1. What are the five words that best describe your style?
Artful, layered, collected, bold, and comfortable.
2. Describe your journey to a career in interior design.
After a short stint in advertising, I went back to school to study interior design at Parsons. While there, I interned for Mark Hampton (my mom’s friend clued me into the fanciest firms in the city, and I cold-called!) and ultimately landed a job there after graduation. I eventually left the hustle and bustle of New York and opened my own firm in Washington, D.C., where I had a good group of friends established. Now I’ve come full circle and have a small second location of my own in New York!
3. What (or who) has been the biggest influence on your aesthetic?
My grandmother Cecelia. She was ahead of her time and introduced me to pop art and modern design and just had amazing taste. She lived in Detroit and started purchasing Knoll furniture, which was a new company at the time and based in the area. I was lucky enough to receive many of those pieces when she passed.
4. What's a project you're currently working on that's especially exciting and/or inspiring for you?
A Georgetown townhome that previously served as a boarding house for female codebreakers working for the FBI during WWII. The perks of D.C. projects!
5. What's the first question you ask your clients when starting a new project?
Have you seen our work? (You’d be surprised, but sometimes people hire us based on a referral without ever having seen our style.)
Designer Q&A: Zoë Feldman
Zoë Feldman’s signature, seamless blend of modern and classic is rooted as much in her upbringing as it is in her early design training. Raised in a mid-century modern home by art and furniture collectors and gallerists, Zoë honed her clean-lined instincts at Parsons School of Design in New York. But she credits the subsequent years working under the tutelage of AD100 designer Alexa Hampton at the iconic Manhattan-based firm Mark Hampton, Inc, for opening her eyes to the benefits of a just-so, traditional approach.
Since setting up her own practice in 2004 in Washington, D.C.’s historic Georgetown neighborhood, Zoë has launched a second office in New York City and continues to bring her unique take on modernized classicism to homes across the country. Her work has been featured in publications including Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Domino, and more. Zoë draws on her love of the practical, the playful, and the deeply personal to create spaces that are as inviting and soulful as they are sophisticated.
6. What has been the biggest lesson you've learned in your career?
You can’t be good at everything—hire people smarter than you.
7. What has been your experience using Evans & Sheldon fabrics, wallpapers, lighting, and accessories in your projects?
You can tell it’s a tight-knit business based on customer service. It has the feel of a mom-and-pop but carries some of the most luxurious materials out there. The team always goes the extra mile to help us out.
8. What are your favorite Evans & Sheldon lines or designs?
Namay Samay and Decor de Paris
Design Dozen
Dream home locale: Provence
Interior design icon: Albert Hadley
Fashion style icon: Katharine Hepburn
Favorite historical era: Tudor England
Favorite city in the US: New York
Favorite city in the world: Marrakesh
Favorite flower: Bells of Ireland
Favorite movie: Basquiat
Dream pair of shoes: Chanel riding boot
Favorite design book: Anything by Jean-Michel Frank
Favorite design item to splurge on: Chesney's fireplaces
Favorite hotel: The Warren Street Hotel in Tribeca
Fig 1.
WARREN STREET HOTEL FEATURING HEADBOARD IN BOTANICA TRADING'
