fashion designers

March 21, 2009

By Julie Earle-Levine

Architectural designer Todd Shultz searched for more than a year to find the perfect wood for his client’s basement wine room. The heart pine he found in a cotton mill in Eatonville, Georgia had a golden colour, tight growth rings and blue veins – signs of its authenticity and age.

But when the client saw the beams, he was horrified. “He was like: ‘What are these dark black marks? Can you get rid of that?’,” Shultz recalls.

It was only after the man heard about the wood’s history – the marks were caused by a rare mould that had formed in the tree more than 200 years before – that he became enamoured with it.

The story is a familiar one to Richard McFarland, who co-founded California-based TerraMai, a reclaimed woods company, in the 1990s. Homeowners appreciate the aesthetics and eco-friendly credentials of his products, he says, but mainly “it is the story behind it that they fall in love with”.

Finding the wood, processing it, then building from it can take years. Once a source is located, the beams are photographed and their history researched. Every piece is sorted, cleaned, graded and then de-metalled and possibly re-milled. “The first reaction of someone is: ‘There is a lot of damage to this stuff’. But once it is re-milled and the spike holes are plugged, the overall effect is stunning,” McFarland says.

He says about half of TerraMai’s projects are residential, including houses in Florida, New York’s Hudson Valley, Nevada’s Lake Tahoe and Aspen, Colorado. The wood is not cheap; flooring made from 100-year-old exotics sourced from as far afield as India, South America and south-east Asia cost about $15-$25 per sq ft, about 30 per cent more than floors made from new or “virgin” wood.

But McFarland insists that “people will pay for quality”. “Because it is reclaimed, old-growth tropical hardwood – among the hardest wood on the planet – will last much longer,” he says. “With proper care, these floors can last generations”, compared with about 20 years for just-cut alternatives.

Plus, the reduced environmental impact cannot be ignored. “With every foot of reclaimed wood, you are offsetting destruction of a forest.” Yes, there is a carbon footprint in securing the beams, he acknowledges, but specialists say it is insignificant compared with cutting down new trees.

Shultz grew up on a farm, where he was taught to recycle everything. “You didn’t tear down a barn because it was 100 years old, you painted it and fixed it,” he says. “Nothing makes me sicker than seeing a dumpster full of wood. I’m the one pulling up my truck and grabbing the stuff.”

Any surplus wood goes back to his studio to be repurposed for other projects, he adds. “It is not really for cost. It’s for karma.”

Jim Ruig is another reclaimed wood specialist whose business, Australian Salvage, harvests wood from old wharves, French oak wine barrels, old buildings and industrial factories. His first purchase was 10,000 tonnes of wharf timbers, which took 400 semi-trailers to deliver to industrial land he had bought on Brisbane’s outskirts.

But since then demand has been strong. He recently sold A$3.5m (£1.6m) of reclaimed wood to actor Hugh Jackman for his health resort on Queensland’s Gold Coast and outfitted singer Jack Johnson’s seaside home in Byron Bay. He also works with developers eager to add complexity to their building interiors, as well as exporting to the US. Clients choose from a “menu” of recycled timbers, including native blackbutt, spotted gum and ironbark, then decide the finish – raw, lime washed, oil, smoked or antique.

Given the popularity of reclaimed wood – more than 40m board feet is sold a year in the US, five times the amount sold a decade ago – some are concerned about supply. But McFarland is not one of them. “Yes, it is a limited resource but the timber will be recycled again,” he says. “There will be new stories to tell – so many lives from one tree.”

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HE has been called the ‘King of Cool’, an arbiter of great vision and taste, ‘master of the ultra-hip hotel’ and a swashbuckling developer, but ask Ian Schrager, dapper in an Hermes pinstripe suit, where this style comes from and he shifts uncomfortably.

“I am not sure where this style comes from. I am not even certain I have good taste,” says Schrager, in a raspy Brooklyn accent.

