Meet the 2024 FREDERIC It List Award Winners

Our second annual FREDERIC It List celebreates the work of 12 on-the-rise designers who embody a new generation of style trailblazers. As fluent in historic references as they are unbound by tradition, these global talents bring a fresh new perspective to the world of decorating—and we can’t wait to see it flourish.

ARMANDO AGUIRRE
NEW YORK

A music composition major in college, Armando Aguirre now orchestrates careful symphonies of midcentury and modern furniture, quiet-but-never-dull neutrals, and softly luxurious fabrics. “I like to think of spatial plans that aren’t necessarily obvious—not different for the sake of being different, but layouts that make creative use of the space,” says the Texas-born designer, who trained under Andre Mellone. Next up: Collaborating with an architect friend on an apartment across from MoMA.

WHAT’S the best design advice you’ve received? Someone once told me, “If you have $100 to spend on drapery, spend $15 on fabric and $85 on fabrication.” The essence being: In the right hands, nearly any material can be made to look custom and expensive.

What inspires you? I’m very inspired by design in film and TV. Watching stories play out in gorgeous environments makes me want to create my own.

I’m known for my: Love of wood blinds.

JOHN BAMBICK
NEW YORK

“I believe there should be a reason behind every design decision, not simply because something is available or pretty,” muses John Bambick. “That was a big takeaway from art school—looking at things with a critical eye.” Whether it’s a sleek SoHo apartment or a seaside California retreat, he approaches each project with an editor’s restraint, ensuring harmony between every detail from upholstery to hardware. “As long as the result is functional and comfortable, I think the ends typically justify the means.”

What do you collect and why? My husband and I began collecting art when we moved to New York in 2019. We’re no Agnes Gund, but we initially started buying from young artists who were in art school, as well as a variety of auctions, then started making relationships with a few galleries in New York. I also love collecting art and design books—Dashwood is one of my favorite shops in New York.

Where do you go for inspiration? Paris. It’s hard not to feel energized exploring Paul Bert Serpette or spending an afternoon walking through the galleries in the 6th Arrondissement.

How do you define luxury? Luxury to me is comfort paired with beauty and craft. A room that hits all the right notes—comfortable upholstery in natural textiles, interesting vintage pieces, and a place to set a drink within arm’s reach. Thoughtful details play a big role in how I think of luxury.

REILLY TOWNSEND DINZEBACH
NEW YORK

Hours spent perusing china patterns at her grandparents’ gift shop in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, steeped Reilly Townsend Dinzebach in beauty from a young age. Whether designing a SoHo loft or a Spanish Mediterranean house in Sea Island, Georgia, her Southern roots shine through in her deft hand with elegant wallpaper, antiques, and luscious color. Mentored by Jessica Schuster and an alumna of such distinguished firms as Redd Kaihoi and Katie Ridder, she says, “I’ll design an entire room in my head around a great antique before I’ve even purchased it.”

What’s a design rule you like to break? I don’t think things need to match perfectly, I think it’s much stronger if they don’t. Metals, wood finishes, shades of green throughout a room… I think this adds to the feeling that things have been collected over time.

Where do you go for inspiration? Books—particularly my grandparents’ collection of coffee table books. They had a bit of everything in their collection—books about artists they loved, design, flowers, the history of ceramics…. The best is finding pages they tagged with a torn piece of paper.

What’s the last thing you bought for your home? I just bought a pair of vintage silk ikat lampshades I had been eyeing for a while. A unique shade is a design opportunity not to be missed. 

NICK GAGNE
NEW YORK & PORTLAND, MAINE

Alongside a pedigreed design education at RISD and the firms of David Easton, Victoria Hagan, and Miles Redd, Nick Gagne’s Maine-bred practicality beams through his work, whether that’s a midcentury-inflected Chelsea apartment or a quiet coastal house in New England. His definition of luxury—“serenity, balance, and comfort”—is accordingly down-to-earth. “I don’t think it has anything to do with extravagance,” says the designer. “Luxury can be a beautiful view you wake up to every morning.”

What do you collect and why? I am oddly drawn to art and things shaped like fish—it’s probably the Mainer in me. I have to refrain from compulsive buying when I see fish dishes, sculptures, paintings, or prints because my collection is getting a little out of hand.

What’s your design mantra? Balance the opulent with the refined. Contrast is essential in achieving harmony in the composition.

