Anne Hepfer
photo by Virginia Macdonald
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? A Paris pied-à-terre would be a dream. I could wander the streets for hours, feeling giddy over the architectural details and French fashion. Of course I would shop incessantly for my clients.
What are three words to describe your style?
1. Classic
2. Layered
3. Meaningful
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? My childhood bedroom in Greenwich, Connecticut was bright and cheerful, thanks to my mother’s love of pattern and color. I had Gloria Vanderbilt sheets and the pattern is still imprinted in my mind. As I got older in the ’80s, my Mom re-decorated my room with pink wallpaper and mint green floral chintz curtains with ruffled edges and bows on the corners. Very Laura Ashley meets classic New England style with white wicker accents and hand painted blue beds with roses on them. It may have been those girly frills that moved me into a more tailored and contemporary aesthetic later.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house? A 1963 fashion photograph by Melvin Sokolsky for Harper’s Bazaar called “On the Seine.” It hung in my single-girl apartment in New York, and it’s in the living room of our family home now.
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer other than yourself, who would it be?
Billy Baldwin. No contest.
No room is complete without fresh flowers, particularly rare orchids and peonies when they’re in season.
People think of me as a workaholic, but I am really a flower child.
Things you omit from:
A flower arrangement: Baby’s breath and carnations
An hors d’oeuvre platter: Smoked cheese
A bar cabinet: Crème de menthe
A song for:
Dinner at home: Have I Told You Lately, Van Morrison
Working at your desk: 9 to 5, Dolly Parton
Going for a run: Edge of Seventeen, Fleetwood Mac
Biggest Vice? Indulging in too much of my own cooking and baking, especially in summer when berries are in season and my mom’s blueberry tart with shortbread crust recipe is on repeat.
If you were on an Ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? ETSY all the way. I love supporting global craft artisans and I’ve had several late night ETSY binges… African baskets, cotton loomed rag rugs, lapis lazuli obelisks from Afghanistan, monogrammed straw market bags from Morocco, Japanese ceramics fish prints, ceramics, even custom labels for our homemade maple syrup and honey from our beehives… search for any of these things on ETSY.
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? You’ll see me in a tweed jacket and heels in the city, and a well-worn pair of jeans and sneakers when I’m at site visits. Both looks are inherently “me” and translate to my designs.
Who is your star crush? Lenny Kravitz. His music, style, homes and product design… He’s a true Renaissance man.
What is the thing you would never do on a project, but don’t detest when you see others do it?
I’d never do city in the country.
If there were a fire, and you could only keep one design book, what would it be?
The Givenchy Style by Hubert de Givenchy.
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? Meaningful spaces that evoke a feeling—that’s what design should do, and why I called my first-ever book, MOOD.
photo by Virginia Macdonald
A Few Favorites:
Movie: Out of Africa
Book: Beloved by Toni Morrison
Scent: Santal Blanc Van Cleef & Arpels
The fabric you always come back to: Carriacou by Pierre Frey; the colors and embroidery are the epitome of joy.
Dream project: An earthy chic boutique hotel in St Barths.
Meal: Pasta at Da Paolino in Capri, or Sunday morning crêpes with my family at our cottage in Ontario’s Muskoka region.
Drink: Negroni Sbagliato: sweet, bitter and refreshing.
Hotel: The Oberoi chain in India blew me away with impeccable service and rooms filled with eye candy, from color and pattern to tassels.
Travel Destination: Japan! And we’re finally planning to go next March after cancelling three times during Covid.
Artist: Mark Rothko
A cause near and dear to me: Mentoring and supporting other women in their creative endeavors; these are the ties that bond us together and keep us whole.
Thing to collect obsessively: I snap up malachite and lapis lazuli pieces when I see them, whether it’s an obelisk or a box.
Era in the history of design: New York in the 1960s.
Museum: Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris
Paint Color that always looks great: My go-to gray Lamp Room Gray No. 5 by Farrow & Ball
Favorite person to follow on Instagram: I enjoy designer Mark D. Sikes’s feed because it’s a fun mash-up of interiors, travel and iconic fashion moments.
Dogs, Cats, or No Pets? Dogs all the way. We’ve been blessed with Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, the most loving breed I know, who’ve been part of our family.
