Let Christine Gachot Show You How to Do a City-Girl Christmas

4 weeks ago 19

With all due respect to the current TikTok trend of “Ralph Lauren Christmas,” Christine Gachot would like to introduce an alternative festive style—city girl Christmas. If the former comes with patina-ed plaid, tartan, forest greens, and firewood, city girl christmas comes with Laboratorio Paravicini “Zodiaco” plates, dinner out, and takeaway for brunch the next morning that’s served wine from a duck-shaped decanter found at a flea market. A tree, placed next to abstract art, is decorated with John Derian ornaments and minimalist white lights. poinsettias are ditched in favor of amaryllis, peonies, poppies, ranunculus, and magnolia garlands. And—gasp—she even embraces black.

The AD100 interior designer, whose projects include the Shinola Hotel in Detroit and Marc Jacobs’s West Village townhouse, admits that her holiday style “skews NYC unconventional.”As do her traditions: Christmas Eve dinner is chicken satay skewers amid the banana-leaf wallpaper at Indochine, an 1980s downtown mainstay. “The only rule is simple: dress for the room. No one ever disappoints,” she says. This year she’ll be wearing a crimson red Khaite dress—Gachot is a staple attendee at their runway shows—whereas her husband and firm co-founder John will be in head to toe corduroy.

On Christmas Day, they invite thirty or so people over to their Sutton Place apartment for towers of Katz Deli’s pastrami sandwiches and several cocktails. The table is cherry-hued vintage plates and mistletoe hangs overhead. In the corner sits a surprise guest of sorts. “Does the life-size die-cut of Elf sometimes startle unsuspecting guests—especially depending on where Will Ferrell lands that year? Without question,” she says, laughing.

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All across the city, she’s helping clients create edgier holidays. Take one family home downtown, in which she installed three different trees: a ballet-themed one for their young daughter, another covered with silver robots for their son, and one for the whole family, which is dedicated to Santa in the living room. “Cheesy? Not in the least,” she says. “It’s a celebration of a young family savoring a spectacular moment in time.” But the most important thing? “Be authentic,” says Gachot—whether that’s a Ralph Lauren Christmas or city girl Christmas or something else entirely.

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