The Style Files: Conversations with Creatives

The Style Files: Conversations with Creatives

By Paloma ContrerasArtsDesign
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The Style Files: Conversations with Creatives episodes

  • William Li
    William Li is an authority in the design world, a seasoned and highly regarded media executive and television personality, a world traveler and, as food aficionado Ruth Reichl noted in her latest book, “the personification of hip elegance.”
    Born in Manhattan, Li was raised in Chinatown by a single mother, an immigrant who instilled in him the importance of hard work and a lifelong appreciation for the art form that is food. From an early age, Li was drawn to the power of beauty and potential of storytelling.
    A combination of hustle, humor, taste and endless creativity propelled Li to the top of two fast-paced creative industries—and helped him build a global network across the worlds of retail, design, fashion, media, art and culture in the process. During his 15-​ ​year tenure with CondéNastPublications,​ ​hewasthepublisherofthemostnoteworthymagazinelaunchesin recent publishing history, M​ en’s Vogue a​ nd ​Condé Nast Portfolio​, where he notably was the first and only Asian-American publisher.
    He continued on “to smash the bamboo ceiling” as a gay Chinese man in retail when he became Global Brand President of Ralph Lauren Home, responsible for the overall stewardship of the brand around the world.
    For the latest chapter in his professional life, Li taps into his passion for artistic, thoughtful storytelling as a Contributing Editor for E​ lle Decor ​and ​Town & Country,​ and as co-host of Lucky Chow​, the public television series exploring unique pockets of Asian American culture, affording him an unparalleled opportunity to celebrate the rich history of his heritage through the lens of food.
    When he’s not globetrotting, he lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his husband and their whippets, Archie and Max, and spends his weekends in the Berkshires. He is a voracious gardener; a skilled home cook, a great collector of contemporary photography and drawing; and a connoisseur of dumplings and 90s R&B.
    1 hr 1 min
  • Caroline Gidiere
    Raised in a small town in the South where professional decorators were not a thing, Caroline learned the important principals of interior design and fashion from watching her mother, who was a wicked seamstress and wasn't afraid of a complicated pattern or roll of wallpaper, and knew how to match a seam. Her mother created stylish and chic interiors and clothing for the family on a  budget, guided primarily by her strict adherence to all things previously sanctioned by Jaqueline Onassis, Colonial Williamsburg, Princess Diana, Vogue or Emily Post.
    As an adult, Caroline is sought after by her friends to help as equally with their daily fashion and entertaining decisions as with their interiors. Guided by her own creativity coupled with the principals that she learned first hand from her mother and in the pages of her enormous personal design library, Caroline turned away from a career in the business world and opened her own design firm when the interest and requests became a full time job. In today's episode, we discuss Caroline's transition from a successful law career to opening her own design firm.
    1 hr 8 min
  • Ashley Whittaker
    Described as the “neo-traditionalist,” Ashley Whittaker reveals her fresh and modern perspective on traditional design and architecture in all of her work. The New York City decorator offers distinctly classic taste and chic sophistication to residential decoration and interior design. Characterized by tailored rooms that incorporate charming detail and engaging play on color and pattern, Whittaker’s signature style is immediately evident.
    A Florida native, Ashley received her bachelor degree from St. Lawrence University. She has worked as a special events director at both Ralph Lauren in New York and the finance firm Forstmann Little & Co. Ashley credits her training in the design industry to legendary decorator Markham Roberts where she worked before starting out on her own.
    51 min
  • Amy Meier
    Amy Meier is the founder and Principal Designer of Amy Meier Design, a critically acclaimed residential design firm, and Amy Meier, a home goods destination that features exclusive collaborations with artists and craftspeople, as well as vintage, antique, and one-of a kind pieces for the home. Trained in photography and fashion at UC Boulder and Parsons, respectively, Amy sees design as composition: the creative process of assembly and arrangement of disparate parts into a cohesive whole.  The key, she believes, is to not merely focus on pleasing aesthetics, but rather focus on the embodiment and elicitation of emotion.  With projects all over North America that span the gamut of settings, styles, and clients, no two Amy Meier projects look, or feel alike, but her body of work is united as a collection of sophisticated, thoughtful, and edited compositions.
    In today's episode, we discuss Amy's background in fashion, taking a leap and pursuing a new career, and what it's like to work with her husband everyday while running a successful design firm and a beautifully curated store.
    1 hr 3 min
  • Palmer Weiss
