Wendy Goodman
photo by the beloved Fernando Bengoechea, and the cover of my book ‘May I Come In?’
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? The coast of Scotland
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? I always wanted a ballet slipper pink bedroom, never got it, instead a very polite pale pink.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house? I bought a wood fan sculpture from the Victoria Munroe Gallery, now Victoria Munroe Fine Arts, about 30 years ago with the first real money I made in my career. It is by the artist, Christopher Hewat.
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer, who would it be? In my fantasy life i would have asked the American architect, Barry Dierks, to build me my own chateau l’horizon in the rocks above the Mediterranean Sea.
No room is complete without comfortable places to sit.
People think of me as absolutely no idea, but i am really oh god????
Things you omit from:
A flower arrangement: Any greens whatsoever!
An hors d’oeuvre platter: Never show me a walnut.
A bar cabinet: I omit nothing.
A song for:
Dinner at home: Depends on guests.
Working at your desk: Anything Bernstein or Aaron Copland.
Going for a run: Jimi Hendrix, Backstreet Boys.
Biggest vice? There aren’t enough pages here.
If you were on an ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? I would log on to abebooks.com and go mad.
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? That is a very complicated question as I am dressing to camouflage now more than express a style, sad, but true.
Who is your star crush? It changes rather too often…
What is the one thing you would never decorate your home with, but don’t detest when you see others do it? Flat screen tv…i mean i know it’s not décor but i’ll never have one.
If there were a fire, and you could only keep one design book, what would it be? Oh my god, I would die trying to carry as many as i could out of the house! But first off would be The Art & Technique of Color Photography.
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? Inspiring people and making them happy.
The waiting room of Richard Avedon's studio on East 75th street...magical kingdom
A Few Favorites:
Movie: Bringing Up Baby, On The Waterfront
Book: All the Tropics, by Henry Miller
Scent: Penhaligon’s Violetta, discontinued, of course
The fabric you always come back to: Porthault’s poppy print
Dream project: To do a tv show/documentary of interior lives and feature the most fascinating homes and people on earth
Meal: Scrambled eggs and crisp bacon and sourdough toast
Drink: Champagne
Hotel: Le Sirenuse
Travel destination: The outer & inner hebrides of Scotland
Artist: Alberto Giacometti and Alexandre Noll
Thing to collect obsessively: Every Alexandre Noll sculpture I could get my hands on
Era in the history of design: That is a tough one but oddly, i think right now might be the best
Museum: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has my soul
Paint color that always look great: A pale whisper of pink
Favorite person to follow on instagram: Amy Sedaris
Dogs, cats, or no? Dogs and cats and almost every animal on earth
