Fashion designer Christian Siriano embarks on decorating projects with much the same mindset that he brings to dressing. “I treated it like a wardrobe,” Siriano reflects while discussing his nascent interior design studio’s recent revamp of a SoHo pied a terre. “You wouldn’t want to wear one label from head-to-toe. You might mix a great pair of jeans with a cool vintage T-shirt, then add in fine jewelry and some costume. That’s how I like to approach design.”
This mix-and-match attitude proved the perfect fit for Siriano’s client, a globe-trotting philanthropist that he has been dressing for nearly 15 years. “We’ve made a lot of clothes together,” the designer recalls. The apartment, which boasts clean lines and wrap-around terracing that floods the interiors with sunlight, had even hosted a party to show one of Siriano’s resort collections. Now, years later, the homeowner was ready to remake the space entirely—and she knew the perfect collaborator.
Rather than presenting a fully rendered scheme for the space, Siriano followed his clients’ more organic, evolutionary approach. “We essentially just began layering,” the designer recalls. “Her instructions were, ‘If you find a great piece, let’s try it.’” Building upon the crisply minimal architectural canvas, Siriano began sourcing finds that would reflect the client’s personality, much as he has helped her build her closet over the years, piece by piece.
True to his sartorial ethos, a mix of old and new, high and low, infuses the scheme with singular style. Take the living room, where Siriano’s playful, double-layer Wave coffee table—a standout piece from his eponymous home collection—anchors the space in the present amid a bevy of primarily vintage seating, including an original Kagan sofa and 1960s Italian Hollywood Regency Chiavari chair, as well as existing pieces refinished or recovered anew.
Throughout the residence, artworks by some of the designer’s favorite contemporary artists hit a distinctly modern note, like the moody painting above the fireplace by Meighan Morrison, (“I raid her studio all the time,” Siriano notes) and several abstract pieces by David Stephen Johnson in the office. “I love Johnson’s work. It’s weird and visceral and kind of wild,” the designer shares, adding, “It was important that the art in this home feel cool and young.”
The sense of freedom and movement in these works finds tailored balance in some of the more graphic design elements, such as the green-striped mohair-covered settee in the living room and the grid-patterned wallcovering in the office. For the latter space, being one that the homeowner spends a great deal of time in, Siriano pulled out all the stops to make it special, engaging his Connecticut-based upholsterer to stitch individual linen panels into a bespoke tapestry to cloak the walls.
Siriano’s dexterity with fabrics, which he hones daily in his fashion practice, often finds fruitful expression in his interior designs, which likewise feed back into his fashion collections. “I actually used an upholstery fabric in a collection two seasons ago,” he reveals. “And I just reupholstered a set of dining chairs in a fabric we got from one of our clothing mills.”
For this apartment, textiles were a key tactic for building the romantic feel Siriano and his client desired. A white silk area rug anchors the living room with luminous texture, the dining room invites long dinner parties with its bouclé-covered chairs, and the primary bedroom is all elegant intimacy with a draped coverlet and layered window treatments of gauzy ivory linen. “There’s a lot of sunlight, so I wanted to keep things frothy and creamy with the palette and fabrics,” notes Siriano.
Like a great cashmere coat, these sumptuous layers provide a luxe foundation for the contemporary art and characterful antiques to make bolder statements. “I’ve become a bit obsessed with vintage furniture,” the designer admits. “The stories remind me of how I make clothes. Both processes start as a sketch, and the outcomes are emotional. Clothes bring memories with them, and I think furniture should do that, too.”