Few would agree. Many would assert that Schrager not only has impeccable taste but that he creates it. Schrager, whose tanned skin and broad smile defy his 61-years, has spent nearly half his life creating spaces for the rich and famous to flock to, including boutique hotels in London, New York, Miami and LA. He has a colorful past. Of course Schrager was most famous for opening Studio 54 in Manhattan, once the world’s hippest nightclub where Bianca Jagger celebrated her birthday by riding half naked through the club on a white horse. He has also served 12 months in jail for tax fraud, where he and his friend Steve Rubell came up with the idea of a boutique hotel business. Four years later, Morgans, the world’s first boutique hotel opened in New York and the duo went on to open a string of hotels including the Royalton, Philippe Starck’s first-ever hotel project. Schrager’s new talent is combining hotels with high-end residential properties for the very, very wealthy.

When it comes to stunning buildings, New York has many, but Schrager’s second residential project, 40 Bond in downtown Noho, resonates with style. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the architects best known for Tate Modern, the 11-storey building is a modern take on the neighborhood’s cast-iron architecture. The exterior is cast entirely in greenish Coke bottle glass that glistens when the sun strikes it. Inside, there are wide-plank Austrian smoked oak wood floors, 11-foot high ceilings, fireplaces and envy-inducing outdoor terraces. Ricky Martin has bought here, as has Mario Testino. Schrager will live in the three-storey, 8,500-square-foot penthouse.

Schrager has been doing business in his mobile office – a black Mercedes - then walks in to greet me. He shakes my hand but is looking at the wall where he has spied a light fixture is not as it should be and demands to know why. I ask him if he is a perfectionist and he says. “Ha. Perfectionist is an understatement.” He might try 30 or 40 shades of white before he picks the right one. He can recognize if a bouquet, which he has decided must be a precise size and colour, is missing stems. “I don’t have to count them.” A potential buyer at the building recognizes Schrager and seizes the moment, asking, if the gleaming, wavy white walls in the foyer are plastic. Schrager’s face tightens, but the man who some say will simply walk away if he doesn’t like what he is hearing, just replies: “It is Corian marble.”

Schrager says he is actually very shy and does not like to be photographed. But once he warms up, he is charming, his conversation a steady stream of topics. Boutique hotels, Lifestyle apartments, concierges who will cater to how we live. His ideas stem from his roots in the nightclub business where he developed the production skills for acting on creative ideas. “Out of necessity I had to do these big productions and parties and the success or failure of what I did was really predicated on how exciting and magical you could make the space.” This thought process translates to hotels and to residences. “You get an idea, you try and realize it, you build it. It is exactly the same.” He is an avid reader of magazines and hunts the streets of New York for creative, individual ideas.

After leaving the Morgans Hotel Group in 2005, he developed his namesake, Ian Schrager company. His new focus is on “managing one’s life’ or rather, having someone else manage it for you. Schrager was at his weekend house in the Hamptons where estate managers do everything for you from writing party invitations to hiring a nanny. “I thought this should be applied to city living. City managers can really make your home somewhere you can enjoy.”

Schrager predicts there will be demand across the board for this kind of living, not just by the super wealthy and that it makes 40 Bond a standout. At the time of writing there were just three of the building’s 27 apartments still for sale. They cost $3 to $10 million. He insists the building’s appeal is not just the design, rather the services that come with it.

Schrager has plenty of other projects on his plate. Recently, he signed a deal with Marriott where he will develop 100 boutique hotels for a new brand that will be launched in major cities across the US, South America, Europe and Asia. He is working on a hotel in Miami, plus another high end hotel in that city as well as a sizeable project (a hotel and residences) on Manhattan’s 10^th avenue with developer and friend Aby Rosen He is also looking to close a transaction in Las Vegas and would like to do some more hotels in LA, New York and in London. “Over the next five to seven years I’d like to get to ten or twelve private label hotels and sell it or go public with it. That is the strategy.”

