October 6, 2024Surely, you’ve heard of Athena Calderone. If not, consider this your introduction. She is the tastemaker’s tastemaker, the influencer’s influencer. If the aesthetic zeitgeist of the moment can be captured in a bottle, Calderone has done it. Her homes past and present are the stuff of social-media fame — she has more than a million Instagram followers — and the heart of her web-based brand, EyeSwoon. If Calderone didn’t invent the boldly-veined-marble kitchen, the steel-and-glass window wall or the artfully arranged branch in a glass vase, she had a huge hand in popularizing them.
Calderone is model lithe with a dark bob. An interior designer and stylist, she’s also a furniture designer, not to mention an accomplished cook and an award-winning cookbook author. But perhaps her chief talent is her unerring ability to supply exactly the design inspiration people crave.
She and her husband, Victor Calderone, a music producer and DJ, are serial renovators, as well. In 1998, they bought their first home, a loft in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood. As the real estate market soared, they traded up several times, finally landing in a Greek Revival townhouse in Cobble Hill. They sold that in 2023, but not before it was meticulously revamped and documented in Calderone’s book Live Beautiful (Abrams) and, of course, on social media. Now, they’ve started all over again with the recent purchase of a wood-paneled Tribeca loft in a 1904 building. The apartment is currently undergoing the kind of luxe, stylish update only Calderone and a team of architects, artists and artisans can carry out.
Meanwhile, she, her husband and their 21-year-old son, Jivan, are residing full-time in the modernist beach house in Amagansett, New York, that the couple bought in dilapidated condition in 2009 and renovated with the help of East Hampton–based Bates Masi + Architects. It is “a constant in our hearts and where we’ve lived the longest,” Calderone says. That’s where they’ll celebrate the fall and winter holidays, hosting family and friends.
Their Amagansett lair recently underwent its own refresh, including creamy plaster walls, a beamed ceiling distinctively laced with rope, and plenty of nooks and surfaces for displaying a rotating selection of decorative objects. An enthusiastic 1stDibs shopper, Calderone has curated a shoppable collection of such pieces for holiday entertaining, decorating and gifting from the site’s vast array. She obliged Introspective with a wide-ranging conversation about the objects she chose, which way her tastes are leaning these days and how she pulls off a warm, memorable holiday feast.
When did you first become interested in home design and decorative arts? Are there early memories that stand out as the beginning of it all?
I grew up on Long Island, and while we didn’t have much, my mom put so much attention on the beautification of our home. On the holidays, we would press the linens, choose the napkin rings and set the table together. She taught me the importance of making your home feel beautiful and celebratory. I never knew it would turn into a career! We didn’t travel much or go to museums during my childhood, but in my early twenties, I traveled a lot. My eyes were flooded with art and history, and the whole world cracked open for me.
You do styling and cooking on a professional level, of course, but how do you personally like to entertain and celebrate the winter holidays?
Thanksgiving is a mix of family and friends, and I’m usually the one cooking. A modern buffet on the kitchen island allows me to play with presentation, using bowls and platters in different shapes and materials, along with candlelight. I’ll set up stations — a serving station with plates, napkins and flatware; a drinks station so guests can help themselves; and a food station for noshing as you please. Each is an opportunity to style a vignette, and it’s a casual way of entertaining that allows people to get away from the table and chat with ease. I love to create opportunities for people to connect.
Growing up in an Italian-American family, we had big, boisterous holidays with a lot of seafood and pasta, usually with the whole extended family on Christmas Eve. As an adult, I’ve always been the one to host Christmas Day. We’re definitely pasta lovers and carnivores. I go back and forth from year to year between a braised-pork dish, short ribs and ragù. They can all be made a day or two in advance — actually, they’re better that way. Then, you just have to compose your salad and some veggies to go with the main event.
You’ve curated a very sophisticated selection of items for 1stDibs’ holiday collection. Can you share the thinking behind your choices?
It’s definitely a product of what I’m immediately working on, which right now is our Tribeca home. The wood paneling and oversize lighting are original from when the Borden milk company occupied the building, in the nineteen thirties and forties. Last year, I took a research trip to Vienna and Paris to familiarize myself with architects and designers of that period, and it’s starting to inform the Amagansett house as well. Just because the house is from the nineteen seventies and leans into natural materials doesn’t mean the objects in it have to follow. Objects that contrast, that are unexpected, are what make your eye linger.
As my design education evolves, I’m moving toward pieces with gravitas, like figurative sculpture and Greek neoclassical-style vessels, things that are evocative of the nineteen twenties and thirties with the touch of the hand. I like things made of iron, alabaster, etched or frosted glass, hammered silver — materials that offer a nod to history.
What are a few of your favorite picks?
I was a dancer in high school and college, and something about the movement of Jules Werson’s bronze sculpture of a woman very much speaks to me. It’s reminiscent of the glamour of the Art Deco era and makes a strong statement about the female form — it feels really bold and striking, not overly feminine.
The bronze volute krater has such presence in a room. It speaks to ancient times, with a form so vastly different from contemporary design. I am always looking to the past.
For years, I’ve loved ceramics, brass, bronze — things with timeworn patina — but wasn’t attracted to glass. Currently, though, I’m smitten by pieces like André Hunebelle’s frosted-glass Roseaux vase from the nineteen thirties. I’m appreciating the artistry of glass — the sandblasting, impressions of different patterns within the glass, its opalescent qualities — and starting to collect more of it.
Do you do holiday decorating or pull out special serving pieces?
I love to think beyond the Christmas tree and bring greenery of the season — blue spruce or pine or magnolia — into other areas of the house. I love styling branches in large-scale glass vases, really big vessels like the ones in Yves Saint Laurent’s home, and making that the focal point on a table or console.
The holidays are a perfect opportunity to bring out unique silver pieces for the bar, like vintage wine coolers and sterling cordial glasses. It’s always nice to have a varied mix of materials and forms, like the Gabriella Crespi tray with brass and burl wood or the pyramid-shaped Aldo Tura ice bucket, which has a lacquered parchment finish.
For holiday centerpieces, shallow, wide bowls, like the alabaster-and-iron Art Deco one I chose, are really functional. I love to fill them with fruit of the season — grapes, pomegranates, lemons — or even herbs, spilling over onto the table. Utilizing some of the elements you’re cooking with is another moment for holiday decor.
Did you choose some of the pieces in the collection with gift giving in mind?
I’ve included some vintage jewelry, some favorite coffee-table and design books and some small ceramic pieces for gifting. Selecting a vintage gift on 1stDibs shows a person you really made an effort to dig into who they are and what they love. You’re not just running into a department store and buying something off the shelf.
