A renowned interior designer, he created instantly recognizable rooms using lush fabrics, oversize antiques and imperfectly plastered walls that convey a sense of age.

At a time when, in his words, “nobody was writing about gay life,” he produced groundbreaking novels and memoirs and published books by Harvey Fierstein…

He brought surrealism, and politics, into the design world, disdaining conformity and right angles. “He was an enemy of the grid.”