Clearly, Schrager shows no signs of slowing, but his approach is different these days. He works hard to strike a balance with work and family. And he’s spending time on his own immediate environment, 40 Bond. For now his new home is an empty shell, and he doesn’t want to share the specifics other than to say it will be very simple, with most materials from Europe, the woods, marbles and raw finishings. He’d like to keep the rest a secret. “Once something goes mainstream, for me it is over.”

Chinatown in New York is one of the last few authentic neighbourhoods in a city that is always searching for the next “it” place to live. Its core population is about 80,000, of which 55,000 are of Asian lineage. But residential developments and at least one five-star hotel are transforming an area that was first carved out by Chinese immigrants in the mid-18th century.

“The change is daily. It is obvious. It is irreversible,” said Stefan Gerard, who lives in a former factory on the eastern edge of Chinatown. Gerard, co-founder of Gen Art, a not-for-profit arts organisation, says: “There are no loft conversions on our street – yet. It is all still Chinese businesses but one block from us there is a new fashion boutique, Project No 8 (stocking international and local designers), a new restaurant, Bacaro, and the Swedish bar Good World. We all see the writing on the wall.”

Chinatown’s allure has been alive and well for decades, long before the gentrification of bordering SoHo, Nolita, the East Village, Tribeca and Wall Street. Its alleys are meant to be explored on foot. Its stores, selling everything from live crabs, to silk pyjamas, lampshades and rare teas, offer a different kind of shoppers’ paradise. As well as the many Chinese restaurants, there are street stalls piled high with persimmon fruits, ginger and lychees.

So what exactly is coming to Chinatown? Morgans Hotel Group is building a 270-room Mondrian hotel with a bar and restaurant at 150 Lafayette Street, which it expects to open in the second half of 2009.

W Hotels is reportedly eyeing a bank building for a new hotel. On a smaller scale, the Chinatown Holiday Inn at 138 Lafayette is being converted into a boutique hotel.

On the residential front, a one-bedroom apartment in a new construction or recently opened building costs $1,150-$1,350 a sq ft, so a decent one-bedroom at 600 to 700 sq ft costs less than $1m. A two-bedroom flat can be bought for just under $1.2m. Ten years ago there were few apartments available to buy because there were not as many conversions or new apartments, only a handful of condominiums, according to Glenn E. Schiller, of the SoHo office of the Corcoran group. Schiller, who has been selling property on the edge of Chinatown for 18 years, said: “As early as three years ago, Chinatown would have been $800 to $900 a sq ft but there has been an appreciation across all of downtown.” In spite of the rapid rise in prices, Chinatown remains extremely good value, he says, and is continuing to develop.

A 30,000 sq ft building, a block north of Canal Street, Chinatown’s main artery, will soon be converted into 14 luxury lofts. The developer is gallerist Max Protetch, whose gallery is known for exhibiting architectural renderings and happens to be one of the first to show Chinese artists. He is betting on Chinatown being the next hip area.

Apartments in his development, which involves converting the old Machinery Exchange built in 1915, will cost from $1.6m for a one-bedroom to nearly $4.5m for a two-bedroom duplex penthouse. Protetch said he looked to Chinatown because he found nothing he liked elsewhere. He fell in love with the building’s arched windows and history. The buyers to date are rich Upper East Siders and foreigners, he says.

Directly opposite Protetch’s building is 123 Baxter, a full­service, 23-unit condominium that shot up three years ago and attracted attention for its “zen spa bathrooms with rainforest showers” and Brazilian cherry floors. A large one-bedroom has been listed for $1.2m.

The big question is whether Chinatown – which started on Mott Street, Park, Pell and Doyers streets, east of the Five Points District, a formerly dangerous slum area depicted in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York – will be able to retain its authenticity.

The conversions have really only been going on in the past two years. The pace of change is conditioned by the fact that many buildings are occupied by rent stabilised and rent controlled tenants who would all need to be moved out in order for them to be converted.

Gershon Adjaye, a broker and property investment adviser with the Gersh Group, doesn’t believe the area will become overrun with condos, as SoHo has. The core has zoning restrictions that prohibit high-rise buildings and he says his Chinese clients own in New York, New Jersey and offshore but never sell their Chinatown properties. “They prefer to keep it in the family. It is not even a case of money.”

