Growing up in the wine country near Capetown, South Africa, Noleen Kutash spent her youth experiencing the beauty and spirit of the African landscape, and the intersection of her homeland’s traditional tribal culture with its European heritage.
Keen for adventure, Noleen joined South African Airways as a flight attendant. On one of those flights she met and fell in love with her future husband, an American producer of musicals, and in 1984 made her home in the United States.
In the process of observing her husband’s theater productions take shape - set design, lighting, costuming - Noleen became, as he affectionately described her, his “creative detailer”. With a natural flair for costume design, Noleen decided to purchase a theatrical wardrobe storehouse. Entrepreneurial spirit and a bold eye for style on course, she went on to form her own business - “Creative Detailing” - creating costumes for regional theater productions across the U.S.
A passion for beautiful design and detailing was also channeled into the creation of her own home in Palos Verdes Estates in California, featured on the cover of Southern California Home & Garden magazine in March 1990.
Noleen subsequently created a second home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where her creative energies were applied to producing a series of documentaries about local artists. In 2000 she spent a year in Florence, studying Renaissance art and soaking up the best of European design, traditional and contemporary.
Over the years living in the United States, Noleen has returned regularly to visit her African homeland. Since the end of apartheid 1990, she has witnessed development of a innovative contemporary design scene in South Africa, has been inspired by the way modern design has been applied to traditional artistry - opening up a new international market and re-establishing the cultural pride - and economic status - of wonderfully skilled tribal craftspeople.
In 2001, Noleen traveled to Africa and brought back a small range of home furnishing products to the United States. She found them quickly snapped up by leading retail stores - Fred Segal and Thomas Schoos amongst them.
With the Phases Africa range, Noleen is able to combine a passionate interest in contemporary design with a pride in her African cultural heritage. She continues to travel widely in South Africa and across the African continent to source her stylish and unique range of products directly from designers, artists and local craftspeople.
Recognizing a void in the United States for sophisticated home furnishings with distinctly African character, Noleen opened her showroom in Los Angeles in 2004.