Ted Audio Collective.

Audio Collective.

This is Design Matters with Debbie Millman from design observer.com.

This episode is brought to you with support from shutterstock and Linda.com.

On this program, Debbie Millman talks with interior designer

Sheila Bridges about her career as one of the few African Americans in the

field about losing her hair and about working for Bill Clinton. A lot of times clients will look at something and think about it and then they want to see another 15 choices and then another 15 choices and I wasn't presented with any of that in dealing with the former president.

Here's Debbie Milman.

In 2004, Interior Designer Sheila Bridges had it all.

A fabulous Harlem apartment, spreads in glossy magazines, a TV show, a retail store upstate,

and then Sheila started to lose it starting with her hair. It's

2013 now and Sheila Bridges has come out on the other side with an engaging and intimate memoir called

The Bald Mermaid.

It's about interior design, Alopecia, and everything that came after. Sheila Bridges, welcome to Design Matters.

Thank you for having me.

Sheila, I understand that one of your top 10 favorite books of all time is green eggs and ham by

Dr. Seuss. Is that true? That is true. So why is that one of your all-time favorite books?

I don't know.

I think it's just most Dr. Seuss books, I think for most children, sort of resonate, but then

into adulthood as well.

I have a room in my apartment where I've painted a lot of

words from various authors because I love books and the words from green eggs and Ham are actually painted on my wall.

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