When I think of the fashion designer Adolfo, I think of my teenage years spent reading W. I devoured each issue (especially Suzy's column) because I couldn't get enough of Nan Kempner, Pat Buckley, Jerome Zipkin, and their see-and-be-seen canteen, Mortimer's, not to mention Donna, Calvin, Ralph, Oscar, Bill, and Adolfo. Back then, we knew fashion designers by their first names. And also back then, it was Adolfo who dressed the society ladies, including C.Z. Guest, Nancy Reagan, and Betsy Bloomingdale. It was a heady time for both fashion and society.
Adolfo may no longer be designing, but his name still conjures up images of ladies clad in elegant dresses and suits and accessorized with stockings and low-heeled pumps. This was, after all, before the days of the high-fashion stripper shoe. But getting back to elegance. Until recently, Adolfo maintained a resplendent Manhattan duplex in the Berwind Mansion, which was recently purchased by Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich. Photographed for House & Garden in 1997, Adolfo's residence was decorated, as the magazine noted, in baronial splendor. Among the damask and stripes was a notable collection of antique pictures, including portraits of nobility, as well as furniture, whose styles ranged from Louis XIV to Napoleon III and American Empire. What all of these pieces had in common, though, was that the designer and his late partner, Edward C. Perry, had ardently collected them over the years.
All in all, a supremely elegant home, one that was fit for a supremely elegant designer. Sadly, with the sale of Adolfo's apartment, I doubt that we'll see too many more of these richly- and tastefully- appointed homes.
Editor's Note: As I was finishing up this post, I learned that Doyle New York will be auctioning off Adolfo's collection of furniture, antiques, and paintings on October 15, 2014. For more information, and to see more recent photos of Adolfo's apartment (it doesn't appear that much has changed since the 1997 House & Garden article), click here.
All interior photos from House & Garden, November 1997, Michel Arnaud photographer.