Fashion Designers Open Up Their Homes

Filed under: Famous Homes, Design, etc, House Tours, News & Trends, Celebrity Homes, Cool Homes

From Donna Karan to Cynthia Rowley, a new book takes us inside the homes of America's biggest fashion designers.

Ever wonder what Ralph Lauren's house looks like? Well, now you can take a look around, thanks to the Council of Fashion Designers of America's new book: "American Fashion Designers at Home."

The glossy tome looks into more than 100 homes of members of the CFDA, from big names like Cynthia Rowley and Carolina Herrera to lesser-known (but no less important) designers like Ben-Amun's Isaac Manevitz.

While some designers homes are the interior embodiment of their signature style, like Donna Karan's Turks and Caicos home, which oozes her zen-like style, or Ralph Lauren's ranch, which looks like a RL store without the clothes. However, there are other designers who have homes that surprise in how different they are from a designer's fashion line.

We spoke with author Rima Suqi about some of the homes that stood out and why:


Gary Wolkowitz...for his ultra minimalist living.
You may not recognize Wolkowitz's name, but we can almost guarantee you know his company: HotSox. Suqi says she was pleasantly surprised to discover that the man responsible for some rather daring footwear hired Michael Gabellini, who is known for his uber-minimalist interiors (he's responsible for all the Jill Sanders boutiques). However, Wolkowitz didn't just hire a decorator, he was actively involved in the design process; in fact, when he saw the side chairs pictured above in a Tokyo hotel, he managed to convince the hotel to ship a couple of their custom-designed seats back to him in New York!



Eva Chow... for her wow-worthy collection of art.
Not every couple has huge portraits of themselves in their home - let alone ones by Julian Schnabel (above left) and Jean-Michel Basquiat. However, as Suqi notes, Michael and Eva Chow's over-the-top, 30,000-square-foot Los Angeles home is not your average house: It has real gold leaf on the walls. The Chows also have a museum-worthy collection of art including the Basquiat, the Schnabel, a John Chamberlain sculpture and sofa and chairs by Pierre Chareau (both above). A major furniture and art collector, it is rumored that Michael Chow would sometimes trade meals for art from some artists at his famed restaurant Mr. Chow.



Johnson Hartig...for having a lot going on and making it work beautifully.
"When people can put a lot of pattern together and make it work, that's a skill," says Suqi. In this room of Libertine's Johnson Hartig's home, with its gigantic Damien Hirst spin art painting and other artworks, most of the pattern is on the walls. However, Suqi notes, Hartig left the base of the room to black and white, pulling together the different styles of the furnishings and acting as a neutral base for the eclectic art collection. "Libertine, in my opinion, is not for the shy," says Suqi. "They're always going to be some sort of pushing the envelope to it and in a way this [room] does nod to that."


Randolph Duke... for his great example of indoor-outdoor living.
Best known for his couture evening gowns, Randolph Duke isn't exactly the rustic, outdoors-y type, but there's no better place to embrace the outdoors than the hills of Los Angeles. Duke's architect embraced the view 10-foot high retracting glass walls. "The whole thing can open up," says Suqi. She notes that open to nature doesn't mean of a lack of glamor, in fact, the space is reminiscent to Duke's designs for Hollywood starlets, "It's understandable, it's glamorous, the materials are pretty first rate... and it's a little bit naughty."


Isaac Manevitz...for his surprise collection of rare Memphis Furniture.
Isaac Manevitz, the designer for Ben-Amun, does not live in an architecturally significant house. However, the minute Suqi spied shots of it she was almost certain he had a collection of very significant furnishings. The 1980s settee above is one of Manevitz's ten pieces of Memphis Furniture, a Milan-based collective whose furniture designs in the post-modernist style shot up the design world in 1981. Memphis isn't Manevitz's only collection; he also has a collection of mid-century Roseville pottery. "His collections are completely disparate," says Suqi. "But he loves them all and he is very passionate."



Cynthia Rowley... for having a lap pool. In her back yard. In the West Village.
Cynthia Rowley's home itself is gorgeous, but the presence of a swimming pool behind a Greenwich Village townhouse is what really stood out for Suqi. As Suqi writes in American Fashion Designers at Home, a backyard in NYC is a luxury, a water feature (usually a fountain) is considered glamorous, but a lap pool, like the one Rowley added, is a rarity. Plus, the pool is a reflection of Rowley's signature happy-go-lucky vibe. "There's always an element of play in both her fashion and her home," says Suqi.



Zang Toi...for what he did with a small space.
Most designers featured in the book have 5,000-square-foot homes, whole townhouses or homes plural. In less than 1,500 square feet, Zang Toi has carved out a stylish and luxurious home of which Marie Antoinette would have approved. "This is a person who is Paris-obsessed," says Suqi of the France-influenced space, "The space has one theme, maxed out to an extreme, but it's very well done." Touches of luxury like a cashmere-covered sofa trimmed with mink harkens back to his fashion. "He's not afraid of a little fur or a sequin now and then," says Suqi.

Each home was unique in its own way, however the thing that stood out the most for Suqi was the people's personal back-stories. For example, Eli Tahari moved [to New York] from Israel with $300 in his pocket and spent a few nights sleeping in Central Park - a true rags-to-riches success story.

"There are quite a few American dream stories in [the book]. That in some ways is more inspiring to me," but she notes, "A lot doesn't make it into the book, as we are focusing on décor." Maybe the CFDA should consider another book? "American Fashion and the American Dream" has a nice ring to it., no?

For more on the intersection between home and fashion, don't miss:
-Rooms Inspired By Fashion
-Fashion Week Comes Home: We Go Inside Designers' Closets
-The House That Fashion Built

 

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