dressing for... a room of one's own

A fainting couch, smoky vintage mirrors, patina and all the trappings to create a private space of solitude

The other day, I stumbled upon this mood board that I'd started to explore the general vibe of a retail location I was working on, and began to contemplate the idea of dressing rooms. Not the ones you’d find in a store, but the old world version: a place to dress, yes, but also to indulge in massaging cold cream onto your face, to sip tea and to spill the tea, to lounge idly and sift through a book (or these days, scroll on your phone. Both are a meditation in their own way).

In Virginia Woolf vernacular, a room of one’s own.

When I was designing my house, a dressing room was high on my wish list. I had to deal with certain practicalities (space constraints and a husband who shares my closet), so while my fantasy dressing room is reserved for well, a fantasy, I was still able to incorporate a few elements from my original mood board. Specifically: a gorgeous Gio Ponti vanity, a chair recovered in a dark, fantastical garden print that I’d always wanted to use, and oversized vintage sconc…