Levi Shaw-Faber and Audrey Hughes were tasked with the opportunity of a lifetime for their debut project ahead of the launch of their new architectural studio, Faber/Hughes: a complete office revamp for the Marc Jacobs International Headquarters.
But the design duo wasn’t too fazed by the pressure of having one of the world’s top fashion designers as their first client. From the start, there was a lot of trust from the Marc Jacobs team thanks to the duo’s well-padded resume from both ends of the design spectrum—Shaw-Faber comes in with immense furniture experience as the cofounder of Wiggle Room, while Hughes has large-scale architectural experience from her time formerly at SHoP Architects.
“Marc came to us because of our experience in multiple scales,” Shaw-Faber explains. “They needed a firm that could not just handle the architectural design of an office space but also do small tasks with furniture. We’re a firm that can do both.”
When the two first visited the industrial loft on Spring Street, it was filled to the brim with clutter, years of fabric samples, and rolling racks from past collections. “There wasn’t much organization on the floor before we got involved,” Hughes tells AD. “So, we wanted to create designated workspaces and collaborative spaces that flowed more organically throughout the office, taking things like lighting, personal preferences, and rental constraints into consideration.”
With only eight months (and 8,000 square feet to work with), the Faber/Hughes team transformed the cluttered headquarters into an inviting workspace. Lighter, softer, slightly organic elements complement the streamlined, colder steel storage system. An effortless mix of new, vintage, and personalized pieces was sprinkled throughout to elevate the neutral space—think custom monogram rugs and custom-designed tables and chairs. Fashion books, fresh florals, and Marc Jacobs hero items (Kiki Boots and neon graffiti-painted handbags) playfully add pops of color and personality. The end result is quintessentially New York, very Marc Jacobs, and capital-F fashion to a T.