He believes the far east end of Chinatown is not an area that developers would go to. “At that point you are so far east and south that you are too far from any major neighbourhood.” But he said if you go north, Chinatown is very attractive.

He predicts there will be more small developments. “Nothing huge scale because even if you get one guy, or one family to sell a building, you need a much bigger footprint, perhaps a whole block to do a very large development.”

Wellington Chen, executive director of Chinatown Partnership, a group that was formed after September 11 to rebuild Chinatown, also questions whether the area, which has been hit hard by fewer tourists and the demise of its garment industry, will become gentrified.

“Most of Chinatown is rent controlled, five-storey walk-ups owned by Chinese or Jewish landlords.” He said these tenement buildings were mostly more than 100 years old and often in poor condition, with bathrooms in the hallways. There is no doorman or parking and only rarely is there a laundry in the building. The buildings are financially supported by ground-floor retail and restaurants that are suffering because fewer tourists are visiting the area, preferring Little Italy or SoHo. “Development is not happening in the core of Chinatown. Speculators have been circling here for years and if there was a soft spot they would have had it by now”.

He predicts that Chinatown will “age out” over time, meaning that older Chinese residents in rent-controlled buildings are dying. Some are moving to more affordable satellite Chinatowns in Queens. The area does not cater for non-Asians, he says. “Try to get a town car to pick you up. Where can you buy organic food? You can’t.”

But Gerard has no plans to move any time soon. “So you can’t buy milk or butter very easily. But you can get 16 different kinds of shrimp paste. We like that.”

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By Julie Earle-Levine

Published: January 12 2008

Weekend FT

UK Vogue, GQ, Tatler, House & Garden Living, September 2007

Julie Earle Levine reports

Picture this. Five hundred of the wealthiest names in New York dancing en-masse in the lobby of a bank on Wall Street. Beyonce is singing on stage surrounded by lithe models, billionaires with bald spots reflecting whirling spotlights, mixed with A-list celebrities. Waiters dart through the crowd with magnums of Krug and Dom Perignon. The Cipriani Wall Street Concert series raises millions of dollars for charity. But there is more beneath the gilded surface of this soiree.

It is never formally announced, but underneath the din, the powerful engine of real estate is purring. Somewhere between the scampi alla thermidor and roasted double lamb chop, concert guests (which have included Naomi Campbell, Jennifer Lopez and Margherita Missoni, among others) may be offered a chance to see the $1-million-plus condos upstairs in this converted building, and hopefully, buy one. By the end of the evening, several Cipriani Club Residences at 55 Wall Street apartments have been scooped up.

The high-end-real-estate frenzy in New York is also being played out in London, albeit in a more reserved, less glamorous manner. When considering two of the most dynamic cities in the world, the luxury property market is bound to be a cocktail of money, glamour, power, and sex. New York’s social elite and previously discreet Brits have never been so consumed with property. At dinner parties in downtown SoHo lofts, Upper East Side mansions and Kensington apartments, the conversation is peppered with juicy details on bidding wars. Who is buying where and at what price – it went for how much?!

‘The Brits talk about little else at dinner parties other than house prices. It would never happen at a French dinner party, but it happens here now all the time’ says Rupert de Forges, partner at Knight Frank LLP, which has about 200-million pounds worth of apartments and 300 million pounds in houses listed in the Knightsbridge office alone.

So what changed? Both New York and London are awash in cash, from equity markets as well as wealthy foreign investors. Hedge-fund money has fuelled the very top of both cities’ property markets.

In New York, Prudential Douglas Elliman sold $11.7 billion of real estate last year, while the other top brokerage, Corcoran, currently has $8.4 billion in listings. And in prime central London, agents have 5.5 billion pounds of residential property listed (as of 18 May) according to the trade website www.lonres.com.

