Known for his creative spaces
Connecticut interior designer Patrick Mele participates in Kips Bay showcase
When Patrick Mele opened his first home decor store on Williams Street in Greenwich seven years ago he was already a noted interior designer with a string of upscale commissions to his credit. By the time he launched his second store in Bridgeport five years later in the harborside community of Black Rock, Mele was being heralded as a design star.
Architectural Digest, Elle Decor and other glossy shelter magazines regularly profiled his decorating projects in wealthy pockets of the country with clients praising his ability to cull the best from the past and present to create colorful spatial plans that felt warm and personal.
So when he was selected to be part of this year’s Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York, on view through May 28, Mele wasn’t surprised by the invitation. That’s because he had been asked to participate in the event twice over the past few years but declined.
“To be honest, I wasn’t quite ready,” the Greenwich native says. The annual event features the work of the country’s top architects and designers on display inside a stately townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Mele says he felt his work wasn’t quite ready for such a major event in the past. But now — with a string of major commissions
raising his profile — he feels more confident about being included. “Even with the degree of success I was having, Kips Bay is a big deal in our industry and I never felt ready until this year,” he adds.
The Kips Bay appearance coincides with a broad expansion of Mele’s client list and brand. New interior
design commissions are underway in Europe and the U.S. and several new home decor lines are in the pipeline, including a new carpet collection and a series of handmade ceramic accessories for the home.
Mele says the new ventures were never part of any grand plan when he was growing up in Connecticut, but instead
reflect the influence of parents who taught him the value of being an entrepreneur.
His father, Richard, owned restaurants in Fairfield and Westchester counties where Mele says he watched him employ his aesthetic sensibility in crafting the interiors. His mother, Patricia, worked for a time at a high-end children’s store in Greenwich run by Susie Hilfiger, the ex-wife of fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger. She also played an integral role in helping her son launch the Greenwich home decor store.
“I learned a lot by watching the level of creativity and energy my parents both put into their work,” the 40-yearold Mele says. “It also taught me how integrity and hard work pays off,” he adds.
Mele got his entrepreneurial start as a 14-yearold student at Greenwich High School, establishing his own windowdressing business with the help of his parents. Clients included some of the same Greenwich Avenue retailers he grew up admiring such as Lynnens and Paperie.
“Greenwich always felt like a small, tight-knit community to me when I was growing up,” Mele says. “So even as a teenager, there was this sense that I was working for my neighbors and that really taught me the importance of building relationships with your clients.”
A sense of community also informs much of Mele’s creativity and energy at his eponymous design firm which he launched in 2011.
Known for creating spaces that fuse the worlds of art, fashion and architecture, his interiors often reflect his love for rich color and intricate pattern, affinities he says he picked up early in his career working at brands like Kate Spade and Ralph Lauren. That early professional experience also helped him gain a valuable understanding of the integral role presentation, styling and merchandising play in building a brand and expanding a business, he says.
“These were iconic brands that taught me the importance of integrating design in our everyday lives,” says Mele, who began his professional career after earning a degree in Art History and Cultural Studies from New York University. “Those early lessons still influence my design work and aesthetic today.”
That influence is vividly displayed at the Kips Bay show in May when Mele was tapped to outfit the townhouse’s primary bedroom.
White permeates virtually every facet of the room except for the carpeting, which was custom designed by Mele in floral patterns. Decorative flourishes include a custom-designed bed by Mele, fabrics and trims from F. Schumacher & Co., and a mix of artworks, including a painting by Connecticutbased artist Janet Maya from Ryan Lee Gallery.
“The entire design is a homage to the incredible women in my life,” Mele says, referring to the influence of people like his mother and Kate Spade, the late fashion designer and co-founder of Kate Spade New York. “These are the women who helped me professionally, creatively and personally,” he says. “They helped me become the person I am today and I wanted to dedicate this design to them.”