passage to india; On an idyllic Bahamian island, India Hicks lives the life less ordinary.(Interview)

Byline: Catherine Piercy

I've been standing on Hibiscus Hill not 60 seconds when India Hicks comes striding toward me, hands clasped around a jar of fresh-picked frangipani blossoms, honey-colored hair swept off her face, sun-kissed complexion as bare as her feet. It's mid-morning, and I've just arrived at Hicks's charming Bahamian guest house, located steps from her own home-a Caribbean plantation-style beach house (where she lives year-round with partner David Flint Wood and their three boys)-on the sleepy, sand-swept paradise known as Harbour Island. Dressed in an airy, sequin-

flecked sundress, Hicks appears untouched by the tropical heat. "Why, hello!" she cries, padding past a hammock and two coconut trees to arrive, breathless, before me.

The English-born model with a talent for interior design has become something of a resident style guru since moving to the island eleven years ago. And her range of projects shows that she is anything but a beach bum: She renovated her home and constructed two others for her guests. She transformed the island's historic hotel, the Landing, into a destination for the jet set, and opened the Sugar Mill, by far the Bahamas' chicest boutique. She even found time to write two books-Island Life and Island Beauty (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), which in turn sparked her latest endeavor (and

the reason for my trip), the India Hicks Island Living beauty collection for Crabtree & Evelyn.

"From the beginning, I wanted to capture the unique smells of living here," says Hicks, perched barefoot on her white_washed veranda. "And that has got everything to do with the freshness of the ocean air, the scent of the palm fronds, the lush tropical flowers." She's managed just that with the casuarina room sprays and air essences, named for the sweet, cucumber-like ...