Interior Designer Ryan Korban Moves Uptown
IF THERE WERE A YEARBOOK of the interior design world, Ryan Korban's future vocation would undoubtedly read Most Likely to Succeed Peter Marino —Marino being the fashion world's go-to designer and interior architect, who is responsible for the international boutiques of Chanel, Christian Dior, Céline and Louis Vuitton, as well as fashion mogul Bernard Arnault's homes. Though the 28-year-old Korban hasn't yet reached those levels of renown, he is well on his way, having completed residences for designer Alexander Wang, actor James Franco and models Julia Stegner and Jessica Stam. He's also created retail stores, including the flagship Alexander Wang store on Manhattan's Grand Street (2,500 square feet of white marble and hot-rolled steel, complete with a jet-black fox-fur hammock), as well as shops for Black Gold, Diesel's runway collection. This fall marks his graduation into the big leagues by helping to restyle the stores in North America for Balenciaga, the venerable French fashion house that Wang recently took over.
"He is one of the few people I trust completely," says Wang, who met Korban when they were still students at Parsons and The New School, respectively, and quickly realized they had much in common. "We both were very ambitious and always had a strong sense of what we wanted," remembers Wang, who, along with fellow designer Joseph Altuzarra, the stylish sisters Victoria, Vanessa and Samantha Traina and actress Zoë Kravitz, formed a tight-knit group of fashionable young New Yorkers. But even the young guard grows up one day, which is how Korban now finds himself living in the surprisingly genteel environs of Central Park South. "I just had to get out of downtown," says Korban, in his plushly decorated two-bedroom apartment. "This feels like big Manhattan." (He has retained his decidedly non-uptown uniform of black jeans and black hair pulled back into a scruffy ponytail.)
The home is the latest in a string for the designer, who estimates that he has moved every year of the seven since his graduation from college, where he specialized in cultural media studies and European art history. "I move a lot because once I'm done, I'm ready to decorate a new apartment," he says. His new space is a rhapsody of gray tones, inspired by a Franco Rubartelli photograph of model Veruschka that hangs on one wall. "Gray is my neutral," says Korban, who became a connoisseur of the color by using it regularly for his residential clients and fashion projects. There is even a gray leather teddy bear on Korban's custom-made Ralph Lauren RL +0.74% black lacquer bed. Anything not gray is mostly black, cream, chrome or glass.
Also crowding the space is a menagerie of Korban's prized taxidermy, which he calls the "ultimate home accessory." A zebra overlooks the living room, while elsewhere perch a flock of birds—cranes and an albino peacock. ("I don't know where to put them anymore," says Korban, whose sources include the New York store Evolution and dealers in Paris.) The animals coexist with richly finished furniture and accessories, many of which are vintage pieces discovered while shopping for clients in London and Paris. One prize find is a pair of ornate black Maison Jansen lamps dripping with fruit that he first saw at a New York gallery for $12,000, but found again at a Paris flea market for a fraction of the price. Elsewhere are sconces by Christian Liaigre, one of Korban's idols along with the late Jean-Michel Frank, whose influence is evident in the apartment's signature mix of understated and lush elements.
“"Fashion has defined luxury for our generation. I don't think interior design has done that yet."”
"It's rare to meet someone who has such defined taste at such a young age," says Altuzarra, whose design studio Korban helped decorate. "He thinks about what is aesthetically beautiful, but there is also a sense of pragmatism and functionality. It's a mature way of looking at design."
"Sex, romance and fantasy" is how Korban describes his own decor, a mixture of Italian 1970s references, traditional English style, romantic silk fabrics and exotic touches—including dramatic horn lamps, accessories from the Italian company Arca and a coyote fur throw draped over a couch. He has refurbished several of his vintage furniture pieces in rare animal skins, including a chest of drawers covered in cream-tone ostrich, which took nine months to customize to the proper pale color. "It's my favorite skin," says Korban, who also applied it to a large mirror frame. An oversize armoire in the living room is covered in a delicate goatskin parchment, while a matched set of chairs is finished in iridescent shagreen sharkskin. "I had these in the dining room, but people started kicking them," the designer laments.
Horn shelves from Creel and Gow hold a collection of malachite boxes. Photography by Matt Ramirez
An Italian smoked-cut crystal chandelier hangs over shagreen sharkskin chairs. Photography by Matt Ramirez
Korban is constantly tweaking the decor, including the placement of the two sofas that dominate the living room: Knoll originals that were found on eBay and customized to echo a pair once famously owned by the late fashion designer Halston. Another recent Korban obsession is bronze sculpture. "I now have four or five sculptures, but before there were 12. That's what happens to me," he says. "I can't stick to one thing ever." And in Tony Duquette fashion, he created a homemade installation of natural quince branches with perpetually blooming silk blossoms (each individually glued to the spot where there had been a natural flower growing).
It's just the kind of ad-hoc innovation that the self-trained Korban is apt to create. The son of hair salon owners in Philadelphia, he grew up thinking he would either become an actor or work in fashion. But soon after moving to New York for college, he realized that interior design was his passion. A fashion internship was a "disaster," and he realized that what he loved "wasn't so much the acting but the theater and how magical it was. It made me see that what I really loved was creating environments." His first foray into design was creating the chic Tribeca boutique Edon Manor for his friend and business partner Davinia Wang (no relation to the designer), which opened in 2007 and helped him garner several residential clients. His family's background made him instantly well suited to the business. "I grew up around the idea of servicing a client at the high end," says Korban. "At the end of the day, what I do is a service."
But unlike many interior designers, he hopes to focus entirely on retail spaces in the future. "Some people love living rooms and dining rooms, but I love stores. I love making product look its best. It's like a puzzle," says Korban, whose primary focus became lighting and materials for those projects. "It's less about furniture and more about the perfect mix of materials. You are developing your brand's language: Is it going to be brass and marble? If so, is the brass brushed?"
"He is meticulous about the smallest details, and that's what I appreciate in his work ethic," says Alexander Wang.
Besides the rollout of the Balenciaga stores, Korban is seeking broader horizons for his design philosophy, beginning with the publication of his first book next year. "What I've been trying to do is bring attention and life into the design world—the youth and excitement I see in the fashion world," he says. "Fashion has defined luxury for our generation, and I don't think interior design has done that yet."
In the meantime, he is enjoying his new apartment. "My own home is becoming a place where I can wait to find the perfect pieces," says Korban, though he will never be done fine-tuning things. "But I love it more than ever."
Corrections & Amplifications
Ryan Korban is helping to restyle the stores in North America for Balenciaga. An earlier version of this article didn't specify the region.
