Vicente Wolf

Designer We Love: Vicente Wolf

Website: Vicente Wolf Associates/VW Home

Quotable Quote:

In response to the question "If you had to choose, which would it be -- interior design or photography?", Wolf responded, "The photography. I like the immediacy of it. I like the sense that it's your vision. When you're doing interior design, you're doing somebody else's vision."

Background:

Almost 30 years as a contemporary designer

Clean, crisp aesthetic

Eclectic, global tastes, with many of his interiors focusing on interesting objects collected from his travels: designer as both Curator and World Observer

Passion for photography, both as a personal form of creative expression and as a passionate collector of gelatin silver prints and other photography forms

Celebrity design commissions from many notables, including Clive Davis, Nely Galan, the Von Furstenbergs, Michael Lynne, and Carl Bernstein

Retail and commercial commissions have included L S Store in Hong Kong, Andrew Fezza Company, L'Impero and Alto Restaurants in Manhattan, Luxe Hotel Rodeo Drive, J Records, and Bedell Cellars Winery

Widely published in shelter magazines, and widely honored, including Interior Design Designer Hall of Fame, Architectural Digest's AD 100, and Metropolitan Home's Design 100

VW Home began in 1999 to house overflow of items from his travels; one-of-a-kind items are for sale in  retail/showroom environments throughout the U.S., along with VW Home Collection case goods, mirrors, and lighting; and furniture, fabrics, and upholstered items for Texstyle and Niedermaier

What We Love:

His global vision of including a potluck of beautiful, simple, found objects into residential space

Wolf's passion for the black and white photograph, and his stylish, groundbreaking use of photos in his interiors

His respect for other peoples and cultures, leading to an embracing, expansive design aesthetic

The beauty of his work, whether it's for a public dining space or a private bedroom

We'd like to go on record as saying that it's hard to best Vicente Wolf's authentic design vision and sensibility. He is the Real Deal when it comes to designers.

Vicente Wolf Sampler:

Photo Credits: New York Social Diary, Alto Restaurant, Amazon

Victoria Hagen

Designer We Love: Victoria Hagen

Websites: Victoria Hagen Interiors, Victoria Hagen Home

Quotable Quote: Mixing old and new, for me, is all about finding a complementary balance that brings out the inner beauty of a piece.

Background:

Parsons grad, now serving on their Board of Governors 

1991 birthdate for Victoria Hagen Interiors, after designing spaces since 1985

Furniture, fabrics, accessories line in 2002

Residential and commercial design projects; numerous published projects

Architectural Digest's Top 100

2004 inductee, Interior Design Hall of Fame

What We Love:

Her Target Stores line, Victoria Hagen's Perfect Pieces, home items that reflect a horse-and-hunt, clean jet-setter look in the otherwise arid world of big box stores

Victoria's style: light, eclectic, sophisticated, well-blended design sensibilities

She does nothing overblown, supersized, or uncomfortable

Her Hampton's farmhouse retreat is spot-on in scale; no McMansion to this new construction -- brava on restraint, gentility, and landscaping that honors natural beauty

Victoria Hagen Sampler:

Photo Credits: Architectural Digest, Design Public, Apartment Therapy, Victoria Hagen Home