Briony Raymond’s new Madison Avenue atelier is layered with color and texture, creating a salon-like experience that exudes European elegance and a feeling that you are visiting the home of the famed jewelry designer.
Raymond’s celebrity client list is so well known most of them can go by their first names—Reese, Sarah Jessica, Adele, Rihanna. With this larger space, Raymond says her hope is to immerse each of her clients in a world focused on art, antiques, and a jewelry-buying experience that is fun and joyful.
“The atelier offers insight into both Briony Raymond the person and Briony Raymond the brand,” Raymond says. “Each element has been hand-chosen to represent my individual taste and style, so clients gain an instant understanding of who we are the moment they walk in.”
Raymond says she made the decision to move into the Madison Avenue atelier because her business had outgrown its previous showroom. The new salon within the Fuller Building gives the brand room to expand as well as a “home base” for her staff and corporate offices, Raymond says.
Raymond grew up surrounded with art and antiques because her parents are avid collectors, she says. She also worked in finance in Paris and London, where she started collecting her own pieces. Her taste also was influenced by her career at Van Cleef & Arpels before founding her namesake brand in 2015.
The new atelier started with brainstorming sessions with interior designers Micky Hurley and Malu Edwards, who are friends of Raymond. The husband-and-wife team also have a passion for art and antiques, Raymond says.
“I spent time with them at their Left Bank Parisian home and their chateau in the French countryside several times over the past few years planning, reviewing mood boards, and seeing the antiques they had sourced for me—reams of fabrics, oil paintings, and more,” Raymond says. “So much inspiration was found in these times spent together surrounded by French and Italian antiques.”
The resulting space is reminiscent of French salons, featuring pieces like a French desk and chandeliers from the 19th century. The design uses a variety of rich textures and jewel-toned fabrics, including antique sofas reupholstered in sapphire-hued Schumacher-cut velvet.
Another standout are the custom toile banquettes with cheeky French velvet leopard-print cushions. Raymond and her design team balanced that richness with classics, such as blue-and-white ginger jars. They also added subtle shine with antique silver pieces from her own collections and travels.
Family also came into play, Raymond says. Some silver pieces she has on display in the atelier came from her mother, a touch that Raymond says brought her great joy because it adds a warmth that melds her family’s design sense with her own.
Raymond says she hopes her clients see how these small details create a place that feels like home yet also inspires them to live a little.
“Our approach blended comfort and approachability with luxury and fantasy,” Raymond says. “The atelier aims to suspend reality, allowing clients to lap up the pleasure that comes with being surrounded by and adorned with beauty.”
Top: Blue furnishings along with her art and antiques ground the airy interior of Briony Raymond’s newly opened atelier on Madison Avenue, making the salon and office space feel like you’re visiting the designer in her home, she says. (Photos courtesy of Briony Raymond)
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