In case you didn’t know, interiors porn is our thing and at this point, scrolling through Pinterest for our latest fix has become quite the occupational hazard. What really gets us excited though is when we get to experience the whole interiors inspo thing IRL. But you know what really top it off? When said source happens to be the NoHo condo of our friend, Miss Guatemala-turned-designer Alida Boer. Yup. Doesn’t get much better than that. Until, you know, she gives you free reign to rummage through every room and camp out in her wardrobe.
For the uninitiated, NoHo was once the forgotten stepsister to SoHo (despite the fact that they both have the same cast-iron-style architecture). Today though, NoHo, and Alida’s spot on Bond Street in particular, has turned into quite the hotspot. Case in point: Ian Schrager, the man behind Studio 54 and the Edition Hotels, designed an apartment a few buildings down from her and over the past few years the two-block street is now home to top artists, Wall Street execs with graffiti-splattered doorways and chic boutiques and restaurants thrown in the mix too.
“I was traveling back and forth between New York and Guatemala when I was modelling which made it difficult to find my own place, but I loved Bond Street. The location is amazing and the fact the apartment is spacious and has lots of natural light made me fall in with it,” she says. “The place was already furnished when I moved in but I bought lots of new décor pieces to make it feel like home. Whether you’ve moved into a place that’s already complete or are renting and aren’t allowed to change a lot, it’s important to have little accents that make a place feel like home. From blanked and pillows to the towels and soaps in the bathroom, it’s those little details that make your home special.”
As you can imagine, beautiful portraits of her decorate the walls and her wardrobe is brimming with the likes of 3.1. Phillip Lim and Stella McCartney but it’s her bags, which we found dotted throughout the house, that really sit front and center. “As a model I was very involved in the fashion industry from a young age. I was always traveling and checking in on the trends and was always inspired seeing all of the textiles in Guatemala. It’s one of the largest sources of textiles in Latin America,” she tells us, “and has the biggest variation of techniques so I saw the opportunity to fuse this cultural heritage with the world of high fashion. That’s ultimately how Maria’s Bags was created.”
Take a look up close and each piece is like a work of art and takes local craftswomen several days to complete. “I always knew I wanted to be my own boss; the owner of my time and my ideas. Modeling was great when I was younger because it was flexible and I learned a lot but now as a new mother, I love being able to do something I love and have the opportunity to spend more time with my baby.” Doesn’t get better than that.
