A young designer spreads her wings
Photographs by Jonathan Pasquarella.
Alexandra DelBello has always been passionate about interior design.
“I”™ve just always loved making a space feel homey,” says the former WAG contributor, granddaughter of publisher Dee DelBello. “Even when I was a kid, I couldn”™t do my homework unless the room felt nice enough to do it, and I”™m still like that. My parents let me repaint my room whenever I wanted or move things around.”
For DelBello, interior design and, more broadly the world of art, led her to the Parsons School of Design ”” The New School in Manhattan, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2020.
“I was worried about pursuing art,” she says. “I guess there”™s always that kind of cliché of starving artists. But I transferred from a different school into Parsons, just finally realizing no, this is what I have to do.” And while she did not necessarily study interior design during class, her time at Parsons allowed her to develop her own style.
Outside of class, DelBello immersed herself in the world of interior design at Interiors/ EDB Design Studio, helping to create murals. It was through her time at EDB (2018-20) that DelBello connected with Lawson Taylor of Lawson Taylor Interiors, also located in New York City. Over the last two years, DelBello worked with that studio, first as a design assistant and later as a project manager. These experiences allowed her to learn “all the ins and outs of the industry. I learned as much as I could and became super fluent in all of what interior design entails,” DelBello says.
“Pond” and
“Leaf” rugs.
Now DelBello has gone out on her own with the goal of building her clientele. Her most recent project involved interior design for Chicken & The Egg, a chicken restaurant and speakeasy in Manhattan. For the speakeasy portion, DelBello says, “the theme here was classic, chic speakeasy, the way you”™d imagine it, but throwing on (graffiti artist Jean-Michel) Basquiat influences. So adding Basquiat in there is essentially saying ”˜eff you”™ to these fancy, exclusive speakeasies that no one can get into. We want to be inclusive and fun.”
The project reflects DelBello”™s desire to experiment while also keeping clients satisfied with the results, leading to good word of mouth. In addition, she produces handmade rugs through her Queens-based business, allybello, whose website has recently launched. Her creations include “Dewdrop,” which is made of Peruvian highland wool and comes in either moss or blossom patterns. The rug is “inspired by the reflections of sunshine created on a wet spring morning.”
DelBello is also seeking to boost her brand by designing for Fayette Studio, a custom rug company in Greenwich, which will sell her rugs under her name. Through Fayette, her designs “can be produced in any size, either wool or silk or any fiber and also any color,” she says. “That”™s really exciting because it”™s kind of like my design can be customized by other designers and used in whatever way they want to.”
In time, DelBello hopes to offer custom furniture and lighting. The market has seen a shift toward custom furniture, she says, partly a result of massive delays in deliveries of premade furniture in the early days of the pandemic, which persist. Prices have also made clients reconsider how they approach furniture. “Ironically, it”™s not even that much more expensive to go custom,” DelBello says of bespoke furniture in today”™s market. “Now it”™s almost comparable, because so many of these companies have increased their pricing for ready-made stuff. So it”™s almost not even worth it.”
For more, visit allybello.com.