radar / rEVIEW

The husband-and-wife duo behind design firm Carrier and Company may be self-admitted bohemians, though you wouldn’t be quick to make that guess from a peek at their vast portfolio of high-profile clients: think Anna Wintour and Jason Wu, amongst many other fashion greats. Their first foray in the world of publishing, entitled Carrier and Company: Positively Chic Interiors, invites you into the expertly eclectic and all-parts covetable spaces that they’ve dreamed up since they launched their firm in 2005. Here, Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller chime in on their weaknesses, Italian muses and—what else?—having the illustrious Annie Leibovitz shoot their family portrait. carrierandcompany.com

for THeIr fIrsT BooK ouT THIs fALL, desIgners Jesse CArrIer And MArA MILLer sHoWCAse A deCAde of THeIr CeLeBrATed CreATIons.

WrITTen By lacy morris produCed By arlyn hernandez

IN GOODCOMPANY

above: Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller of new york’s Carrier and Company pictured in their Manhattan studio. Top right: The couple’s signature mix of textures and patterns is served up in this inviting living room.

JESSE CARRIER ON...anna WinToUr: she is the cornerstone of Carrier and Company: she was our first client and is still our biggest patron. We did her office at 4 Times square and at 1 World Trade Center, her house in the country and subsequent guest cottages, her kids’ dorm rooms, their first apartments and second apartments…it’s an ongoing relationship.

FindinG Their clienTs’ Voices: our process generally begins with an interview in their current home, where we pick up from the visual clues and figure out what their tolerances are. Then they’ll come to the office and we’ll put out piles of fabrics in very loose schemes and say, “Throw on the floor what you don’t like.” They start telling us what it reminds them of; their history starts to come out.

Personal sTyle: We’re terribly practical people. When left to our own devices, we fall under the category of bohemian glamour. That’s code for organic, light and easy, and a little bit humble and little bit thrift store.

WeaK sPoTs: I’m a big sucker for painted furniture. I found this swedish drop-front desk that’s not the traditional swedish blue-gray but rather a funny tomato orange color with a weird green interior; I just thought it was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen.

oBJecT enVy: It’s incredible to think about where our clients have been and what their eyes have seen. They have such amazing collections; Annie’s photography or Anna’s weird Clarice Cliff pottery. They’re like little house museums.

MARA MILLER ON...annie leiBoViTz: Annie is very astute. When we met to shoot our family portrait, she had already studied basically every image of us her office could find. she had analyzed our wardrobe and knew what she wanted us to wear. It was remarkable to work with someone at that level of professionalism. she pieces together personality, point of view and purpose in her camera work.

PlayinG The mind Game: There’s a lot of psychology behind design. everyone has insecurities, aspirations and fantasies, but it’s very hard for people to express what they want the house to portray about them. It really teaches us a lot when clients don’t like sheen or dump anything that’s a silk or sateen; some hate heavy things and reject any velvet or mohair. It starts to show us what they want the project to say.

Their neW BooK: We pride ourselves on being able to fulfill different aesthetics, which is how we ultimately decided to structure the book. you’ll see that when we do traditional work, this is what it’s like. When we do country work, this is what we think about, etc.

GeTTinG insPired: We absorb a lot through magazines and movies. We’ve been to Italy twice and there are still things that I take away from there—the color of the sunlight, the amount of texture in all the materials, the energy.

arT: It’s so emotional and energetic. I don’t like to know the backstory, what makes the artist important or what they were thinking….all the stuff that a collector wants to know. It ruins it for me. We pick things that feel good or resonate, not based off the name. It’s not always expected. po

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