LIFESTYLE • PERSONALITIES • REAL ESTATE POWERED BY ENGEL & VÖLKERS
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MarchAprilMay ’16
The Fascinating Story of a Legendary Hotel
Two Young Women and Their Amazing New Art Club
DEE OCLEPPO A Visit with Mrs. Tommy Hilfiger on
the Caribbean Island of Mustique
SUNNY HOT SPOTS, FUN DESIGN, COOL ART & FEEL-GOOD ARCHITECTURE
Happy Spring
THE CULTIVIST EDEN ROCK
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Mustique MystiqueThe statuesque blonde handbag designer Dee Ocleppo is comfortable in many of the world’s most glamorous sandboxes, but \RX·OO�ÀQG�KHU�PRVW�UHOD[HG�LQ�WKH�EHDFK�front Mustique home she shares with KXVEDQG�7RPP\�+LOÀJHU��+HUH�VKH�ÀQGV�D� SHDFHIXO�HVFDSH�IURP�FLW\�OLIH�DQG�DQ�DEXQ�dant source of inspiration for her growing DFFHVVRULHV�FROOHFWLRQ�
AT HOMEDEE OCLEPPO & TOMMY HILFIGER EILEEN GRAY THE CULTIVISTJAN & MONIQUE DES BOUVRIE
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Palm trees hold pride of place in the British Colonial oasis Mr. and Mrs. Hilfiger
inhabit on Mustique, an island renowned for barefoot royals, artists and celebrities. Equally
renowned is the casual chic of the lady of the house, a working mom who successfully
juggles multiple homes in as many time zones.TEXT: Kristina Stewart Ward PHOTOS: Kate Martin
ISLAND LIFE
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The coral stone and marble rooms are ideal blends of formal and informal, with nearly every floor prepared for sandy, bare feet.
“We don’t entertain formally, this is where our patchwork
family feels at home.”DEE OCLEPPO
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BU wahlweise oben, Ich bin Blindtext. Von Geburt an. Es hat lange gedauert, bis ich begriffen habe, was es bedeutet, ein blinder TextThe airy rooms were commissioned in a British Colonial style from Colefax and Fowler, with elements of Regency, Victorian and island life.
“Home is a sanctuary – a place
you go to be surrounded by things
that make you feel good.”
DEE OCLEPPO
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Bordered by the Caribbean on one side and the glittering pool on the other, a pale strip of sandy beach beckons from behind the house.
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“I come here to recharge, to reconnect with myself and family
without city distractions.”DEE OCLEPPO
Ceiling fans set the tone for open-air living in a warm climate. Palm trees of all sizes find their way into the home’s décor, holding particular prom-inence behind the house where they rule the strip of sandy beach locat-ed there; taking it all in are Dee, Tommy and their son Sebastian. Dee’s namesake handbag collection draws considerable inspiration from this sandy sanctuary, and can be found everywhere from Saks to Harrod’s and online at deeocleppo.com.
Bluestone paths lead to the main house amidst a massive palm grove, climbing jasmine and a bubbling fountain.
“The colors and feel of the island, the travel logistics required
to arrive – it all emerges in the designs of my collection.”
DEE OCLEPPO
www.gg-magazine.com
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The modern social nomad finds an ideal advocate in Dee Ocleppo, the busy mother of three, step-mother of four and wife of acclaimed design-er Tommy Hilfiger who, herself, now designs a chic collection of handbags with classic silhou-ettes and interchangeable covers. It’s versatile, transitional luxury fueled by inspiration from Dee’s own breakneck pace while traveling for business and jetting between homes in Miami, Greenwich, and her beloved Mustique. It is here
in the British Colonial-style, family-friendly sanctuary nestled among Mustique’s largest palm grove, that three sprawling generations of Hil-figers gather several times a year to recharge – and it is here that Dee initially conceived of handbags geared to transition as seamlessly as she does. “The collection has it roots in the realities of travel,” explains Dee, detailing the fashion dilemmas faced by other women similarly pulled between different lives. Of course it’s a very nice problem to have, and no one seems more grateful for the world she inhabits than the Rhode Island native whose modeling career gave way to motherhood and now the role of accessories designer. “We can all relate to wanting our wardrobes to extend the way that we do ourselves,” she continues, detailing her early attempts at packing enough variety as she navigat-ed between settings. Dee’s tightly edited collection now tackles these transitions with beautifully classic “lady” sil-houettes that can be aug-mented with playful fringe, exotic skins and Technicol-or fur – interchangeable cov-ers that take on new personas while still offering economy of space for packing. Day- into-evening: check. Coun-tryside-into-city-chic: done. Miami-bold-to-Mustique-bo-ho: covered. The Spring Col-lection’s current wardrobe changes include python, croc, suede, raffia, fox fur, lizard and lynx, and no less than Beyonce, Kerry Wash-ington and the Kardashians have been photographed carrying the infinitely customizable bags.