    Palmer Weiss is a San Francisco-based interior designer. Raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Weiss credits her Southern roots as a major influence on her design aesthetic. She admires the way Southerners embrace their family heritage, formality and tradition in their homes but are also not afraid to express a few of their eccentricities as well. Over twenty-five years of living in Northern California has allowed her to develop a unique style that both respects tradition and embraces new ideas. A mother of two girls and one yellow lab, Weiss also understands the need for a home to be as functional as it is beautiful. Never one to give into trends, Weiss is known for creating timeless, modern and livable interiors with her signature bursts of color and a little bit of that Southern eccentricity thrown in for fun.
    Interiors and architecture are in Weiss’ blood. With an accomplished interior designer for a mother and a father in real estate development, Weiss spent much of her childhood touring construction and job sites. Though she was always toiling away in her mom’s sample closets and dissecting design trade magazines for inspiration, Weiss didn’t formalize her design career until 2002. Instead she held jobs in investment banking and retail merchandising. She believes her experience in the business world has helped her immensely in managing client budgets and meeting key project deadlines. She feels these attributes are as important to a successful client relationship as making inspired creative choices.
    Weiss attended Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school, Brown University with a BA in History of Art, and received her MBA at J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. As an avid supporter of the arts, Palmer serves on the board of Spoleto Festival USA which is one of America’s premier performing arts festivals and held in her hometown of Charleston, SC. She resides in San Francisco with her husband, a cardiologist, and their two daughters.
    1 hr 3 min
  • Alexa Hampton
    Since Alexa Hampton took the reins of Mark Hampton, her father’s iconic firm, as owner and president in 1998, she has advanced its legacy of elegant, practical, classically based interiors for modern living – and extended its global reach. From New York City to Hangzhou, China, her project portfolio encompasses luxe, beautifully layered urban apartments, expansive town and country residences, private airplanes, and yachts. Regularly named to Architectural Digest’s AD100 and House Beautiful’s Top Designer list as well as Elle Décor’s A-List, Hampton translates the classical principles of good design and decoration into some of today’s most elegant, enduring, and functional domestic landscapes.
    An alumna of Brown University who took her degree with honors, Hampton pursued graduate studies at New York University's The Institute of Fine Arts and holds honorary doctorates from Moore College of Art & Design and the New York School of Interior Design. Honored with a Circle of Excellence Award by the International Furnishing and Design Association, she is an associate member of the American Society of Interior Designers. Her accolades also include Cosmopolitan’s Fun Fearless Female Award and Connecticut Cottage & Gardens’ Design Innovator Award. Like her father, Hampton is a highly regarded author. In addition to her two critically praised books on design to date – The Language of Interior Design and Decorating in Detail – she has contributed an essay to A Visual Life, Charlotte Moss’s 2012 volume. She has also contributed an essay to the compendium of essays, Interior Design Master Class: 100 Lessons from America's Finest Designers on the Art of Decoration. She is a contributing columnist for The Wall Street Journal’s weekend Off Duty section. She is included in Jennifer Boles’ recent book: Inspired Design: The Most Important Designers of the Past 100 Years, Thomas Jayne’s book: The Finest Rooms in America, William Norwich’s book, Interiors: The Greatest Rooms of the Century.
    In an ever-expanding portfolio of acclaimed products, Hampton provides smart, stylish, design-rich solutions for every aspect of the home. On-going Hampton-designed collections include furniture for  Theodore Alexander, lighting for Visual Comfort & Co. and Generation Lighting, fabrics and trims for Kravet, broadloom carpet for Stark, pillows and bedding with Eastern Accents, table linens for La Gallina Matta, hardware for SA Baxter, mantels for Chesney’s, architectural mouldings for White River, and flooring for Globus Cork.
    An industry force who honors tradition and commits to the future, Hampton sits on the board of trustees for the New York School of Interior Design and the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art.
    57 min
  • Dara Caponigro
    Dara Caponigro is a force in the world of design and interiors. Dara is currently the Creative Director of one of the most well-respected fabric houses in the industry, F. Schumacher & Co, where she directs and oversees product development, advertising and marketing, visual merchandising, and the website. Dara's presence at the company has seen a total change in the marketing and branding at the company, both of which feel fresh, editorial, and inspiring. Prior to joining Schumacher, Dara held a slew of illustrious positions as a magazine editor. She was the Editor-in-Chief at Veranda and before that, she was the founding editor at the original Domino and held several senior editorial posts at House Beautiful and ELLE DECOR.
    52 min
  • Christopher Spitzmiller

    CHRISTOPHER’S ICONIC CERAMIC LAMP DESIGNS draw inspiration from classical forms and traditional gem like glazes. He began his career in Georgetown in Washington, D.C. where he worked out of an old school house near Dumbarton Oaks. Shortly thereafter, his work received critical acclaim and his reputation as a noteworthy ceramicist began to emerge. In the summers, he worked from Mecox Gardens in Southampton as an artist in residence and such designers as Albert Hadley, Richard Keith Langham and Suzanne Rheinstein began to commission his work.