In Manhattan, deals are quietly closed at the Four Seasons Grill Room, or over an espresso at downtown Cipriani’s restaurant, where brokers such as Paolo Zampolli, who owns ID Model Management and now is also a realtor, dine with potential clients. On a recent weekday, Arkie Busson, the French financier and former partner of Elle Macpherson, sauntered across to say hello to Zampolli, who later speculated he was in town to buy a house. He suspected it was through Sotheby’s, not his agency. He was not happy.

Through their various brokers, the city’s power menagerie compete aggressively for properties. ‘If someone wants a certain penthouse, condo or townhouse they simply get it any way they can – and they pay’, said Raphael de Niro, who has his own group with Prudential Douglas Elliman and is the son of the actor, Robert. Many jump in early before construction starts. Prices for luxury condos in some buildings have jumped 20 per cent since they were sold off-plan.

Just how much have prices for a gorgeous townhouse shot up in Manhattan? Nanette Lepore, a fashion designer, bought her five-and-a-half storey, 20ft-wide-and-60ft-deep brownstone in the primeWest Village district for $6.5 million in 2004 and had it completely redecorated. Then the market shot up even higher. Her property is now valued at $12 million.

On average, New York is around $3,000 to $4,000 per square foot, while London is the most expensive property market in the world at $4,000 to 6,000 per square foot. Jonathan Hewlett, director of Savills London, says he has never been busier. ‘Everyone wants to be here. The security is good, trust in financial markets is good and there is a limited supply of prime stock.’ Prices in London’s prime time market have jumped 30 per cent in the last calander year, and more than tripled since 1997.

The top end for London is 10 million pounds. Who is lining up? De Forges says the Russians represent a good quarter of that market. At the 20-million-plus pounds mark tends to be those from the Middle East, Russian, or former Soveit states, Australia and the occasional Englishman. The best properties in Mayfair, Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Kensington/South Kensington and Notting Hill have seen a 40 to 50 per cent growth in the past year, he said. Wealthy locals are competing with and exotic international mix for the best properties- French, Brazilian, Spanish, Cubans and Americans. But the biggest buyers in the first half of this year? ‘They are from Kazakhstan and Iceland. It is extraordinary.’

Hewlett puts the former Soviet states at the top end of the market. ‘It is the same as in the 1980s, when lots of Hong Kong, Chinese and South-East Asian investors were buying properties in London, and for their families. When you come with 5-10-million pounds and you find nothing, well sometimes budgets can double.’ Savills sold 1.7-billion pounds worth of property last year alone.

Meanwhile, the spate of new buildings in New York (more so than in London where building is more restricted) is creating hot new areas and stealing the show from upmarket neighbourhoods such as the Upper East Side. ‘The financial district is where all the money is going’, says Michael Shvo, and founder of SHVO, a marketer of condo projects all around the USA, citing the Armani building and the new W Hotel residences. Gucci, Tiffany, Hermes are on their way. ‘Wall Street will be the next Madison Avenue, as will Manhattan’s Far West waterfront.

The property boom in both cities is all about ‘lifestyle’, especially in New York where skyscrapers come with big names- Donald Trump’s new SoHo building, Jade Jagger’s apartments in Chelsea (for YOO with Philippe Starck), hotelier Ian Schrager’s first-ever residential properties, Gramercy Park and 40 Bond Street.

Ivanka Trump, Donald’s daughter, is selling Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium, a new 45-storey hotel on Spring Street that will be four times as tall as anything else in SoHO. It will have an Olympic size swimming pool and world-class spa. ‘You can’t have a luxury building now without these amenities. What used to be okay in the 1980s, such as a 9ft ceiling height, is now 10ft ceiling height minimum plus the sort of amenities you would normally find in a hotel’ says Ivanka, a former model whose uniform of construction boots with Yves St Laurent suits sums up the newfound glamour of this business.

At the Cipriani dinner, one woman likened an apartment she had just seen upstairs to a beautiful jewel box. ‘It is perfect. Everything is completely built in. The refrigerators are completely hidden. There’s African wood. I’m in love with the sinks, they are so stylish.’ But anyone shopping for jewel boxes may be disappointed. The 100-unit building is nearly sold out.

