I remember meeting the inimitably stylish Hamish Bowles at a Stanley Korshak event back in the late 2000s. For those of us working in luxury retail, it was quite a thrill meeting the longtime Vogue editor known for encouraging readers to dream dreams well beyond their bank accounts.
So of course, I was intrigued when the New York Times broke the news that Bowles’ Ninth Street Greenwich Village co-op was on the market. Built in the mid-1920s, the 1,400-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath prewar duplex still sports nearly all its original architectural detailing.
“It’s one of those old school Village apartments with character; what the Village used to be like,” according to Chris Poore, a broker at Sotheby’s International Realty, which holds the listing.
Not surprisingly, the ground-floor apartment is being offered with “zero staging,” Poore added.
The living room alone sports 16-and-a-half-foot coffered ceilings, green damask walls, a wood-burning fireplace, and an intricately designed chandelier.
Additional custom features include Milanese-style pediment-topped bookcases, the handiwork of Laura Sartori Rimini and Roberto Peregalli of Studio Peregalli, and the Agencie Group, a New York architectural firm. And then there’s a whimsical trompe l’oeil door in the dining room.
“It’s very amusing because guests come, and you can see they’re just fiddling with this handle and not knowing why they can’t open the door,” Bowles said in a Vogue video released earlier this year.
The second-floor primary bedroom is equally outlandish — in a good way.
Think statement-making bubblegum-pink floral walls and multi-hued green carpet. And befitting a fashion icon, there’s covetable closet space. (Bowles “was born dandy,” according to a 2013 New York Times piece.)
Note to future buyers: One of the apartment’s closets, originally a Juliet balcony, can be restored to its natural state.
The apartment also has a spacious plum-tinted foyer and galley kitchen complete with marble countertops, wood cabinets, and black-and-white flooring. Adding to the allure: a bevy of Bowles’ personal treasures — or what he calls “objects of affection” — that run the gamut from vintage books to antique furnishings.
Turns out, the 59-year-old British native has already moved home to London. In addition to his duties at Vogue, Bowles also serves as editor-in-chief of Conde Nast’s interior design magazine, The World of Interiors (which featured the NYC co-op in a 2014 editorial).
The 68-unit building — designed in 1925 by Harvey Wiley Corbett — has had its fair share of celebritydom.
Notable names include Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell, actor Chris Noth, and designer Jonathan Adler and his husband and former creative director of Barney’s, Simon Doonan.
As for potential buyers, Poore says he’s hoping to find one who appreciates the owner’s taste. Either way, “the bones are great, whether it be somebody’s taste or not.”
