ELLE DECOR Summer 2021

THIS SUMMER, WE’RE CELEBRATING OUR 11TH A-List, ELLE DECOR’s annual look at the most exciting residential designers working in interiors, architecture, and landscape. In 2021, we’ve got 101 firms under our tent, including 20 bright new additions, pictured on this page, who we’re delighted for you to get to know. Why 101? For starters, it’s a fun number. But we also found that a big, bold number offered the broadest canvas for exploring not just the “best” in the biz, but the global talents who bring exceptional intelligence to their work. In compiling the 2021 list, we considered firms whose work we’ve published in print and online in the past five years, along with names relatively new to our pages who, beyond their peerless aesthetic visions, impressed us with their…

1. PROPER LOS ANGELES If Hermès didn’t make handbags, the name Kelly could, among some design obsessives, be understood to mean Wearstler. And this downtown L.A. hotel is definitely a Kelly. The designer, whose bold interiors have made her a household name, seems to create hotels (in San Francisco, Austin, Santa Monica) as effortlessly as she does collections of lamps (for Circa) and wallcoverings (Lee Jofa). The new 148-room Proper is housed in a landmarked 1920s Renaissance Revival building by Curlett & Beelman and will feature, among other amenities, a basketball court and rooftop pool. Swish, splash! Rooms from $365. properhotel.com 2. ACE BROOKLYN Since the first Ace opened its doors in 1999, the late co-owner Alex Calderwood’s collection of hip hives for local and out-of-town creatives has taken the country’s buzziest cities by storm.…

WITH NO MORE THAN AN UNROOFED STADIUM, a few handsome outbuildings, and a pair of austere temples under the shadow of Mount Kronos, the quadrennial Olympics soldiered on well in ancient Greece for about a thousand years. Yet somehow, following its revival in Europe in 1896, the infrastructure surrounding the event became more elaborate. From the notorious Berlin Games of 1936—with its imposing Olympia stadium and swastika-bedecked tower—to the spectacle of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing—featuring the now-iconic “Bird’s Nest” stadium by architects Herzog & de Meuron—the summit of international sport has gone from spartan to supersized. Theoretically at least, the massive construction budgets that have come to define the games serve an obvious end: to accommodate the swelling crowds who descend upon the host cities from around the world. Which…

American Dreams Since founding his lifestyle empire in 1967, Ralph Lauren has presented a vision of American aesthetics in which the traditional divides between menswear and womenswear, leisurewear and formal dressing, and fashion and home dissolve to form a dynamic new whole. With his recent Heritage Icons bedding collection, the brand continues this boundary-defying mission, treating your bed with the same attention given to the contents of your closet. A Shirtings group-ing riffs on traditional men’s haberdashery with patterns like Workshirt Chambray, Oxford, and Tattersall, all employing classic shirting yarns woven on specially designed looms to make them sheet-friendly. And the RL Organic Sateen offerings feature options like Handkerchief Check embroidery and Argyle. It’s enough to make you consider getting all dressed up to go to sleep.…

Earning Its Stripes All outdoor furniture needs to be tough to stand up to the elements, but rarely is it asked to do well by the planet. B&B Italia finds where the twain meet in Borea, a stylish new collection by designer Piero Lissoni. Borrowing from aeronautical manufacturing techniques, Borea seating features aluminum-tube frames and upholstery made in part from recycled PET plastic bottles. For the cocktail and dining tables in the line, tops composed of lava stone tiles from Mount Etna are finished with a glaze made of glass from discarded televisions and computer monitors.…

1. Charlotte Perriand Paravent Ambassade Screen ALEXA HAMPTON: It has a sense of movement, and it plays well with light. CLIFF FONG: I’m drooling over this and the freedom one has to position it. 2. Roll & Hill Sit, Set Chair CF: Love! I think this piece really needs room to shine. AH: Form meets function. A good talking piece for a living room. 3. Chris Lehrecke Elm Branch Dresser AH: I like that it’s so raw, showing all of the lovely grain. CF: There’s a great juxtaposition of organic and modern in the use of different woods. 4. Jomo Furniture Ashanti Stool CF: I wouldn’t change a thing. It has a sculptural quality. AH: The black finish is beautiful. I think it would really ground a space. 5. Pinch Christo Four-Poster Bed AH: How fun is this bed? Natural wood meets canopy—with…