What’s a design rule you like to break? I don’t shy away from using materials that age and develop a patina over time—not everything needs to maintain a new appearance indefinitely. Having a marble countertop that shows its years of use can be really chic and elegant. It reminds me of the well-worn kitchens and pantries of great old estates.

MAGGIE GETZ
CHICAGO

Growing up on the North Shore of Chicago, Maggie Getz was enthralled with her grandparents’ house: “It was like nothing you’d seen before in a traditional brick Lake Forest home—batik sofas, chairs upholstered in Oriental rugs, every inch covered in wallpaper.” Today, the designer—who describes her own style as “hippie-grandma chic”—is especially fond of decorating second homes, where clients are more “fearless” about using pattern and color. As she puts it, “Life is too short to live in beige.”

How did you get your start in design? While in design school, I was an intern at Anthropologie creating their visual displays. I really believe that helped with my ability to draw someone into a vignette with visual interest—whether it’s a store window or a living room.

What do you collect and why? Brass elephants and small antique books. The elephant collection started from my grandmother. My mom collected antique books. Old books have a certain life to them—the tea-stained pages suggesting that many people before you lovingly turned these pages. Feels a little like time travel.

WHAT’S the best design advice you’ve received? Summer Thornton once said something along the lines of “if you are feeling a little nervous about the design, we are usually headed in the right direction.” I have found those words to be so true.

KRISTIN ELLEN HOCKMAN
CHARLESTON

A sense of nostalgia permeates the designs of Kristin Ellen Hockman, whose treasured collections of Royal Copenhagen china and Gustavian antiques are among the prized possessions that fill her own 19th-century Greek Revival home outside of Charleston. But don’t call her old-fashioned: A thoroughly modern sense of ease and open-eyed awareness of her region’s heritage make Hockman an exemplar of a new type of Southern tastemaker, one that deploys heirloom antiques with the restraint of a Scandinavian minimalist. “To me, beauty lies in the imperfections,” Hockman says. “Nothing should ever be too precious.”

Where do you go for inspiration? The things I hold near and dear to me: the simplicity of my late grandmother’s bedroom where the scent of the pine trees would waft through the windows, the peachy hue of my daughter’s rosy cheeks (which inspired our living room paint color), the patterns and colors of my childhood home.

How do you define luxury? Being surrounded by what brings you joy. For some that may mean a gorgeous estate full of exquisite art and antiques but for others that may mean a cozy cottage with a little garden and sentimental family heirlooms.

What’s your dream project? An old cottage by the water that feels incredibly nostalgic like summer camp!

ABIGAIL M. HORACE
CONNECTICUT

When Abigail M. Horace visits the home of a new client, she invariably finds herself drawn to the library. “A book collection can tell you a lot about a person,” says the founder of Casa Marcelo Interior Design Studio. “It’s one of the first things I look for.” Accordingly, each one of her projects—a historic house in Tarrytown filled with Arts and Crafts motifs, a Brooklyn apartment steeped in painterly color—tells its own deeply personal story: “I like the challenge of ‘getting’ my clients and designing a space that feels intuitive and authentic. I want them to feel embraced.”

How did you get into interior design? My father was a hobbyist photographer and electrician by trade. Each weekend, we would visit a New York City landmark to photograph. It was a very fun childhood; he was passionate about New York architecture.

What’s your design mantra? Your home should be an oasis you don’t want to escape from. Self-care can also be in the form of interior design, in the space where you spend the most time.

What’s your dream project? An island home or a boutique hotel. I know how I like to be pampered when I’m traveling and would love to create that experience for others!

ANU JAIN
SAN FRANCISCO

In 2022, when Anu Jain made the decision to leave the tech world for a full-time career in design, it was under the banner of Atelier Oleana— the Greek word for “moonlight.” That luminous quality shines in her work, a blend of ethereal and moody hues, sleek surfaces and soft textures, and a range of Eastern and Western influences. “Someone who reached out to me on Instagram once described my aesthetic as ‘sophisticated romanticism, simultaneously contemporary and timeless,’” recalls Jain. “I couldn’t have articulated it any better!”

What do you collect and why? Fine glassware and porcelain. I have a bit of Italian grandma energy that way, but I have always enjoyed hosting and I love a beautifully laid table—linens, glassware, hand-painted plates, candlesticks. I love it all—in fact I think I was 11 when I started collecting jasperware. Always love a good Wedgwood piece!

