The Chairish Podcast

To celebrate the 100th episode of the Chairish podcast, we reached out to four women who founded enterprises that have succeeded for a full decade. At a time when most new businesses fail, these women launched companies in highly competitive fields—fashion, beauty, interior design, and online sales—and not only survived but continue to thrive. When Rebecca Hessel Cohen founded her fashion line LoveShackFancy, she was told her feminine and flirtatious aesthetic would never sell. April Gargiulo of Vintner’s Daughter upended the skincare business with a single product. Charlotte Lucas pursued her love of interior design despite setbacks and self-doubt. And Anna Brockway, co-founder and president of Chairish, was told by bankers and venture capitalists that her curated approach to an online marketplace would never succeed. Here they discuss how they managed to simultaneously grow their families and build their businesses, reveal the sexism they faced and the challenges they overcame, and tell how their passions helped them to persevere, even as the business world continued to change around them.

One of the surest ways to add distinction and visual richness to any interior is tocollaborate with artisans. Decorative painting, gilding, verre eglomisé, cast plaster, carvingsand wood inlays are only a few of the many techniques that can personalize and glamorizeprojects. How can you work with artisans to expand your vision? And how do you find thetalents to execute your design ideas? Three skilled artisans—Cindy Simes, Jonas Everets,and Leah Beth Fishman—weigh in on what artisans bring to the table, how they areorganizing to make it easier to find and collaborate with them, how they encourage thenext generation of talents, and what they wish every designer knew.

Rooms that are richly layered, full of saturated colors, bold graphic patterns, and scenicwallpapers are all over social media and fill the pages of shelter magazines. Maximaliststyle is definitely here, as two new books chronicle. But is it here to stay? Threedesigners—Hillary Taylor, Matthew Carter, and Alexander Doherty—weigh in whatelements of the trend they have adapted, why a theatrical approach is not always the bestoption, and what they see ahead. Could subtlety and softness be on the horizon?

Known for her exuberant blend of Hollywood glamor and restrained Parisian chic, MaryMcDonald has become one of today's most sought-after interior designers. But hersuccess goes far beyond the richly imagined, graphic, and colorful rooms that have madeher a social media star and a favorite of shelter magazines. She also designs fabrics andwallpapers, rugs, lighting, and furniture. She’s even conquered television. In an exclusiveinterview, she talks about her early years in fashion, her love of drama and theatricality,where she finds inspiration, why she now considers herself a country girl, and why shealways, always, loves a gimmick.

On the 40th anniversary of Ralph Lauren Home, which is being celebrated with a lavish new book, three former RL staffers who went on to establish their own successful careers—Joy Moyler, Jenny Wolf, and Mark Cunningham—look at Ralph Lauren’s impact on two generations of American interior designers, their own memories of working for the company and what they learned, how the firm attracts and retains top-tier talent, and why Ralph Lauren’s multi-faceted dreams of the American home remain so potent and so powerful.

When the historic town of Hudson, New York, fell on hard times decades ago, it was design that came to its rescue. A few influential dealers opened shop, and were followed by designers, artists, and creatives. Now the town is a hotbed of fine dining, chic boutique hotels, and an ever-increasing number of design shops. And the entire Hudson River Valley is undergoing a renaissance. But can the town and the region maintain the momentum? Three lovers of the region—dealer Hannah Khachadourian, designer Nick Olsen, and interiors photographer William Abranowicz—discuss the role design played in this remarkable turnaround and how the area can sustain this success without losing its character.

Shopping with clients is always fraught. Can you take clients to showrooms and dealerswithout them beginning to view you as their personal shoppers? How do you make themsee that the process is about creativity, not access, and that your job is not just to sourcefurnishings and objects? And how has the interaction changed in the internet era? Threedesigners from across the country—Martha Mulholland, Kesha Franklin, and KatieDavis— weigh in on when and why they take their clients into the design marketplace. and the price you may have to pay if you decide not to.

Christopher Spitzmiller’s gleaming and boldly colorful lamps can be found in some of themost distinguished homes in America—and in virtually every shelter magazine.In an exclusive interview, he tells how he overcame his dyslexia by turning to pottery andhow he became a designer favorite, updating traditional techniques and classic forms for anew generation. He also discusses his evolution into a social media maestro with his postsabout his house and garden at Clove Brook Farm, why he feels the current “maker-moment,” is here to stay, and why he is optimistic that respect for craft and the hand-madeobject is only going to increase.

Designers have always looked to the past for ideas—but there is so much design history tochoose from! What styles and periods remain relevant? What still works even thoughmodern life has undergone so many dramatic changes? What’s ready for a revival and whatremains hopelessly dated, never to rise again from the dustbins of history? Two youngdesigners—Noz Nozawa and Dan Mazzarini—and historian Emily Evans Eerdmans weigh inon why a knowledge of the past remains crucial, which periods they love and which theywould rather forget, and why even 18th century bows, cuckoo clocks, and folk art quilts areripe for reinterpretation.