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HOUSE AND HOME: 'The vibe is sophisticated but relaxed'

By Julie Earle-Levine
Jul 28, 2007

Vikram Chatwal is an Indian hotelier, actor and socialite who lives on the island of Manhattan in New York City and has a holiday home on Long Island. He is president of the boutique division of Hampshire Hotels and Resorts. He and his wife, the model Priya Sachdev, have a baby daughter.

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Addis Ababa [Ethiopia] but I moved to Manhattan when I was three and have lived here ever since. I love New York because it is so accessible. It has something for everyone because it is constantly changing. I also spent much time travelling to India, visiting family, and throughout Europe as well.

What was your childhood home like?

Growing up, we resided at 30 Lincoln Square Plaza on Central Park West. There was an interesting juxtaposition between the modern design of the building and the traditional Indian furnishings in my family's three-bedroom apartment. Our home was filled with warm colours and antiques we collected during our travels everywhere from London to Bangkok to Japan. All of the artwork and antiques I grew up with are still in our family homes. I loved the New York apartment, especially its location. My brother Vivek and I spent all of our time in Central Park playing basketball and swimming.

Tell me about your apartment.

It's very white and bright with sweeping views of Central Park. The sun pours in through floor-to-ceiling windows. I like to see the park's green tree-tops. It's very relaxing.

What is your favourite room?

The main living area. I have a bar crafted from stainless steel and with white fur. There are photos of friends including Naomi [Campbell]. I have a white, custom-designed, L-shaped, leather lounger, with black and white pillows, and a white, calfskin rug. All of this is reflected in a floor-to-ceiling mirrored wall. The black-and-white composition in general is attractive because it is very polarising. It can make a room feel both elegant and warm, yet also staunch. The lack of colour leaves open the imagination to focus more on the room and furniture.

The black-and-white theme seems to be echoed at one of your boutique hotels, in Manhattan, called Night.

Yes, all my hotels have a story, a connection to the heartbeat, culture and pure energy of the city they're in. Night is my homage to the drama, power, vitality and innate sensuality of New York. The space was designed to elicit the feeling of the city after dark. There are wrought-iron gates, black curtains on the outside of the building and black-and-white tiled carpet throughout. Also, black-and -white photographs, shot for the hotel, are on the walls in our public spaces.

What kind of mood have you created in your own home?

The vibe is sophisticated but relaxed. With Priya it became more intimate and personal. She bought me a 17th-century gable from a Buddhist temple in Thailand and we have this hanging on a mirrored wall, opposite a Picasso linocut entitled "Spanish Woman". When we are not travelling Priya and I like to cook at home: good Indian food. We dine under an antique silver candelabra. The apartment is now a mix of both of our styles.

You have an impressive art collection.

I love art and became an avid collector during my tenure as an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York. Art is very important to my being. In the foyer we have an oil painting of the Hindu elephant-headed god Ganesh; a Francesco Clemente oil on canvas; a Peter Beard diary/collage called "Hot Rod"; and a linear Brice Marden. A "decision tree" drawing by artist Beth Campbell is by the dining table. I love her work. To me, it is the various probabilities that we contemplate, sometimes unconsciously, before making decisions and evaluating their outcomes. In the den I have a Sante D'Orazio photograph of Pamela Anderson [topless] next to our formal portraits. I love the fact that it is very Pam Anderson, daring and fun yet still a really natural photograph. My favourite portrait here though is of the Maharaja Dalip Singh, a poet. There are beautiful swords in this portrait and I have them in a sword collection.

You say the apartment now reflects your travels. What items?

A lot of what I have is relevant to a time and a place that I want to remember, such as artifacts from Thailand, one of my favourite places. I also like to collect art that reminds me of moments in time: "The Dream" from Dalí, one of Thierry Despont's masks and Picasso's "Spanish Woman", just to name a few.

Tell me about your 'den' and how that helps your creativity.

