups that is the antithesis to today’s minimal, modern design.
Explains Bradford, “My house looks very different from my designs. My designs are colorful, and my house is very dark and detached and formal.
“It’s inspired by my home away from home, New Orleans. I loathe modern design. It looks like Legos to me, and I don’t sleep on Legos.”
Instead, he prefers a half-tester bed, with bronze winged goddesses on the foot posts. “The carved posts are actually horrible. I’d wake up in the middle of the night to use the loo, and they’d cut my arms!”
Aesthetics trump all. Just one of the treasures he’s found at auction, in antique stores, flea markets or thrift shops, the bed — and everything else in his home — is the result of decades of collecting. What he purchases and doesn’t keep, he sells in his space in Dolly Python.