THE SIMPLE LIFE

IN TUSCANY, CROSBY STUDIOS' HARRY NURIEV AND TYLER BILLINGER HAVE TURNED A 17TH-CENTURY FARMHOUSE INTO A FABULOUSLY FREAKY AGRARIAN FANTASIA

- HANNAH MARTIN

NESTLED ON A 130-ACRE PROPERTY outside of Roccalbegna, a medieval Tuscan village sandwiched between rocky cliffs, an old stone house looks like something out of a dream. “It’s almost like a postcard picture,” says designer Harry Nuriev, who has redesigned the place as a family home for himself, his partner, Tyler Billinger, and Tyler’s parents. Inside, well, that’s another story. “We wanted to give it a twist—the Crosby touch,” he says with his shy smile.

For Nuriev, the Russian talent behind Crosby Studios, such aesthetic tropes are an invitation. Since he entered the spotlight in 2016, he has stuffed a sofa with Balenciaga castoffs, made collectible furniture covered in denim, realized a carved wood credenza shaped like an office printer, and stitched boxer briefs into a bedcover. People love it or they hate it. But either way, it hums with a sense of right now. Nuriev, who moves quickly and finds like-minded collaborators in the fashion world, says simply, “I get bored.”

Unsatisfied with most descriptions of his work, Nuriev came up with his own term: transformism. “We live in an era of infinite data,” he explains. “Everything has already been explored. Now, instead of trying to innovate, we are repurposing and reevaluating the things around us.” Alongside Billinger, his partner and the CMO of Crosby Studios, Nuriev has taken on one of their most ambitious transformations yet: the Tuscan villa.