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Creative couple Yolanda Edwards and Matt Hranek want to make something very clear: Print is not dead. After working in the industry for years (she as a travel editor, he as a freelance photographer), the media buffs launched their own magazines, WM Brown and YOLO Journal, to resounding success (together they have hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers). These days, though, with their normal expeditions to far-flung cities like Santiago and Milan put on pause, the dynamic duo is learning to see beauty in their permanent surroundings. “There’s still a lot of things to find without having to be in a flea market in Milan or Paris or Zurich,” notes Hranek. “We’ve always been big fans of discovering things in our own backyard, and now there’s even more opportunity to do that.”
Between curating Bloomingdale’s Find Your Happy Place carousel with products from makers and designers they’ve met around the world and discovering treasures on their Stateside adventures (road trips are a must, they say), the pair found a moment to sit down with Domino’s editor-in-chief, Jessica Romm Perez, on this week’s episode of Design Time (out today on Spotify and Apple Podcasts). At the end of the conversation, Edwards and Hranek shared the things, places, and people inspiring them right now. Read on for their recs.
Design Heroes
“In the modern vernacular, we’ve become good friends with Luis Laplace. He is a powerhouse of talent in the most unpretentious, thoughtful way. I really admire his work.” —Matt “Fornasetti.” —YolandaGo-To Colors
“I like brown cars, brown motorcycles, brown sweaters, brown cashmere throws. I think brown is the most understated, underused color.” —Matt “I love navy and gray. And in a house, I like accents of red.” —YolandaMaterial of the Moment
“I love wools and knotty, nubbly tweeds. As much as I love a cashmere sweater, I think I’m most excited by a kind of aggressive, woolly, tweedy something.” —Matt “I would say toile.” —Yolanda
Restaurants We Crave
“My favorite restaurant in the world closed: Prime Meats [from Frankies Spuntino Group]. It was like old-school Italian meets classic New York steakhouse, which is a winning combination for me. So now I have to go navigate three restaurants to get what was once just under one roof.” —Matt “A restaurant that I love so much is Verjus in San Francisco. The vibe there references all your favorite places that you’ve been to around the world. From the design to the food, it’s just so clever.” —Yolanda
Hotel Hitmakers
“I want to get back to any hotel in Italy. I don’t care which one, just any hotel in Italy.” —Matt “I just miss being in hotels. I know that’s very vague, but I love too many too much.” —Yolanda
Dream Destinations
“I miss Milan a lot. I have a long history with Milan, and I just love it there. I love the food; I love the architecture. I know it’s not as historically referenced as Florence, but I just like Milan a lot.” —Matt “I want to go back to Paris.” —Yolanda
Designers We Can’t Stop Buying
“I love Hans Wegner. We have more Wegner-designed furniture in our life than anything. I think it’s beautiful, elegant, great material. And when you stare at it long enough, you start seeing the design nuance in it, which is nice to find.” —Matt “I would say Thonet. We are constantly picking up Thonet pieces wherever we can. Mostly in Europe, where you can still get it for a song.” —YolandaMust-Reads
“I have a lot of old architectural interior design books, and I love going back and looking through those Terence Conran books. It’s unconventional, but Bruce Weber’s A House Is Not a Home is such an amazing window into a world that none of us will ever have access to.” —Matt “Alex Eagle did a book that just came out called More Than Just a House. It’s lovely. It’s all these people whom you’ve not necessarily heard of. It’s what happens when people who are not totally immersed in the design world find things they like, which feels like a fresh approach.” —Yolanda
Most Iconic Spaces
“When we were able to go to restaurants, there was something so elegant and special about walking into the Four Seasons’s restaurant. To walk into that Mies van der Rohe–designed building and then be surrounded by those rosewood interiors—I find it incredibly inspiring.” —Matt “We were so inspired when we went to the Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli. It was so beautifully done.” —Yolanda
Favorite Vintage Sources
“I love the flea markets that we go to in Maine. I think Maine is a really incredible, untapped resource for the flea find.” —Matt “My favorite time to source vintage finds is summertime, in France, in the tiny little towns. There’s actually an app, Les Vide-Greniers et Brocantes (French for garage sale, literally translated to “empty the attic”), where you plug in your zip code and it tells you every garage sale around you for the next month. So the most fun for me is things like that, just driving around and finding these little extended sales.” —YolandaOur Fall Style issue has arrived! Subscribe now to get an exclusive first look at Ayesha Curry’s Bay Area home—and discover how design can shape our world.