So when Dee settles into island life in Mustique, what style does she herself opt for? “Oh, I suppose ‘glampy’ is the best word to describe my style out here,” she says laughing. “There are no
paparazzi here, no gambling, no cruise ships coming through, not even stop lights on the streets – just shoes-optional dressing from morning until night. Out here we’re comfortable, practical, bohemi-an. Out here, everything slows down. Except the kids; this is a fam-ily home, with lots of kids running around.” Dee describes living at the home that looks every inch the hybrid of a Caribbean plantation and a British Colonial villa, a two-story coral stone product of four years rendering the designs of Mustique’s most famed architect, Ol-iver Messel. Dee’s husband Tommy commissioned Arne Hasselqvist to execute the plans on a pristine 10-acre, ocean-front estate that Tommy named “Palm Beach” for the 250 palm trees surrounding the house and lining the stretch of sand lying between the aqua blue of the pool and the Caribbean Sea. Local coral stone and mahogany wood were used for the structure highlighted by Palladian windows with painted wooden shutters. Hilfiger commissioned Colefax and Fowler to decorate the six-bedroom home in British Colonial but left
room for the casual way the property would be used. “We don’t en-tertain formally,” says Dee. “It’s simple, primitive pleasures here: bi-cycles and golf carts to get around, swimming and long walks, fresh fish and barbecues, movies at night.”
While these activities might appear out of step for such a high-pro-file family,it seems that the Hilfigers weren’t the first internation-al jet-setters to come here seeking peaceful island living out of the spotlight. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are among the cur-rent crop of royals to mix with Mustique’s compelling roster of bold-faced names, but it was Prince William’s great-aunt, Princess Mar-garet and her pal Lord Glenconner who blazed the original trail, the latter having found the idyllic island and colonized it for his enviable list of friends. He gave a 10-acre parcel of land to Princess Margaret as a wedding present when she married Lord Snowden, and commis-sioned Snowden’s uncle, Oliver Messel, to design most of the island’s first buildings. Tommy Hilfiger’s sense of provenance and context bares out in his use of Messel’s plans for his own home and his fam-ily all ascribe to the island’s low-key, barefoot charm.
On a typical trip, that means 7-year-old Sebastian sets the pace for the couple of ten years who agreed to install a pizza oven, soft-serve ice cream machine and a tepee perched on the beach—
all of which are now coveted by the older siblings and adults alike. Dee and Tommy’s com-bined, sprawling family of seven children helps explain why their home in Mus-tique isn’t intended to be a shrine to perfectly man-icured style. “We actually live here,” says Dee of their multi-generational brood, the family surely inspiring the Tommy Hilfiger brand’s endearingly chaotic, on-going ad campaign: “Meet the Hilfigers.” And it turns out that calibrated chaos is precisely what Mustique’s laid-back lifestyle is ideally suited toward.
Among the couple’s chil-dren are Tommy’s daugh-ter Kathleen and Dee’s son
Alex, both of whom are on the autism spectrum. Indeed, long dis-cussions about their shared experiences with their children served as the kindling that eventually sparked their relationship ten years ago. The devoted parents have since done much to champion their shared cause publically, speaking up about the condition as well as the need to participate in the larger community supporting children and adults with autism. Tommy and Dee are both on the board of Au-tism Speaks (autismspeaks.org), the largest advocacy and research fundraising organization for the condition, and April is National Au-tism Awareness Month. Dee’s roles as an autism advocate and de-voted mother are reminders of the multiple hats this sophisticated juggler wears as she navigates a life that takes her from fundrais-ing, to design meetings, to parent-teacher conferences, to gala par-ties, and eventually – thankfully – to the calm of her Mustique sanc-tuary where she unwinds and possibly even dreams up her next big collection under the shade of a lazy palm tree.
It’s a world away from the city life that will soon beckon Dee and Tom-my back to working on their respective, namesake collections, and be-cause Dee’s designs are focused on making transitions and travel easi-er, looking the part is far from the hardest part about returning. KSW
European styling merges with Asian influences throughout the house that invites conversation through cozily arranged seating areas.
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