October 7, 2009Cathy Lerebours at work. Photo by Gerardo Somoza
Cathy Lerebours, an antiques dealer for more than a decade and a bona fide glamour-puss, has just opened an antiques shop on New York’s swanky 60th Street — a veritable antiques alley between Second and Third Avenues, with dealers cross populated with old-time notions and sundry stores and the famous Serendipity Restaurant and Dylan’s Candy (after all, one does need nourishment after canvassing the dense mass of design shops.)
Deciding to go very much agains the tidal wave of business trepidation as the economy, particularly in Manhattan, threatens to continue its none-too-gentle decline, Lerebours says, “It was the perfect moment to act . . . and act quickly I did.” In a record-setting three weeks, she negotiated, signed and finished construction on the lease on the nearly 1,000-square-foot space in what was once a low-slung tailer shop. Fifty years of fine woolens and sewing machines gave way in a flash to Lerebours tantalizing merch. Before the ink was dry, she enlisted in the redesign of the mangy space. The BFFs ransacked Home Depot and the silk outlet stores on 39th Street and applied their trove and decorator skills until a true jewel box emerged.
Awash in six shades of gray and white, Lerebours Antiques is an echo of the French salon motif that was popular in the 1940s, with stand-out pieces including a lacquered dining table in the Maison Jansen manner, a pair of faux-painted 20th-century Directoire commodes and a French bar cabinet by Maurice Jallot. Lerebours says, “My taste is very eclectic but I tend to gravitate to pieces that are classically inspired.”
Lerebours is a native of the Dominican Republic who used her television talents (honed at Inside Edition and Univision) to create a real-life set that would be a perfect home for the Thin Man series. She dabbles with period finds as well as intricate pieces from her native country that include capricious seashell confections which she artistically transforms into lighting and furniture. Leaving television to travel throughout Europe and later, the United States, Lerebours landed in New York with an offer to enroll in an antiques associates program at Parsons, under the tutelage of the well-respected teacher (and certified decorative arts appraiser) Louise Devenish. An apocryphal auction at Tepper and some groovy goodies had Lerebours hooked — and off and running.
Selling her finds at the 26th Street Flea Market and constantly re-feathering her own nest on 60th Street further inspired Lerebours’s goal to open her own store. Laughing at the subject of starting a retail venture during a recession, she says “I am only looking forward. And with the likes of Samuel Botero, Bruce Willis, and Noel Jeffries dropping in at my shop — all of them offering lavish praises and compliments — I am flush with encouragement and optimism.”