It's about comfort. I have two brown leather recliners, next to a bed with Indian throws and a soft, peach headboard. The drapes are pale gold silk. There is also a flat-screen television with a Sony PlayStation and an Xbox for when I want to really relax. I like to collect thoughts and ideas for my next hotel or film in this room. I'm mostly thinking about my hotels but sometimes I just like to look at the beautiful greenery and its various shades. It's so refreshing.

Your bedroom?

It's a quiet room with a four-poster bed and Indian silks and beads. The colour scheme is sombre tones and rich woods. There are two portraits of Sikh prophets hanging above the bed. I really like Indian silks and throws with tassels. They are part of my environment here and in India.

How many homes do you own?

Two - one home in Long Island and the Manhattan apartment. My weekend home is a Charles Gwathmey-designed farmhouse. It's on the north shore of Long Island in Nassau County, close to the water. It is decidedly more traditional inside than my home in Manhattan. It is a wonderful place to escape to. It is so relaxing and very convenient, being close to the city. I enjoy the architecture of the house just as much as the calm interiors. I also have a collection [of art] here and one of my favourite additions is a Ross Bleckner painting of flowers. I like these pieces because they stimulate emotion and provoke thought. I also know my [art] investment is safe and will grow in value.

Do you also invest in real estate?

I invest in real estate as it relates to hotels but not straight real estate investments per se.

You live in a Trump building in Manhattan. Is it glitzy - all gold and chandeliers?

I live in 1 Central Park West, probably the most reserved of the Trump buildings in that regard. The location works well for me and I can see my hotels from there along with the rest of the city I love.

HOUSE AND HOME: 'I've always had a huge amount of junk'

By Julie Earle-Levine, Financial Times
Jul 14, 2007

Betsey Johnson has always made her own rules since she started as a fashion designer in the 1960s. Andy Warhol was a close friend and Edie Sedgwick her house model. At 64, she still wears fluorescent baby-doll dresses and tutus. Johnson is passionate about her living quarters and recently launched her first home collection, designed for women who like her funky, eye-popping clothes.

You lived at the Chelsea Hotel in New York in the late 1960s. Tell me about that.

I moved in with a toothbrush for one night, after a break-up with a boyfriend, but I ended up living there for two years in a big loft. This is where I met John Cale [co-founder of the Velvet Underground, for whom she designed velvet suits and whom she married]. The place was very artsy, incredibly visual, with some of Andy Warhol's 1960's pop art thrown in. I made most of the costumes for Warhol's [film] Ciao Manhattan there and would sit in the lobby and try them out to see if anyone blinked - but no one ever did. I'd spend evenings at Max's Kansas City and then work all day. It was the second home where you hung out with "your kind". It was either Max's or Chelsea, a home for very "special" people.

How many homes do you own?

I have a Greenwich Village penthouse, a Hamptons home and two houses in Mexico, one of which I've turned into a villa. Each home has a completely different decor. Manhattan is Hollywood modernist glamour - Marilyn Monroe, pink walls with lace and zebra-print draperies, velvet sofas and gold tassel chairs, very 1950s style; East Hampton is "tea party floral"; and in Mexico, Betsyville, "a bright floral siesta house" and Villa Betsy, "Italian villa-esque".

What are your design influences?

I've always collected antiques and vintage furniture and decorated my homes with chandeliers, great country-kitchen cupboards, English wallpapers - a big mix. I love antiques, yard sales and everything crosses every time zone of history, in terms of furniture, clothing and shoes. I've always had a huge amount of junk around but it is collectable junk.

How did you choose the homes?

They were out of necessity. My favourite is the Fifth Avenue and 12th Street penthouse apartment, a big open space, 2,500 sq ft on the 17th floor. I have gorgeous views of the old spires of the church across the street and private roofs. I bought this 15 years ago but I was terrified then of buying, of any investment. I was in the stock market once and I hit the jackpot - that is how I was able to start my business - but I have never understood the mortgage concept. I generally take money and spend it.

You were married to John Cale?

