ART & DESIGN

W House Tour


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“I boil my style down to three categories: sex, romance, and fantasy,” says 27-year-old Ryan Korban, who exploded onto the scene in 2010 with Alexander Wang’s SoHo store and its famous black fur hammock. This in-your-face opulence has lured clients like James Franco, Debra Messing, and many of New York’s young chic set—including the 20-something who tapped Korban to design her uptown “starter” apartment, shown here.

1

“The chandelier is an Italian piece from the seventies,” says Korban. “It’s supercool. I wanted to throw in something like that so it didn’t look too girly.”

2

“The client had a lot of tchotchkes. She used to hide them behind the draperies, and I used to catch her. It was all about editing down her things to make them look chicer. The lamp we picked very specifically. It’s quite Deco—feminine without being too Marie Antoinette.”

3

“This is my favorite vignette. I love the table because I thought it looked like a traditional French fireplace. The mirror is from Flair in Florence, Italy—I’ve used it in, like, 10 different projects. And mixing in those vintage leopards—I just needed something really aggressive that day.”

4

“Here, I went a little more theme-y than I usually would. I wanted it to feel baroque. All of the furniture is vintage. There isn’t anything modern—although the chair is a replica of a piece from the Althorp estate, where Princess Diana grew up.”

5

“This is coyote fur. With the charcoal gray, it’s dark but still very feminine. I know a lot of people don’t like fur, but if you take away the fur, you take away a huge element of what I do. I don’t ever really use prints, so to me the print comes from ostrich and zebra, and the texture comes from coyote and mink.”

6

“Decorators used to pick one fabric and then do your bedspread and canopy and lamp shade in it. I wanted to play with that traditional idea. The fabric on the headboard, bolster, and two stools at the foot of the bed is the same velvet, with burnout silk stripes that look like pinstripes. And the amazing dressers are shagreen.”

7

“I love these chairs. We took funky, totally seventies chairs and upholstered them in the richest double-face silk turquoise we could find. And I definitely wanted an old beautiful mirror; this antique one was among our most expensive purchases.”

8

“This vanity with the big skirt was when I gave her her total, ultimate girly moment—or 10-year-old gay-boy moment. I feel like they go hand in hand; that’s what I dreamed about.”