Your Mom Likes Design

A transplanted Denverite living in New York, it’s a special occasion when my family comes for a visit. This past weekend, my mom and her best friend flew into town, and this time my excitement was twofold because, not only did I get to catch up with my mom, who I hadn’t seen since Thanksgiving, but I got to talk design with her friend Faye, mother to one of my closest friends from Denver, Josh, and lover of all things modern (think Kartell, Alessi, Artemide…hello, Greene St.!). I was so psyched to show them my clients’ beautiful showrooms, and to talk design over a couple of glasses of wine at some of my favorite New York haunts.

Kartell's Greene St. store

We got a bit of a late start on Saturday, and after brunch we made the trek down to Soho to prowl around Green St. The weather was absolutely stunning, and Faye, who is in the midst of furnishing an all-white, all-modern apartment in Phoenix, was on a mission. Our first stop was Kartell, where the gorgeous displays and fun colors completely blew her away. The proud owner of a few Louis Ghost chairs, she fell in love with the Dune tray for outdoor entertaining and, although she and her husband are empty-nesters, the Lou Lou Ghosts are always a crowd pleaser.

The next stop was Alessi, where we killed two birds with one stone – the coffee bar in the front of the store fortified us to keep shopping – and I proudly showed off the new Spring/Summer collection…since Alessi is an account I work on, I got to feel knowledgeable while at the same time appreciating the cleverly designed objects through someone else’s eyes. We bonded over our love of the Voile spaghetti measurer, Marti Guixe’s communicator balloon bowls and matali crasset’s collection of cooking and baking utensils.

Alessi's Soho store, complete with coffee bar

We peeked in the window of Artemide to check out the light fixtures next (I pointed out a few favorites, including Ross Lovegrove’s Mercury suspension lamp, which we have in our conference room here at BDE, and then made a few stops in some non-design shops along the way (my mom unfortunately does not share my penchant for the minimalist and the modern), and then rushed back up to our hotel to gear up for another night on the town.

Artemide's showroom

Truth be told, my mom’s and Faye’s trip was not completely furniture-filled. We also checked out Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth in the newly opened Addams Family musical (dark and hilarious, albeit not the most memorable musical numbers), and Memphis (completely mesmerizing, with beautiful voices to boot and a great storyline) and, of course, chowed down on a ton of Italian food – if you’ve not tried Morandi in the West Village, run - don't walk. All in all, a great weekend, and hopefully I taught my fellow Denver natives a little bit about modern design and NYC.  

--Rachel Lexier