The Fashion Plate Magazine

Brooklyn today fosters creative communities as never before, and they have cultivated a renegade approach to living—one rooted in broad-minded eclecticism and independence with a rallying ideal: to carve out one’s own niche within the artistic populace environment. Boerum Hill resident Kathleen Hackett, author of Brooklyn Interiors, would frequently come across Brooklyn homes with what she calls a “freestyle, maverick aesthetic.”

“I was seeing so many houses of friends and friends of friends that had fantastic interiors that would never cut it in magazines, because they don’t conform to a set of rules,” Hackett says. “I began to stockpile them in my head.”

This book is not about your typical hedge funder’s Tribeca 10,000 square foot “pied a terre” with Rothkos and Basquiats lining the walls. It’s real people, real apartments, and a sense that these designers and their families pulled these places together with creativity and passion.

All interiors dubbed “Brooklyn” have vintage elements or the effortless look of not trying to be cool while of course being painstakingly cool. Brooklyn Interiors does not make an effort to debunk this idea, but rather to share some examples of actual locals who embrace their space, geography, and flair for the curated home.

Ali, pictured at top in his Crown Heights loft, is a polymath painter originally from Tampa, Fla., by way of Los Angeles. He is perhaps best known for his one-man marketing studio ‘A Noble Savage’. His constantly changing live-work space sports a pyramid of suitcases, old piano parts, exposed brick, paint-splattered floors, and art work.

Brooklyn Interiors  $45.00