Even the shrill sound of drills boring through a wall opposite Vicente Wolf’s new furniture collection could not drown out the designer’s hushed baritone.
His tone is much like his design style–quiet yet strong, muted but vibrant.
The 20th Century Collection by Vicente Wolf, which the 53-year-old designer unveiled in three different showrooms at the International Home Furnishings Market here last spring, reflects this characteristic style, which has won him fans around the world. The collection includes sculptural sofas and tables, and chairs and beds upholstered in soft chenilles, velvets and silky cottons.
Like pieces from his past, influences from throughout this century are evident, the lines are clean, the looks contemporary and sophisticated.
But there is one striking difference with these new offerings. Wolf, known for his cool, creamy white palette, has added new “neutrals” in shades of brown, green, purple and gray.
The color shift followed the changes Wolf was making in his own life. Browns and greens started to invade the closet of the designer who, in the past, dressed primarily in black and white.
“There was a time I didn’t like brown and now I find I’m attracted to it,” he said. About his penchant for mixing materials and infusing his collections with global inspiration, Wolf said, “I wanted to do something tailored to the kind of customer who is active, has a broader point of view of who they are and the way they see the world. It’s someone who is forward-thinking, not afraid to experience new things.”
Someone not unlike Wolf. With no formal training, the Cuban emigree entered the interior design world 25 years ago and, in this milieu, found himself.
“I was desperate to find a path for myself. It was not an easy time,” said Wolf, recalling his landing in New York. The young Vicente (who pronounces his name “Vincent” despite the Spanish spelling) had left his family’s Miami home at 18 and tried his hand in New York as a bank clerk, model and actor. “I knew I was creative but I didn’t have a piece of paper that said I was this or that.”
Today, Wolf turns his creativity toward interiors, flatware, linens, carpets, upholstery and lamps and has plenty of “pieces of paper”–in the forms of glowing, glossy, multi-page spreads in Architectural Digest and nearly every other prestigious shelter magazine.
It’s hard to believe the designer who enjoys such attention and counts among his clientele Austria’s Prince Alexandre and Princess Alexandra von Furstenberg, record producer Clive Davis and commercial and residential projects coast to coast, ever could have suffered self-doubt.
“You never really see yourself the way others do,” said Wolf, who easily pokes fun at himself. “It’s like when I pose for a photograph, I feel like I’m projecting GQ, then I look at myself in the shot and I look like I’m in the Lost and Found.”
But when it comes to his design skills, what others see, said designer Judy Niedermaier, is a person in touch with what people want.
“He takes a classic, updates it and makes it a good fit for the times,” said Niedermaier, owner of the Chicago contract furniture company that carries Wolf’s designs. (Expect to see Wolf’s furniture in the fall at Plunkett Furniture stores, which bought from the collection introduced in High Point at Casa Bique, Carson’s Inc. and Tyndale Lamps, a division of Chicago’s Frederick Cooper.) “He does not talk down to people in design. Instead, he tries to bring people in and up to a higher level of design.”
Amy Sachs, whose family’s Manhattan apartment was designed by Wolf, agrees. But, she adds, “higher level” should not be interpreted as “stuffed shirt.”
The Sachses, who admired Wolf’s work in magazine spreads, chose him to redesign their 3,500-square-foot, four-bedroom apartment because they knew he could deliver style and comfort suitable for a family of three children and a shedding dog.
“An Asian influence is very strong in our apartment and the use of photographs is a big plus here,” said Sachs, 37. “We didn’t specifically ask for it but there’s a sense of serenity here that’s a welcomed perk for us.”
Credit Wolf’s affinity for pairing smooth and rough–such as the smooth nickel and textured Macassar ebony he brought together in his new dining table for Casa Bique. It’s the positive and negative, said Wolf, that give a sense of tranquility.
“When you don’t have a formal education your expanse of vision is much bigger,” Wolf said of his non-elitist approach to design. “You don’t have any rules. You do what comes naturally.”
Back when Wolf was starting out in design, that took the form of designing a 4-by-7-foot mirror for the late fashion designer Willi Smith. But, more than the design, it was Wolf’s styling–positioning the mirror on the floor and leaning it against the wall–that really got attention.
In the early ’70s, Wolf entered an interior design partnership with Robert Patino where Wolf sharpened his skills and raised his profile. It was during this period that Wolf began designing furniture and decorative accessories. When Patino/Wolf Design desolved in the late ’80s, Wolf went on to create his own New York-based design company, Vicente Wolf Associates Inc.
Who is the man in Wolf’s mirror today? In addition to taking on the challenge of traditional themes, such as the redesign of New York’s 21 Restaurant, Wolf is also a photographer.
His photographs, such as the soulful image of a woman in the Dominican Republic who twists the braid of a girl whose head rests in her lap, reflect the self-exploration that is second nature to him. (A monthlong, one-man show of his photographs will be at Pucci’s in New York, beginning Aug. 3.)
“I really see myself as two people. On one side, there is the Cuban refugee, the one who didn’t go to school,” said Wolf. “Then there is the other one who does all this.”
Perhaps there’s a third one, the philosopher. Wolf sits comfortably talking with visitors, lowering his voice a note more to trade armchair wisdom on life and art.
“We really all have the answer to what we’re looking for,” he said as if sharing a secret. “The question is how much do you trust your answer–99 percent of the time, it’s correct.”
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The 20th Century Collection by Vicente Wolf is available at Plunkett Furniture stores. Prices range from $686 for his ebony side chair with carved legs to $7,266 for his Macassar ebony buffet with metal base.
Lamps are $175 to $350 at Marshall Field’s State Street store, 111 N. State St., 312-781-1000; Marshall Field’s Oak Brook Home Store, 1717 W. 22nd St., 630-645-4980; and Marshall Field’s Woodfield Home Store, 1200 N. Meacham Rd., Schaumburg, 847-781-6200; Dream Interiors, 630-810-1389, 5122 Main St., Downers Grove; and Chrome Yellow, 2312 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-248-8474.
Wolf’s contract furniture is $595 for a bench to $7,000 for the Classic II sofa at Niedermaier, 2828 N. Paulina Ave., 773-528-8123 or 800-260-8123.
