Rita Chraibi and Ed Westwick
Picture this: It’s mid-November at dusk and you’re ushered into a residential tower in Manhattan blocks from Central Park. A grand piano catches your eye in the lobby along with Art Deco details. You make your way to the elevator, which climbs and climbs, opening into Residence 69—a showpiece apartment designed by Rita Chraibi within the 111 West 57th Street Tower. There’s floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the park, velvet furnishings, surfaces coated in marble with flecks of gold, and intimate details that nod to Chraibi’s French-Moroccan heritage. There’s also champagne to celebrate Chraibi’s Only Once concept, which reflects the designer’s client-centric approach to creating singular, wildly original spaces. And there’s Ed Westwick, a man whose role as Chuck Bass on the hit show Gossip Girl is indefinitely linked to Manhattan luxury.
But Chraibi prefers to assign her work more intuitive terms, straying from “luxury” as a descriptor. “I don’t like this word; luxury for me is a very sensitive word,” she says, cautioning that much more goes into a design than having the means to afford high-end materials. “I love to use words like authenticity, passion, and heart instead.” Heart is evident throughout Residence 69, which features an array of marble including Calacatta Gold Oro, Copacabana, and Saint Laurent, along with brass accents and bespoke millwork. Plush fabrics, selected in collaboration with Dedar, adorn custom furnishings, creating a rich tapestry of textures. “I attract, since the last four years, a very special clientele who requests from me and my team very unique designs… things that can never be repeated,” offers Chraibi, who founded her firm International Designers by Rita Chraibi in 2001.
The dining table is made from Calacatta Gold Oro marble.
Westwick, who recently announced that he and his wife, Amy Jackson, are expecting their first child, counts himself among such clients and is currently collaborating with Chraibi on his home nursery outside of London. “We need to have our individuality, we need to have expression and with Rita’s work that’s what you get—you get something really, really specific and tailored and I think that’s quite magical,” shares Westwick. “I knew we’d be able to connect on a very artistic level together.”
Chraibi’s designs are so specialized that, often, she cannot share them publicly due to confidentiality agreements, which led her to create a showpiece residence that speaks to her Only Once ethos at the 111 West 57th Street Tower, with encouragement from the building’s developer. “I wanted to launch Only Once to show we can do things that are really authentic,” says Chraibi. The residence includes hand-selected art from Galleria Ca d’Or featuring works by Lorenzo Perrone, Melissa Herrington, Giorgio Tentolini, and Jorge Wellesley, which further weaves the building’s past with its present.
As for Westwick’s nursery, Chraibi—a proud mother of three herself—hinted at the concept. “It’s very French,” she said of the design, noting the influence of Joie De Vivre and Toile. But as excited as Westwick is to see the finished room, he’s even more eager to become a father. “I can’t wait, honestly,” he says. Neither, it seems, can Chraibi who gushed about the joys of parenthood—and great design—throughout the evening, celebrating Only Once in style.
Rita Chraibi and Ed Westwick at the Only Once event at Residence 69 in Manhattan.
A pair of bespoke chairs with brass details.
Custom sofas are upholstered in blue velvet from Dedar.
Each room features a distinct style, reflecting Chraibi’s French-Moroccan heritage.
Design details surprise from all angles, creating a visual statement in the sitting area in the main bedroom.
Robert Markell sketches, sourced from Shelter Island, New York, adorn the wall in the dressing area.
In the living room, a cozy corner seat is upholstered in Dedar fabric.
The living room includes a bar with floor-to-ceiling windows offering Central Park views.