Muriel Brandolini's Riverside Apartment Blends Bold Art and Opulent Textiles
Designer Muriel Brandolini's Manhattan apartment, overlooking the East River, showcases her fearless approach to interior decoration, mixing improbable colors and contrasting styles. The space is filled with passionately collected art, precious objects, and custom furnishings, including a cherry blossom chandelier and block-printed silk taffeta walls. The result is a serene, jewel-toned retreat that feels both mysterious and luxurious.
The apartment occupies two floors in a 1920s Rosario Candela building with Cross & Cross architecture, positioned directly along Sutton Place's East River waterfront. Prior owner John Fairchild, the influential publisher behind Women's Wear Daily and W magazine, had decorated the space in traditional English style with floral chintzes and deep sofas. Brandolini's transformation replaced that aesthetic with a jewel-toned, art-filled environment featuring custom block-printed silk taffeta walls, a cherry blossom chandelier by Claire Cormier-Fauvel, and furnishings from designers including Mattia Bonetti, Hella Jongerius, and Hervé van der Straeten. The collection spans centuries, from a Battistello Caracciolo painting to contemporary works by Richard Prince, Alex Katz, and Tom Wesselmann, alongside personal pieces like a portrait of her husband as a young boy.
This profile may influence how affluent homeowners and design professionals approach interior decoration, potentially encouraging bolder color combinations and eclectic art placement over safer, trend-driven choices. The feature could also reinforce the cultural cachet of Sutton Place and early 20th-century architecture, possibly affecting interest in similar properties. For readers, it offers aspirational imagery that may shape expectations about what luxury living can encompass, while the magazine's platform could elevate the featured artists and designers into broader public awareness.