Please find decorating tips from this living space in the photo gallery at left

Photographs: Patrik Rytikangas

As the visual director of Emporio Armani, Lara Suarez is charged with creating the look and feel of each store, from the positioning of the racks (and the items that hang on those racks), to the window displays, to the interplay of the season’s colors and patterns. When she’s not commuting to Milan, she’s in her Nolita apartment, which is washed in a unifying, shimmery, Armani-gray paint.

Raised in New Mexico, Suarez boasts a wall of southwestern bits (3)(4), from painted skulls to milagros. “People know I have a collection, so they’re always sending me things,” she explains. “But I keep it from getting too Day of the Dead in here by buying more modern furniture and sticking to a neutral palette.”

Though the apartment is officially a one-bedroom, Suarez sleeps on a daybed so that she can use the extra room as a walk-in closet, installing storelike racks from Ikea from the floor to the ceiling. “I’m always packing and unpacking, so I need to see what I have—and I need to be able to shut the door on all that clothing!”

For more photos, click the thumbnails on the left.

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