Yes, we had a house in Jamaica but after we separated I realised I needed a place to house all my stuff. We had a funky farmhouse that was in upstate New York, so I met a lot of antique dealers. I always needed chandeliers. I can get five chandeliers for the price of one and early country cupboards, things I've had for years. I've never gone to Crate and Barrel, I love what I have. After the divorce, I found a cottage in East Hampton, in the woods. Here I have chandeliers, knick-knacks, old cupboards wallpapered with English tea party florals, cabbage roses. It is very cosy. Now it is our cosy grandchild hang-out. My daughter Lulu has my first and only grandchild, Layla, and we love going there.

Why did you buy in Mexico?

I didn't have a year-round, blue-sky, no-clouds, warm-weather private Idaho escape. Five years ago when I was celebrating being breast-cancer free, I thought, "This is the year to get an island home." Over the years of working, I'd been to Hong Kong, India, Morocco but I wanted just a place for sun and surf, warm water and hot sand. I love it down there, even in the rainy season. It's so tropical and lush and green. The spirit of the people is warm and friendly, innocent and culturally rich. When I was younger, hitchhiking and poor, bussing it around, I loved Mexico.

The area you bought in Mexico is very fashionable now.

Yes. Just like I predicted in the 1960s that SoHo in downtown Manhattan would explode, my paradise has taken off but it's still lovely. I was very lucky to find it. A friend told me to visit there and to go have lunch on this little beach where the fishermen come in with their catch. I found a tiny hotel and stayed in it. On the second day at breakfast, I asked them if they wanted to sell. It is walled in, a classical Mexican home, with three hand-built palapas [palm-thatched huts]. I started dreaming of buying the little strip of land next door. I took me two years to find the owners and a lot of beer drinking but finally they gave in. The interior decor was the most fun thing to do. I've always found decorating houses was just the perfect balance to difficult or frustrating creative work.

Is your first home collection like your fashion?

Well, where you start is bed and bath - that's everything that goes in and under the bed. And then it goes into the bathroom, sheets and towels. Home is wonderful for a clothing business. If a girl likes your clothes, she might like your kind of environment. Even if I could cook, which I can't, she'd probably enjoy my meal. Interior decorating is close to clothing design, with patterns and colours but I wouldn't turn that into a business.

What did you do with Betseyville?

Betseyville was too adorable and just too big for me. I would sleep in the pink room. Then another room for fun. It is four separate palapa houses, pools, two lounge hang-outs. It was too cute not to be shared. Meanwhile, down the road, 40 minutes south, I have this other property. The views are all blue sky and water. The house is like an Italian villa, grey cement with archways. I wanted to build a glamorous monastery. All the rooms have chandeliers and their own body lotion and bath gel. I don't rent it for more than 10 weeks maximum a year and that is just fine. I've never approached it as a business. Besides, I love to take jaunts and go myself every few months. I like to do San Miguel as a side trip. It is always an exciting new experience. I don't believe in having houses unless you live in them and keep them alive so I try to go every few months. I still hate flying but I'll fly to have three days on the beach.

Are you still shopping for homes?

Mexico's coastline still has some very nice deals, but no. I'm now realising - no more homes. The ones I have are pretty much filled because I am so addicted to antiquing. When I set up in Mexico, I had two 24ft moving trunks. Now, I need to restrict myself to collecting small objects like embroidered table napkins and silver spoons.

The Remix

By JULIE EARLE-LEVINE
March 11, 2007

Time for a new watch? Dent — the British clockmaker famous for creating the Big Ben tower in London as well as timepieces for luminaries like King Edward VI and Charles Darwin — has a new line of watches for the common man. Frank Spurrell, the founder of Watch Magazine, and Twysden Moore, a London nightclub entrepreneur and watch fetishist, acquired the label after assuring the original owner that they were not going to make tacky plastic alarm clocks. Expect instead a classic square-face ticker inspired by Big Ben and a round homage to an 1848 ship chronometer used by the Royal Navy in the world wars. Go to http://www.dentwatches.com/.