Invite Envy

WITH NEW HOME LINES, LAUREN SANTO DOMINGO GIVES US ALL A SEAT AT HER TABLE.

- Erik Maza

Lauren Santo Domingo was standing in front of a series of priceless Italian Renaissance paintings in Venice last summer when she had an epiphany. The 18th-century floor under her feet needed to be made into place mats.

She was in the hall in the Gallerie dell’Accademia dedicated to the display of the Legend of Saint Ursula, nine large canvases portraying the story of a martyred maiden, and she was captivated by the patterns beneath her. Wouldn’t they be great for table dressing?

“They were so beautiful that I immediately sent them to Los Encajeros”—the Bilbao lacemakers favored by royals and socialites—“and said, ‘Hey, could you possibly make these?’ One oval, two round patterns.” Los Encajeros were all too happy to oblige, as most people are when they get a call from the patron saint of young New York society.

“My impulse is always to source and then share,” Santo Domingo says, draped on the emerald Vladimir Kagan–style sofa in the foyer of that holy site of New York retail, the Moda Operandi Madison showroom on East 64th Street. “I’m just the type of person that, if I like something, whether it’s a new designer or a new dermatologist, I want to tell everyone. And in the same way that I love discovering new fashion designers, I love scouting new textiles, ceramics, porcelain, linens—you name it.”