“Right now, it's the wide leg pant, a little crop top, and one of my mom's vintage Chanel jackets over it. It's my go-to look,” designer Ashley Stark says of her current uniform, before adding a long coat, and a beanie to the list—it is the middle of winter in New York, after all. Sitting in her Upper East Side townhouse, that’s exactly what the creative director of Stark Carpet and founder of Ashley Stark Home is wearing. Today’s version entails a Naked Cashmere crop top, Nili Lotan pants, a Khaite belt, and Tabitha Simmons platforms—oh, and a hand-me-down CHANEL jacket, of course. As is customary for Stark, the color spectrum from the whole ensemble ranges from beige to a creamy white to stark white.
“I'm constantly surrounded by so much color and pattern all day long, I like to just detox from it, which is why my home and closet are not so colorful,” she says. At first glance this sentiment applies. Her home has that bright and hotel-clean feeling only a muted color palette can supply, but it stops short of monastic minimalism. Each creamy item warrants individual intrigue. “If you break it down, there's texture, there's different [shades], the wallpaper is corded with metallic,” she explains. “There's always something.”
Her closet has more flair than she gives herself credit for, as well, or at least its contents do. The space (which is about the size of a bedroom) is serene, blanched—you guessed it—white. Since the pandemic, this "closet" has become an office in addition to its function as a storage facility. ”I try to keep it extra organized,” she says. “Otherwise, you'd see a bra hanging in the background [of a zoom].” Behind her desk and lucite chair (had she known of the WFH lifestyle, she may have selected differently), three mismatched Noguchi lanterns hang from the ceiling and double-doored mini closets envelop the space. Open one set, you’ll find stacks of neutral-hued chunky knits (a sartorial siren song on this chilly NYC day). But open another, and it’s rows of tweed Chanel jackets. She pulls out one that’s rosy-hued and trimmed in patterned silk, one rendered in orange and gold, then another boasting a pastel yellow hue—with a mini skirt to match. While we swoon over Chanel, Stark opens a low drawer, from which she heaps stacks of turquoise jewelry upon her closet island.
The Chanel jackets came by way of her mother and grandmother's couture taste, the turquoise a product of her godmother Iris Apfel’s eccentricity (Stark Carpet acquired Apfel's company, Old World Weavers, in 1992). Style permeates her family's legacy as well as business acumen; Stark counts herself lucky to have grown up in the familial circle of such individual women. Her grandmother, she muses, was always “dressed to the nines in her Chanel suits.” Very proper. Very put together. Apfel served as grandma's sartorial character foil. “Since I was six years old, [she] was always telling me, ‘Don't listen to everybody. Be who you are going to be. Always accessorize. The bigger, the better. More color.’ She would take me into these design meetings, and she'd be like, ‘Nobody answer. Ashley, what do you like?’" Her mother was a mix of these two sentiments. “Fearless, proper, trendy, into all the styles, but such a strong woman who never really listened to anybody but her own.”
They taught Stark to trust her own sense of style early-on. (Early on, she convinced her father to add more feminine colors to their roster like grey and lavender; grey is now their best-selling hue). That said, she began her Stark journey at the bottom, in distinctly uncreative roles. "It was really important to my father that I learned all aspects of the company," she explains. Despite that more corporate introduction to business, Stark veered the opposite direction when it came to dressing for the office. “My feet were so torn up from the Manolo era,” she laughs, then recounts more seriously, “Where a lot of people were wearing Theory suits, I was in these dresses with lots of jewelry and high boots.” She began to garner attention for her individuality, noting coworkers would often comment on her ensembles. “I realized that fashion could be powerful.”
She’s since transported that personal flair not only to a lead creative role at the company (in addition to founding Ashley Stark home), but to her personal instagram account. Next to shots of her own home, there's images from a cozy Paris project of Véronique Cotrel's or an amazing light fixture in the stairwell of an Amber Lewis home. “When I first started it, it was [essentially] a Pinterest board," she explains. "I do all the designing for Stark. I am constantly looking for inspiration, and it was a way for me to organize my thoughts,” she explains. Suddenly, she had 10,000 followers. Soon, she began to make things a little more personal, inserting herself (and her ensembles) into the conversation. "It's funny, the most DMs I get are about my fashion, what I'm wearing," she muses. "I swear, if I forget to tag something, I get 500 DMs being like, 'Where are those shoes from? Can you link your pants?'" Her coveted OOTD shots translate her interior design ethos to fashion. It's luxe yet approachable; most of the working mother's looks are simply composed of knitwear, tailoring, and denim. So, you can understand why she has over a million followers. "People write me all the time, ‘Came for the interior, stayed for the fashion.’” Shop her closet essentials here.
