Nancy Corzine
“My father built all of our houses. He could build anything. When we were children he made us rocking horses and my favorite dollhouse – which I used to redecorate all the time. My mother was a weaver, and he built her a beautiful loom.
“We used to laugh because the loom was looming in the living room and I would be so embarrassed when my friends came. But I used to help her at the loom, stringing it up, and Iearned a lot about weaving – until I forgot. When I started designing textiles I realized how much I really knew.”
Consequently, Nancy’s empire was born. Were it so simple as that this story would be over, and we would wholeheartedly invite you to feast your eyes on the 25-year span of her creations, which encompass a leading furniture, textile, lighting, and accessory line. But that would be only half the story, for Nancy has recently ventured into retail. Her first sumptuous lifestyle shop in Palm Beach was so successful last year she is about to open her second, the just-burgeoning Nancy Corzine Southampton, which will house a rotating collection of her unique furniture and lighting designs, beaded pillows, exceptional silver and crystal, as well as and eclectic range of antiques and collectibles. Too, her signature scented candle collection, aptly named “Mystique” and “Fascination” will be available.
“I’ve always run my business by instinct,” Nancy explains. “If I look even at the bank I’ve used these past twenty-five years, it was just a little community bank back then – now it’s California Bank & Trust. At a certain point the president of the bank said, ‘I want to meet this woman.’ So he flew down from their headquarters in San Francisco and took me to lunch and he said, ‘What was your vision when you started this business?’ And I said I was just going to have a store and sell a few things. ’Well, what was your business plan?’ he asked. And I said that I never had one. I just seem to know when to do something, and I love it. It’s been a labor of love from the start.”
She doesn’t need to convince us: it’s time for the Southampton store. And in the precise spot that Nancy envisioned it to be: the corner of Jobs and Main, a prime location that had been unavailable for years. Yet when Nancy lunched at the nearby Silver’s, she talked with her fiancé about the impossibility of its ever becoming free. At his urging, they walked toward that corner and to her delight, there was a realtor’s sign announcing its sudden vacancy.
Magic? The Corzine touch, perhaps.
When Nancy opened her small showroom in 1983 on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles, it featured her original designs, which are often described as classic and elegant, yet comfortable and livable. After her first major project for the Century Plaza Tower where she worked with Louis Catalfo, followed by the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, she knew it was time to expand the business – and started her own factory.
Not exactly what we would expect from a Seattle-based (and bred) full-time mom of three, but surely what we could come to expect of the $30 million enterprise that Nancy has since created. We might wonder how anyone goes from “a” to “b” much less to “z” in their lives though given the petite, superbly elegant woman that she is, Nancy is also an unstoppable force who packs a .32 when she needs to.
Nancy Corzine packs a gun?
Indeed she does – when she has needed to. When Nancy learned from a disgruntled employee that her own (ex) employees had set up shop replicating her painstakingly created, high-end furniture into cheap imitations, she took it upon herself to investigate. “To have your own showroom counterfeiting your merchandise was just too much,” she says.
One night, Nancy drove out to the “factory” – a Quonset hut in the LA valley – on her own, climbed on to the hood of her car, navigated the chain link fence, and then befriended the guard dogs (she has a deep affinity for animals) and confronted the workers.
“They say that being copied is the best form of flattery. I’d rather have the money,” she states. “It came to our attention because we started receiving complaints about the furniture joists falling apart. We looked into the inventory and saw that none of it lined up – this client with which piece? We had no record of them. Beyond that, I thought, ‘Our joists, failing like this?’ That would never happen.”
Nancy met the problem head on that night, and then went on to fight a 10-year legal battle against her imitators that she eventually won –and which cost her over a million dollars and took twice as long than she anticipated it would. Regardless, she says, she would do again.
When we learn that Nancy suffered a back injury during a design installation early on in her career that nearly left her paralyzed, we also learn that it would inspire “the rest of her life.” The challenges she has faced in both the professional and personal aspects of her life have helped make her the force she is today. Still, not everyone knows how to shoot a gun. Nancy learned after she was held up at gunpoint in front of her factory in Los Angeles over ten years ago.
To us, this helps reveal this design maven’s paradoxical qualities. While Nancy pronounces that the cool whites and ivories and beiges have secrets to tell, she is also the enigmatic art collector drawn to works of bold color by both older and newer artists such as by Miro, Calder, Antonio Murado, Anne-Karin Furunes, Uta Barth, Leo Villareal, Vic Muniz, Charlotte Dumas, Jeffrey Reese, Elizabeth Gil Lui, to name but some.
We cannot leave the page before also noting that Nancy has other passions in life, which include her dedication to giving back to the community. She is currently the President of the Lauder Family public charity -- the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, committed to raising money to find a cure for the disease that took her mother, her lifelong best friend. She also has a great affinity for animals and has set up an outreach program to help rescue strays and find proper homes for them.
Of her achievements, Nancy says: “It hasn’t been so difficult; all it takes is total devotion, boundless energy, and the ability to reinvent yourself on an ongoing basis.”
Refine, we think. Top of the line. “We’ll take it one store at a time,” Nancy answers, when we ask what her next venture might be.

What direction is your style compass pointed to?

Fashion:

I have always been drawn toward American designers like Oscar De La Renta and classic Bill Blass. That being said, I also really love the simplicity of a white Gap t-shirt and a good pair of jeans. 

Fabrics:

Because I am drawn to a more monochromatic pallet, I feel it is very important to add different textures in fabrics.  The coziness of a linen velvet sofa mixed with the crispness of a silk drape is always fantastic! 

Entertaining:

Great guests, great food; fait accompli!

Color:

I never tire of shades of white, ivory and beige.  I find that mixing the various shades of these colors makes a classic and elegant statement.  It can bring a sense of tranquility in some instances but it can also create a source of stimulation in others which is always intriguing to me.     

Travel:

I have been very fortunate to have been able to travel the globe.  At this point in my life, I am content to be on site in one of my company facilities or in one of my homes.

Gardening or Floral:

I love mixing a more traditional garden with contemporary touches.  My mother always loved dogwood which inspired my choices last year at my Bridgehampton home.  My focus was mainly on trees and a beautiful rock garden.  This year, however, I will do my first vegetable garden.   

Art or Design:

I have always been a fan of contemporary art and photography.  I have recently become a collector of both established and emerging artists and take every opportunity to explore the art world. 

Your favorite or most recent:

Book:

The Alexandria Quartet for fun.  From a professional stance, I enjoy  Architectural and Design books of all levels and styles.

Museum:

In the United States, MOMA. Abroad, I prefer Museum D’Orsay. 

Restaurant:

Four Seasons, NY.  It has all the right elements.

Hotel:

The George V, Paris.  Unforgettable floral arrangements.

Music:

Anything Brazilian Jazz.

Gift:

A beautiful book.

Shop:

Too many to say!  I suppose I would have to narrow it down to any place with an interesting mix of furniture and objects.