Take a Tour of Jenna Lyons s Treasure-Filled SoHo Apartment

It s probably one of my most prized possessions

and I might bury myself in it.

[calm music]

I m Jenna Lyons and we re in my house

and we re gonna go through some of my objects of affection.

You ve probably been here before. If you haven t, welcome.

[cheerful music]

I think this entire apartment was the first time in my life

that I got to do exactly what I wanted.

I d always had some restrictions.

I d always sort of been working with constraints,

whether it be my job or even my own personal situation.

And yeah, I wanted something special.

I wanted this to be like my apartment apartment.

Not my, like, transitional apartment,

but, like, my apartment.

And so I kind of went for it.

[lively music]

Okay, this is, [dog barking]

this is something I d really never seen before.

It is a braille Playboy.

And I can obviously see, but I think it s pretty remarkable.

The stories in Playboy used to be so good

that they would actually have them translated into Braille

so that people could read the stories.

You know, they had people like Truman Capote

writing for Playboy, which I think is pretty interesting.

It is a big topic of conversation.

Everyone who comes over picks it up

and it s by far one of my favorite gifts.

[mischievous music]

This little guy is another one of my favorite things.

This is a gift that I got from my team

when I was at J. Crew probably, I don t know, 10 years ago.

It s a crown of J s.

Like, who doesn t need their own crown of J s?

These are also a special kind of sequin

that you can t really find anymore.

And then they ve been sort of patina-ed, my favorite thing.

[dog growling] [Jenna laughing]

Someone thinks there s a bone in the bed,

which I don t think there is.

Anyway, I m really into this thing. I do love it.

And I like the fact that it has little tears hanging down.

[refined music] Next was a big one.

I don t know if she needs an introduction.

She s had a lot of exposure.

It was my first time going to the Met Ball

and I was very excited.

I left feathers all the way down the red carpet,

which I feel badly for all the interns

who are picking them up.

But I also wore it to Solange Knowles s wedding.

And as I was walking into the church,

she asked everyone to wear white,

I normally would not wear white to a wedding.

As I was walking into the church

there was a paparazzi who snapped my picture.

And that picture has been seen across the world.

I think that picture is more popular than I am.

Anyway, it s all hand beaded and hand embroidered

by a company called Shameza, they did all

the embroidery and beading for Oscar de la Renta

and they ve worked with Chanel.

It s some of the most delicate

and fine beading you ve ever seen.

A lot of people have asked me if they can buy it

or rent it for their wedding, to which I always say no.

It s probably one of my most prized possessions

and I might bury myself in it.

[calm music]

Okay, so this is one of my prized possessions.

This is a sculpture my son Beckett made for me

when he was four and I don t know why

I love it so much, but I do.

Here is a quarter on the bottom.

And he glued a light bulb and a bunch of staples

and a little toothbrush holder and a screw all together.

And, like, it just makes me happy.

It reminds me of, like, an Arte Povera thing.

I m super into it. It s one of my favorite things.

It s come with me through every move to every apartment.

And one of my other favorite things that s on this wall.

This is the Polaroid that Annie Leibovitz signed

and gave to me in, oh, kind of dusty, [laughs] in 2005.

And I know that because I had just found out

that I was pregnant with Beckett.

I was in Vogue, I was in the Shape issue.

So I was the tall girl and Annie Leibovitz

shot me in my office and she signed the Polaroid

and I have a print that she sent me as well.

So another sort of surprise piece,

this is from my senior project.

I went to Parsons. And Donna Karan was my critic.

And I was making this duchess satin jacket

and she said to me at our critique,

Can you make it down felt? [laughs]

And I don t know if I can explain, I was,

you know, 19, I had no money.

So I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond

and I bought a comforter and then I double stitched it

and pulled all the feathers out in between.

And this is the end result. [laughs]

I just found this in my mom s house recently.

And look it. It still fits. [laughs]

Can you believe I made this thing?

The one fail, I couldn t do pockets. I just didn t do it.

[cheerful music]

I saw this when I was in Paris.

It was in a little tiny vintage store

and I fell in love with it.

What I didn t realize at the time

was the gentleman who owned the store had really never

shipped anything of this scale and this weight,

it weighs, like, 800 pounds, to the United States.

And so I purchased it and my office assistants,

Kate and Nicole, repeatedly called it the turd lamp

because it took literally 17 months to arrive.

So instead of calling it the bird lamp

it became known as the turd lamp. [laughs]

I think it s unexpected.

Like, you think this thing to be really delicate

particularly because it is a bird and then you pick it up

and it s, like, the weight of a hippopotamus.

And I think that juxtaposition is kind of great.

I also love the casualness of the way

the cord isn t necessarily strung through the center.

It s just kind of dangling on the side of it.

And I love a cord.

I m not a big fan of hiding every single thing.

I like knowing how it turns on. Makes me happy.

[refined music]

Okay, this is one of my prized possessions.

This is a French, I believe it s called an empire table.

It s got a French polish on it, which I think is unique.

Also hard to [laughs] find somebody to fix,

cause I ve gotten a few stains on it along the way.

My son and I sit here and have breakfast very frequently,

always with candles, even in the morning.

And I dunno, it s just one of my favorite things.

And I love the way it feels under your skin.

It doesn t, it s got a polish, but it s not

that lacquered finish that I think you see so often

in furniture in the United States.

[happy music]

Legs on a sink are sort of under exposed,

like, no one designs them beautifully.

If you look at what s available in the market

they all look the same.

Of course I went a little over the top. [laughs]

But I do think it s an area that kind of

hasn t really been vetted in terms of design

and has more legs, no pun intended.

All of these little details were actually in the drawing.

And then after it was installed I took a spray bottle

with salt water, like, literally salt water from the ocean

and sprayed it so it got this soft patina.

You, literally anything like lacquered brass with my faucets

or anything, any metal, if you just spray

saltwater from the ocean, if you mix Epsom salt

it s a different thing but if you use ocean saltwater,

it turns in, like, 24 hours.

And here I did the test of the patina

to see what would happen. [cheerful music]

So now you ve seen all of my objects of affection

and there s the door, bye.