in the mood

Alluding to movies, music, and design marvels of the recent past, Darren Jett injects a classic Manhattan loft with some serious sex appeal

- SAM COCHRAN

AT A MANHATTAN LOFT BY DARREN JETT, SLIDING GLASS PARTITIONS SEPARATE THE LIVING AND SLEEPING AREAS, THE LATTER OF WHICH JETT OUTFITTED WITH A CUSTOM BED AND SIDE TABLES THAT HE INTEGRATED INTO THE CARPETING; PENDANTS BY INGO MAURER AND MIRROR BY ZIETA STUDIO.

Too woo their clients, decorators regularly come equipped with fabric swatches, tile samples, and other tactile hints at rooms to come. Darren Jett goes for an even more full-sensory experience. As part of his presentations, the designer prepares a soundtrack that embodies not only the interiors he's envisioning but also the lifestyle he hopes unfolds there. In the case of the Manhattan loft that he recently renovated for finance executive Christopher Chiou, that playlist included disco hits, underground dance tracks, and George Michael classics—songs that capture urbane gay abandon. “Every project should feel like a movie,” Jett reflects. “This character felt close to my world. I knew his plot.”

Chiou bought the apartment, a classic SoHo artist’s loft, in 2021, amid the city’s pandemic real estate slump. At the time, he had been back on the East Coast for only a few years after 17 in San Francisco, where he rode the boom-and-bust cycles of the tech industry. But New York quickly settled into home for the New Jersey native. And so, following stints renting in Chelsea and the West Village, he decided to lay proper roots, visiting a listing that had languished on the market. “Immediately it felt like something different,” he recalls of the open and untouched space, which had undergone only ad hoc renovations over the decades. “I saw the potential to do something special.”