“History is contemporary! Place that on a T-shirt!”
Michael Tomei was beaming when he logged on for our job interview from his condominium in New York Metropolis. His genius for infusing modern interiors with furnishings with rich patina is evident in his meticulously-built, 2,100-square-foot, two-bedroom loft that he shares with his lover, Peter, and a rescue dog named Huxley.
Gut renovating the area in a century-aged warehouse constructing in Manhattan’s NoHo district signaled a important gear-shift for Tomei, who utilised to conceptualize shop displays and style reveals for makes like Calvin Klein, Balenciaga, and Lanvin. Opening Michael Vincent Design in 2019 authorized him to devote his power to rescuing old structures and time-worn furnishings, and—not to mention—binge-view BBC time period movies for inspiration. “If they have a powdered encounter and a wig on, or if the males are prettier than ladies, I’m in,” he jokes.
Thoughtful touches warm up the loft’s minimalist kitchen. Amid them is a environmentally friendly slab of Indian marble, a stone vessel sourced from antiquarian seller Michael Trapp, and the dramatic vessel on the counter by the German artist Roger Herman.
Tomei’s obsession for curiosities from a bygone era is tempered with an attentiveness to contemporary concerns—including how to tastefully insert additional closet space. Just about every nook in the loft displays his intuitive aptitude for seamless juxtapositions among previous and new objects: In the dining area, a heirloom mahogany desk from the 1920s is flanked by Harry Bertoia’s wire chairs. His grandmother’s chinoiserie cupboard shares the identical room as a Jean Prouvé lamp and a pair of handsome bean-formed sofas from Studio Walrus. One exception is the 1990s minimalist reverie in the most important rest room. “It’s my John Pawson minute,” Tomei says. “It reminds me of the Calvin Klein retail outlet he made on Madison Avenue in the nineties.”
Having a blank canvas to perform with was freeing, Tomei suggests. “Moving from a conservative co-op setting up into this loft was a breath of fresh new air in phrases of allowing and limitation process,” he claims. “In my final co-op it took 8 months just to get the permit to start off my development. In this new condominium I closed on a Friday and started out demolition on Saturday!”
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Doing the job on the apartment also fixed Tomei of the itch to frequently redecorate, as he did with every fashion cycle in his former career. “It’s type of monumental for me,” he points out. “It’s the very first space that I have designed for myself that I’m totally articles with.” His house doubles as a studio and residing showroom for potential shoppers to experience his style and design sensibility in the flesh.
The encounter of designing an entire place emboldened Tomei to consider on rescuing unloved properties in Lengthy Island. He devoted considerably of the pandemic 12 months to renovating many houses in Bellport, New York, which includes an outdated captain’s residence from the 1870s, an 1840s cottage, and a midcentury ranch. “Compared to a new build, restoring one thing involves a ton far more care, hard work and investigate, but I’m all about it,” he states.