THE JOURNAL
O
ne of Alfredo Paredes’ earliest memories is playing with Lego. Like many children, he built houses, but more unusually, this future Elle Decor A-listed designer decided
to give these miniature properties soft furnishings, too. “My houses had to have all that soft stuff as well,” he says. “It wasn’t enough to be just bricks.” Paredes is speaking to me via video call from the
Manhattan office of his eponymous design studio (there is another base in Miami). I laugh at his anecdote and remark that he was clearly destined to be an interior designer from the start. But he shakes his head. “Interior design wasn’t at all what I was thinking of,” he says. “What I was interested in was cinematic fantasies.” Paredes is a film buff, but the roots of his lifelong
fascination with visual storytelling lie in his upbringing. He grew up in Florida, the eldest son of a Cuban family in exile. His parents met soon after each arrived in Miami, and tales of the life they had left behind – a vanished utopia of beach houses and days at the Havana Yacht Club – were the soundtrack to family life, fuelling his imagination. This sense of what he describes as a
“paradise lost” also instilled a passion for collecting and conjuring a sense of history that has become part of his signature style. “Dad would go to the dump and come home with more stuff than he left with,” he says. “They brought very little with them from Cuba, so I think it was about creating heritage.”
“INTERIOR DESIGN WASN’T AT ALL WHAT I WAS THINKING OF. WHAT I WAS INTERESTED IN WAS CINEMATIC FANTASIES”
Hollywood almost claimed him but, fortunately
for the design world, Paredes was picked up by the fashion designer Ralph Lauren a year after graduating from the Art Institute of Atlanta. It was 1986 and the Rhinelander Mansion,
the 1898 French chateau
fantasy on Madison Avenue, was being converted into the brand’s first stand-alone emporium. Paredes was invited to be part of the visual display team responsible for the look of the interior and window displays. He accepted, and the shiny new store with its glamorously faded vibe was an instant hit; so began a working relationship with the business that lasted until he left to launch his own design studio in 2019. Paredes rose to become executive vice president,
chief creative officer and head of the Home Collection Design Studio. As lead of both Global Store Design and Architecture, he was also the creative
force
behind every retail outlet and restaurant, including the A-lister’s favourite Manhattan hang out, the Polo Bar, and the women’s flagship opposite the Rhinelander Mansion. Both are extraordinary, immersive creative concoctions. The concrete basement that houses the Polo Bar is a mid-century clubhouse wrapped in mahogany. The womenswear showroom, meanwhile, is a magnificent beaux-arts palazzo. “I’m especially proud of that one,” he says. “It was built out of the ground, but it looks as though it has always been there.”
OPPOSITE: “I remember feeling as though it had been waiting for me,” says Alfredo Paredes of his East Village duplex – ever practical, the designer chose the sofa colour partly to camouflage hair
from his dog Lily’s reddish coat ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: A quiet working area at Paredes’ home in Shelter Island, New York, with blinds in a fabric from Ralph Lauren Home; Paredes (on left) with his husband Brad Goldfarb and their children Carolina and Sebastian; the classic, comfortable living room of Paredes’ home in Locust Valley, with a coffee table piled with books and personal objects
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© Björn Wallander
© Noe DeWitt
© Noe DeWitt
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