What’s your design mantra? My style can be described as comfortable luxury. One of my heroes, Karl Lagerfeld, said, “Luxury is the ease of a t-shirt in a very expensive dress.” I truly believe that at my core.

WHat’s the best career advice you’ve received? “Get uncomfortable.” Whether it was moving to a new country 7,000 miles away at the tender age of 17 or leaving a very well-paying tech job to start my own design firm, I have become comfortable being uncomfortable and it is the best advice I can give to anyone.

KATE IVES MARSHALL
NEW YORK

Early in her career, Kate Ives Marshall received an invaluable pearl of wisdom: “Someone told me, ‘Make a decision, and move on.’ There are infinite great options for most things—and as long as you have a clear end vision, each choice will inform the next.” That decisiveness has helped her hone an expertly restrained take on traditionalism: clean-lined upholstery with tailored skirts, painted floors à la Bunny Mellon, canopied beds that are more serene than fussy. “I want my spaces to feel complete, but not overdecorated,” Marshall says. “I like the idea that my clients will continue to add to them over time.”

What’s a design rule you like to break? Using traditionally outdoor pieces indoors—I love mixing in wicker, stone planters, iron tables, etc.

Where do you go for inspiration? Travel and constantly referencing my grandmother’s extensive collection of archived design magazines.

What’s the last thing you bought for your home? Table silver at auction.

PAUL DU PRÉ DE SAINT MAUR
PARIS

A deep reverence for history permeates the work of Paul du Pré de Saint Maur. “I have been told that my work can come off as ‘pared-down Renaissance,’ which I find very flattering,” says the Parisian designer, who studied architecture before training as a designer under Pierre Yovanovitch. With influences ranging from Mongiardino to Lutyens to the 16th-century Italian sculptor Jacopo Sansovino, his work—including the boutique of Parisian parfumeur Bienaimé 1935 and a farmhouse in Burgundy—has made waves across the design world, and he’s only just getting started.

Where do you go for inspiration? Religious buildings. I find them so powerful and moving that they always trigger something in me, even when I am not so fond of their decoration.

WHAT’S the best career advice you’ve received? Don’t be afraid of trying and making mistakes. I think it is a profession where people always expect us to deliver perfection, but first of all, it is impossible, and second, it takes time to learn and anticipate everything. Also, most of the mistakes are corrected by the craftsmen you work with if you’re open to the dialogue and cultivate a good relationship with them.

What’s the last thing you bought for your home? A brass and chrome chess game. I am still terrible at it but hopefully when this is published I will be slightly better.

FORREST WALTERHOEFER
MIAMI & NEW YORK

“I want my designs to make my clients feel the same way I feel in my own home: calm, confident, and sexy,” says Forrest Walterhoefer, who cut his teeth at the firms of Mark Cunningham and Bradley Stephens before going solo last year. His masculine, tailored interiors—think pared-down palettes, graphic artworks, and rare European midcentury furniture—combine New York sophistication with Miami modernism, a nod to the cities between which he splits his time. “I find beauty in the simplest forms,” he adds. “To me, luxury is timelessness.”

What do you collect and why? Chairs! There’s something about a beautiful chair that I can’t resist. You can always find room for one more.

What’s your desiGN mantra? “Buy less, choose well” – Vivienne Westwood

What inspires you? European midcentury design. I’m also very passionate about music and find the most inspiration from music of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

What’s a design rule you like to break? Rules? What rules?

ISABELLA WORSLEY
LONDON

A disciple of Kit Kemp, Isabella Worsley is no stranger to the world of high-stakes hospitality design. Her first solo project, a hotel in Derbyshire, involved a full refurbishment of a Grade II-listed Victorian manor house (each of the 15 guest rooms is one-of-a-kind) and the construction of 13 treehouse-style cabins. “It was certainly a baptism by fire,” says Worsley. Since then, she’s lent her expertise to a bevy of spaces both commercial and residential, and last fall, debuted her own fabric and wallpaper line inspired by Italianate block prints.

What’s your design mantra? Don’t underestimate good manners and a sense of humor—they go a long way on building projects.

What’s a design rule you like to break? Perfection! Every room needs something to throw it a little “off.” It is the unexpected elements that give joy and character to a room.

What’s the last thing you bought for your home? I lugged a very heavy urn back from a recent trip to Marrakech and have since made it into a lamp—I love that it has a memory attached to it.

THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 14 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!