Beverly Nguyen featuring the Bembo Dresser

Fashion Stylist and Founder of Beverly’s New York, a Vietnamese specialty and home goods store.

In my Downtown loft, New York City.

The structure is stunning and classic. I love the multiple textures - leather, suede, and the brass handles. The color is rich and has depth. The drawers inside are unstained wood, which is beautiful. I knew it was the one the moment I saw it.

I’m currently using it in my dining room where it provides shelter to my dining linens, candles, hosting objects. There is a Louis Poulsen desk lamp on top that gives off a warm welcome in the evening when coming home from work. I feel like it reminds me of my childhood where you come home from an after-school activity and there’s a warm light on when you walk in.

New York, Hong Kong, Naples, Paris.

I love the speed at which these cities run on. Both fast and slow. They all are quite sexy - in the sense of people, food, architecture and lifestyle - rooted in history, overwhelmed with pride. There’s something about a metropolitan transient business-art-fashion fast paced culture that I Iove and need for my own inspiration. But I am deeply rooted in nature, in the ocean, in heat. It’s very important to be by the water, and even though I live in Manhattan it is sometimes hard to remember that Manhattan is an island. In the summer I go to Italy, and it sounds cliche but when you are on a boat going to Capri, Sardinia and all those islands, you see giant mountain peaks carved out over centuries by the water – it is so ancient and romantic. Which I can also say about all those cities.

I come from a family that fled Vietnam in the 80’s and were very young. My parents escaped and left everything they owned back in their hometowns. Collecting heirlooms isn't a tradition or an attachment I relate to although I understand them. I do cherish memories and try to keep objects around my home that remind me of my family. Aside from that, I have some of my mother’s vintage clothes and my fathers watch from the 90’s.

Isamu Noguchi, Brancusi, Rem Koolhas and Tadao Ando. I grew up in California, and my favorite spots to hang out as a teenager was a fountain that I found out later was by Noguchi, who was Brancusi’s apprentice. When I was living in Los Angeles, I’d visit the Norton Simon Museum where there’s a gorgeous piece by Brancusi I love called Bird in Space, there is a permanent piece from the same collection at the MoMA in New York, I go to see often.
Some people use the word “minimal” to describe these designers, but I hate the word minimal. These are about restraint but also a lot of risk taking that is fearless and I feel that is saying something. One of my philosophies about design, style and life in style is that you either need to be over a wave or under a wave, not stuck in the middle of a wave. These designers convey a larger message which i love: impact, shock in a pleasant way, and a sense of discovery.

On any given day writing letters is very important to me – I spend time writing and collecting stationery. During the pandemic I wrote letters to everyone I knew and mailed them.

The ones I love. I’m in the process of opening a store and it’s taken a lot of personal time to create.

I think it’s so valuable to make things by hand to see the beauty and strength of our bodies- the capabilities to create is really a beautiful and natural thing to be able to do.

Sexy and confident.

A lighting fixture of some sort I suppose. It’s functional and serves a purpose but also a necessity. If you go into someone’s home and they don’t have good lighting or own books, it’s a red flag. Do not engage.

The Beverly. Because it is sexy, with a strong, classic structure.