DORIS DUKE’S STYLE: SHANGRI LA IN HAWAII

The press crowned her as “the world’s richest girl,” but to define Doris Duke as a tobacco heiress would hardly do her justice. Journeying around the globe at 22 with her new groom, she took in the culture and life of far off destinations, including Egypt, India, Iran, Morocco, Syria, Pakistan and Palestine. She connected with new art, new architecture, new people in each place. Often times, she brought something back.

Duke became entranced by Islamic art on her eleven month honeymoon travels in 1935- flowing calligraphy, intricate geometric patterns and blooming floral designs. Upon viewing the Taj Mahal, Duke commissioned works for seven large door jalis’ (perforated marble screens) and four small window jalis for what was to be her bedroom suite; at the Palm Beach residence of her mother-in-law. Upon arriving at the final stop on her journey, however, Duke’s vision shifted.

In Oahu, she found a true sanctuary. It was there that Duke, “the world’s richest girl,” became a free woman.

She built Shangri La, a home that she described as a “Spanish-Moorish-Persian-Islamic complex” on five acres of oceanfront land on the base of Honolulu’s towering Diamond Head Crater. It was an ambitious structure defined as much by the tropical Hawaiian soil it rested on as Duke’s love of Islamic art and architecture.

A late thirteenth century Ilkhanid panel designed in brilliantly sea colored blues adorns the northern stepped façade of Shangri La’s central courtyard, while the home’s front door welcomes visitors with verses from the Qur’an. An homage to the culture’s architecture, the opulent dining room features Duke’s personal vision of an Islamic tent, including rich hues enhanced with jade and malachite inlaid marble screens, blue striped fabrics, and a luxurious chandelier made in France for export to India. Shangri La is a destination home, complete with ceramics from the Islamic world, carved and painted Moroccan-style ceilings and the famed and incredibly beautiful Veramin luster mihrab (prayer niche).

With an adventurous disregard for the social standards of the 1930s, Duke was a pioneer in championing Islamic art. Doris Duke’s Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art, a traveling exhibition (like Madame Duke herself…) is currently being shown at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. It gives you a taste of the life that Duke created with inspiration drawn from global travel—a 15th-century North African religious manuscript, 16^th century Turkish ceramics, and a rare 18th-century Persian painting of a woman with a cat are on view—perhaps prompting you to follow in Duke’s footsteps. Visit her traveling Shangri La, or make your own.

~Tracy Goodwin

Tracy Goodwin is a stylist with Keaton Row.

July 2013