    Since 1996, Christopher has been concentrating his efforts on his unique lamp designs. In the fall of 1999 after outgrowing his Washington studio he moved to New York City where he now creates his one of-a-kind lamps with his crew of skilled artisans. The lamps are of timeless appeal and luxurious quality. Beautiful classic forms are drenched in bold vibrant rich glazes. Each one of a kind lamp is set in a hand turned hardwood base, which is water gilt with 23k yellow gold or 9k white gold for a silver finish. Currently, Christopher recently expanded his designs to table ware and other ceramic accessories.

    Christopher’s work is often featured in celebrated publications such as Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Elle Décor, Departures, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He has had the honor of making lamps for the past three White House Administrations, as well the Blair House and other distinguished American homes.

    When not in the Studio, Christopher can be found at his farm in Millbrook, NY gardening, bee keeping, making jam, cooking for friends, or tending to his flock of heritage breed chickens. He also enjoys the pleasure of giving back to the community by serving on the board of the local time-honored Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and as the Vice Chair of the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club President's Dinner. In today's episode, Chris shares how his lamp business came to be and also tells us all about cooking, baking, gardening, and tending to his animals on Clove Brook Farm!

    49 min
  • Suzanne Kasler
    Inspired by architecture, art, fashion, and travel, Suzanne Kasler designs spaces and products that are luminous, distinctive, and timeless. Suzanne’s designs always reference the past but move towards the future with an edited and discerning eye on the present. Mixing the high and the low, traditional and contemporary, the new and the old — creating signature interiors and products that convey a sophisticated simplicity. Her designs inspire everyone to live a more beautiful, stylish, and authentic life.
    Suzanne’s work has been published in major design magazines, including Architectural Digest, Elle Décor,House Beautiful, Traditional Home and Veranda. She has been named to Architectural Digest’s AD100 and Elle Décor’s A-List. Her award-winning interiors have been captured in three books with Rizzoli, Inspired Interiors, Timeless Style, and her most recent title, Sophisticated Simplicity.
    In addition to designing timeless interiors for her clients, Suzanne has produced signature lines for Ballard Designs, Hickory Chair, La Cornue, Lee Jofa, and Visual Comfort.
    1 hr 4 min
  • Gen Sohr
    Style-maven Gen Sohr believes in taking color and pattern to the hilt. And that one can never have too many vintage bangles. The multi-hyphenate entrepreneur embraces a signature blend of classic and modern, high and low, sophisticated and fun, while serving up inspiration for fashion, interiors, travel, and entertaining. A veteran of both retail and interior design, Gen has cultivated a one-of-a-kind online shopping experience curating daily fashion and décor finds for color-loving, pattern-obsessed women like herself.
    During her twenty-year retail tenure, Gen spearheaded numerous launches for brand behemoths Old Navy, The Body Shop, and Victoria’s Secret.  In 2012, she and husband Benjamin relocated to his hometown of Nashville, where the duo co-founded Pencil & Paper Co. Gen proceeded to make waves in the interior design world with bright, welcoming homes that effortlessly mixed big-box finds and patinaed gems. Her residential projects have been featured in top shelter magazines: House Beautiful, Southern Living, Domino, HGTV and Better Homes and Gardens. Under the Pencil & Paper Co. umbrella, Gen has also developed her own product lines—Color Studies, Alphabet Art, Signature Totes, and the pattern-packed P+P Dress Collection. (The latter sold out in under an hour.) There is just as much on the horizon for this Southern Living Tastemaker, including an expansion of her Creative Camp social events and forthcoming collaboration with Anthropologie. No matter the project, you’ll find Gen sporting a strong red lip, donning a vibrant frock, and unabashedly embodying her motto: “Color Makes Us Happy.”
    1 hr 2 min

About The Style Files: Conversations with Creatives

From the publisher's feed

Interior designer and tastemaker, Paloma Contreras takes you further into the beloved "The Style Files" column from her blog, La Dolce Vita, for thoughtful, engaging conversations with creative…

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