Alfredo Paredes Unveils a Cinematic Boutique in Hudson
The former Ralph Lauren creative director debuts a Warren Street storefront that puts his handcrafted furniture, a trove of photography, vintage finds, and his textiles for Kravet Couture on stunning display
Alfredo Paredes spent more than three decades shaping some of the world’s most storied boutiques—and the coveted wares within them—as chief creative officer of Ralph Lauren Home. The role capped an impressive 33-year tenure at the fashion house that began at the historic Rhinelander Mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and expanded to include iconic window displays and the wood-paneled interiors of Polo Bar. He struck out on his own in 2019, founding Alfredo Paredes Studio and building a portfolio of handsome residences imbued with a balance of disciplined minimalism and lived-in sensibility with masculine winks. That trajectory, of course, reflects a career spent orchestrating interiors for others. “At a certain point,” Paredes tells Galerie, “you start to think about what it means to do that completely on your own terms.”
With the opening of the designer’s first brick-and-mortar store, there’s no more need to wonder. Located on Hudson’s charming Warren Street amid a dense stretch of antiques dealers and vintage design galleries, the hotly anticipated boutique presents Paredes’s handcrafted furniture alongside a personal curation of objects, rugs, photography, and artwork. “I’ve always wanted Hudson,” he admits. “There’s a real community there that understands provenance and craft and the idea that a space should tell a story. I wanted somewhere the furniture could live alongside great art and found objects, the way things come together in a well-lived-in home.”
With unhurried charm and a rustic inflection, the store delivers on that promise through a series of carefully composed vignettes that forge the ambience of a collector’s living room. Paredes pairs his own furnishings with a tasteful mélange of tabletop objects, neatly arranged stacks of art books, and a dense hang of artworks (Gordon Winarick, Antoni Tàpies, Eric Cormenzana) and photography (Richard Phibbs, Marcus Tyler, Richard Corman) evocative of a salon-style gallery. The shop also presents his handcrafted furniture collection, which he recently brought under his control following the closure of longtime manufacturing partner EJ Victor. Marked by oversized silhouettes and natural materials with nods to history, the line includes head-trimmed sofas, upholstered beds, dining chairs, and case goods that wear their influences with pride.
“It’s very much an expression of how I’ve always thought about design: layered, personal, and rooted in the idea that beautiful things should feel like they’ve lived a little,” Paredes says. The offering extends to vintage rarities sourced from Europe, his earthy Cocuyo textiles for Kravet Couture, and even a selection of Farrow & Ball paint. A disarming photograph of Jean-Michael Basquiat captured by Corman anchors one of the boutique’s most striking moments, animating an intimate nook centered on the Santana sofa, a 1940s-inspired seat defined by sloped rolled arms and bullion trim. Nearby sits the Mateo table, its timber frame drawn from 18th-century French craftsman tables; a spherical paper pendant in the spirit of Isamu Noguchi hangs above.
Perhaps the arrangement recalls moments from the homes Paredes shared in his recent monograph, Alfredo Paredes: At Home (Rizzoli). And that’s precisely the point. According to the designer, every piece was selected to sit in dialogue with the next, much like a well-composed residence. “People [in Hudson] have always had a respect for history and spaces that feel lived in—they’re looking for things that mean something,” he says. “That’s exactly my kind of crowd.” The selection will evolve as new finds enter the mix, meaning no two visits will be the same.
For Paredes, the milestone reads as far more consequential than a standard ribbon-cutting. “It’s about having a physical place in the world where the whole vision lives under one roof, a place you can actually walk into and feel it,” he says. “And I have to say, it feels pretty great.”
