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Runway style in the living room

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published August 25, 2006

Fashion designer Nicole Miller's clothes look a lot like her furniture creations: "clean lined, not heavy-handed, not likely to go out of style."

Consider it fun, elegant, runway chic for the living room.

Nothing kitschy from Miller, considered one of the country's premier fashion designers.

Famous for her design of the "perfect little black dress" and a favorite among stars like Jennifer Aniston and Daryl Hannah, Miller was at Tampa's International Plaza last week to promote her line of furniture at Robb & Stucky.

"Nicole is a luminary in the world of fashion design, a star who lends real credibility to a furniture collection," said Mary Wilson, vice president of advertising and marketing for Robb & Stucky. Comparable designers who have ventured beyond clothes into furniture and other home accessories include Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein.

Miller's collection features more than 70 pieces for the living room, bedroom and dining room, including a slipper chair with a mid century modern attitude that she deemed the "perfect reading chair."

Miller's pieces were spread around the showroom, where she sat on a two-toned leather sofa that she designed to talk about her favorite home and dispense artistic advice.

Q: How did your fashions influence your furniture designs?

A: The most obvious way was through the fabrics in colors like orange and in the giraffe print (in the pillows on the collection's loft sofa). I've had giraffe in my fashion shows. I tried to be a little funkier with fabrics because people can be a little braver in their homes.

Q: What are your own homes like?

A: My loft in Tribeca has an area rug with orange and green circles and royal blue chairs on it. I like to have those fun things around, although you can't do it in every room. We just redid my beach house (in Sag Harbor), and I was going to get rid of a crazy bright orange and red shag carpet. But then I put it under the coffee table and made it the focus point. I love vintage pieces mixed in, French pieces from the '50s, furniture from the deco period. I like mid century (20th) modern designers.

Q: What design advice can you give someone just starting out in their own home?

A: There are so many options that weren't around before: vintage furniture and all kinds of interesting designs in good taste as well as reproductions. If you're ready to invest - say the kids aren't as young or you're going from a temporary home to the big move - then you should start collecting what you really love.

Q: What were you trying to achieve with this line of furniture?

A: I wanted something that would mirror my clothing, where if you buy it, you're not going to be a fashion victim and throw it out next year. I picked all the fabrics and paid a lot of attention to finishes like brushed steel and dark wood like the walnut burl in this cocktail table.

Q: In your opinion, what's the equivalent of the little black dress in home furnishings?

A: That really comfortable chair, something you can curl up and read in.

Q: What kind of entertaining do you like to do?

A: I love theme dinner parties, inspired by where I've been. I did a Frida Kahlo party and hung big Mexican paper flowers and fake paintings that a friend found for me in Texas. I did a Jamaican-themed dinner and tie-dyed inexpensive 100 percent cotton napkins. When the Brazilians won the World Cup, I threw a theme party around that.

Q: What's your favorite house?

A: It belongs to artists April Gornik and her partner Eric Fischl. They built the most amazing house - it's the coolest I've ever seen. You walk up the stairs, and their studios are on both sides. There's a glass box library and a great living room with mile-high ceilings. It has a Japanese feeling about it, and it's very comfortable.

[Last modified August 23, 2006, 11:35:36]