“I wanted to be in the center of everything,” says supermodel Elsa Hosk of her search for a New York City home. Tucked away on a quiet backstreet in SoHo sat a rare gem: a sun-filled airy loft only steps away from bustling streets replete with restaurants and shops. To the Swedish-born transplant, the location seemed too good to be true. “It was my dream apartment on my dream street,” Elsa says of her “meant-to-be” home.
The loft was equipped with sky-high ceilings, photoshoot-ready lighting, and a not-up-to-code mezzanine, where former owners looked out over lavish dinner parties on the open-plan main floor in a very Gatsby-like manner—at least, that’s how we speculate it was used. Aside from those convincing selling points, there was definitely room for improvement. “It was untouched,” Elsa says with excitement, before telling us that she renovated, well, everything. The events that followed were, as she puts it, “a nightmare.” A kitchen gutted and shifted to the complete opposite end of the space, endless negotiations culminating in a now-legal second floor, floors flown in from Denmark, all meant that this was most definitely not a project for the faint of heart.
Two years and a lifetime of patience later, the loft was ready to be lived in…well, almost. “I had a blank canvas to start from, which was really exciting because I wanted to build something that really felt like me,” says the supermodel (who recently signed with Hollywood talent agency CAA) of her rather simple desires fueled by a hectic life. Having spent the majority of her adult years in and out of hotels, the runway regular craved the type of familiarity that can only be achieved in a truly personalized space. And so began the quest to create a safe haven that felt 100% hers.
Elsa’s natural knack for design coupled with her bargaining skills set her up for success when it came to furnishing the space. “Design is the ultimate creative process—you can really reflect your feelings and your mood into your surroundings,” she remarks of the project. This was a no-decorator zone: a decision she made with the desire to curate the space with carefully selected pieces unique to her personal style.