"I needed to be able to see everything [in my closet]. I'm not very tall, so I can't have too much too high because otherwise, you just wear what's in the middle and not what's on the top. Then, there's actually was a top layer around my closet. That all pops open, and there's more storage all around. I am definitely an odd-number person. One pendant wouldn't have been enough, and I couldn't just do two [Noguchi lanterns], so there's three."
"Currently, [my uniform] definitely my platform shoes, wide leg pants, a belt, a little crop top, some sort of jacket over it, a long coat, and a beanie."
"I'm really into chunky cardigans—long, short, big, cropped, small. It's great to throw on. And blazers. I'm really into layering my clothes."
"Jewelry trays, velvet blind, locked drawer, funky jewelry on the other side, rings in ring holders. I'm not the most organized person, so I had somebody come in and help me organize it to begin with. Then I'm good at sticking with that."
"I tried to keep things that I'm wearing all the time in the mid-range part of my closet. I don't have a lot of time in the morning. I have three kids at three different schools. I'm taking all of my kids to school. I wanted my cardigans, my jeans, everything in its place so that I wasn't mixing dresses, skirts, jeans, and leather pants. Everything has its place."
"[My godmother] Iris [Apfel] is fearless. Since I was six years old, she was always telling me, 'Don't listen to everybody. Be who you are going to be. Always accessorize. The bigger, the better. More color.' She would take me into these design meetings, and she'd be like, 'Nobody answer. Ashley, what do you like?' and really try to cultivate my own style."
"My grandmother would always take me to Stark and show me around. She was always dressed to the nines in her CHANEL suits. Very proper and always put together."
"Those are a style that I bought maybe six years ago. I just noticed that they brought them back, the exact same ones, in a charcoal velvet. I'm glad I held onto them. I love them. I wear them under anything. It's such a fun color but I also wear it as a neutral. I love the heel height, and they're actually comfortable because they've got such a platform."
"I'm drawn to The Row, Khaite, and some of the more simplistic brands, which put out these very chic timeless things. Even though it's expensive, you know in 20 years, it's still going to be relevant. Those are the brands that I've been gravitating towards."
"I definitely love more of a classic seventies Halston, Jackie O, [style]. I love the Lauren Santo Domingo's style. I love just big pants, round glasses, great jackets, lots of textures, not masculine necessarily, but lots of worn leather."
"Oh my God, all my mom's Chanel jackets are irreplaceable. Unaffordable and irreplaceable."
""I'm not short, but I'm on the smaller end, so I'm always in really super high heels. Thank god platforms [are back in style]. My feet were so torn up from the Manolo era when I was working and standing on my feet all day. Now, the platform makes me so happy."
"Something that's really important to me is that my space feels livable. Not a home where my kids are going to run in, touch everything, and I'd be like, 'Oh my God, why are you touching that?' I really like cozy, textural, soft, and feminine [elements], but with a tailored edge. I feel like that's how I dress as well. I want everything to be accessible, but timeless and chic at the same time."
"I'll wear jeans, a white T-shirt, a blazer, and then [statement shoes]. It just adds a little punch to the outfit."
“Fashion is definitely on par with interiors for me. I have always loved it just as much. I think it's very similar to the way I decorate—my interior style. Again, it's very traditional with a hint of trendy, a hint of fun and whimsical-ness. I am surrounded by color all day long and pattern. I love to dress texturally, lots of neutrals, currently loving camels and browns mixed with lots of whites. I just try to keep it timeless and invest in pieces that I know won't go out of style. If I do, I tend to buy the trendier pieces from Zara and mix it in so that I don't get sick of it, and then invest in the pieces that I know will last a lifetime.”
"I always say, 'Anybody can wear a black dress, but it's how you accessorize it.' I feel the same way with the home. Anybody can make a room, but it's the way you put it together, style it, and accessorize that make it what it is. I dress the same way."
"I switch up my jewelry a lot, but I don't switch up this. Somebody was kind enough to send me these personalized bracelets with my kids' names, which are awesome. Anything personal stays on. But I switch my necklaces, my earrings all the time. I always have an ear cuff in. That's my signature style."
"It's funny, I just went through my closet coming up with outfits, and I like found eight of [my mom's] blouses. I'm like, 'I need to wear these.' I took pictures of myself because otherwise everything gets lost; there's too much going on in my life. Black leather pants, a great sling back, or the Prada shoes, and then that cool perfume bottle for a touch of red."
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