THE HAVES—AND
THE HAVES WHO GIVE
FROM PALATIAL DESIGN TO VAALWATER,
DESIGN MOGUL TRISHA WILSON TAKES ON THE WORLD.
risha Wilson is blonde, honed to a state of patrician
perfection, and wears broad belts and bling that operate
as semaphores for aristocratic cachet. As many people
know, she launched a design career that eventually spanned
continents and encompassed projects that, by comparison,
make the most haute of resorts seem like drab hostels for
wayward youths. Says she, “Oh, I’ve designed palaces.” This
is intoned with a voice that’s a hybrid of Texas swagger and
feminine insouciance. However, she doesn’t say this to gloat.
In fact, there’s not one snobbish bone in her diminutive
body. She readily admits that she started her career by selling
mattresses at a now defunct department store and bowling
during her lunch hour. This is especially refreshing since she
now rubs shoulders with kings, sultans, and fashion moguls.
So if she is going to talk about the extraordinary arc of her
life, there’s an inevitable dose of celebrity wattage involved.
TThat being said, she has come to terms with her luxe lifestyle and, ironically, learning to fully appreciate Wilson requires jettisoning our own affectations regarding glitz, because
that’s not what defines her. Not at all. Her story offers positive
proof that you can, indeed, achieve success and “get there
from here,” but only if you dive deeply rather than opt for
a lazy surface float. Put simply, she has effortlessly punched
all the hot buttons pop-culture gurus have been touting for
decades. For instance, failure never enters her mind as an
option. The reliability with which she constellates success is
more constant than laws of physics, and these days her every
move is an invocation to make the world a better place.
Wilson is from Dallas—Highland Park to be exact—and,
interestingly, this has often translated into suppositions that
are only marginally less subtle than rammed earth. However,
the truth about Trisha Wilson transcends any compendium
Trisha Wilson with elephants at Izingwe Lodge; Izingwe Lodge is situated on the 100,000-acre, malaria-free Welgevonden Private Game Reserve, in
the Waterberg Mountains of Limpopo Province, South Africa.
