Magazine: Vogue
Fashion designer (and former Fashion Funder) Erin Fetherston moved to New York in 2007 and immediately launched the search for a new space that possessed the same old-world charm as her apartment in France. After looking for more than a year (“It was so much harder than I had expected,” she says), she finally found the perfect spot: a recently converted loft in Tribeca with high-ceilings and massive windows that overlook the Hudson River. She took to the task of decorating immediately—a process greatly slowed by the fact that it took several months for her beloved antique and vintage furniture to make the slow boat trip across the ocean. “I spent a lot of time in this big apartment with almost no furniture,” she says with a laugh. But, for Fetherston, it was well worth the wait. “I see it as a reflection of my creative universe,” she says. “It’s romantic and chic, but clean and modern.”
When the elevator doors open into Fetherston’s apartment, guests find themselves merrily deposited in the main entrance to the loft. “The doors actually came with the apartment, which was shocking,” she says, “because I would have picked them out for myself!” On the left, a pile of freshly cut wood is ready for the fireplace (“It definitely got a lot of use this winter,” she says) and the chandelier overhead is from her Paris apartment. While she bought her couches at ABC Home in New York, Fetherston picked up her Bergère-style chairs at an auction in Paris and shipped them across the Atlantic Ocean. “If you don’t speak the language well, those auctions can be very stressful,” she says. “But if you’re sharp, you can get amazing pieces.”
“This is the room I live in the most,” says Fetherston of her expansive living room, complete with soaring ceilings and oversize windows. “I wanted to balance the forties French vibe I had in my old apartment with pieces that were more modern.”
On the nesting tables in the living room (found buried at a flea market in Napa Valley), Fetherston piles vintage children’s books as decor. “I loved the old, washed-out colors of the covers.”
“I like everything to be a little magical, a little whimsical,” the designer says. “So I covered this Holly Hunt candle chandelier with some vintage silk roses. The whole thing runs on electricity, but some people think they are real candles and ask if I climbed up on my table to light each one.”
“Entertaining is something I really enjoy, but I want everyone to feel comfortable,” she says of her gray granite dining table and eighteenth-century chairs. She had the chairs re-covered in three different fabrics—including burlap—to make them look and feel more casual.
“What’s really beautiful about this is what is inside,” she says. “It’s a minibar of tiny crystal bottles and glasses.” The rose resting on the top is a memento from a set built by designer Ali Gallagher for one of Fetherston’s runway shows in 2008.