AD Inside - Jerry Lorenzo

Inside Fashion Mogul Jerry Lorenzo’s Minimalist Beverly Hills Home

The Fear of God founder collaborated with AD100 firm Clements Design to devise a serene family abode that whispers the twin virtues of luxury and restraint.

Designer Jerry Lorenzo doesn’t much care for outré gestures, theatrical poses, and arch style statements redolent of novelty. Fear of God, the wildly popular global fashion brand he launched in 2013, upended stale caricatures of streetwear by infusing the category with a kind of subtle sophistication and quiet luxury attuned to the rhythms and rituals of 21st-century living. Mies van der Rohe famously opined that “God is in the details”; the same holds true for Fear of God.

At the Beverly Hills home that Lorenzo (full name Jerry Lorenzo Manuel) shares with his wife, Desiree Manuel, and their three children, the refined design DNA that animates Fear of God comes to life at environmental scale, echoing the clothing line’s hushed color palette, fine tailoring, and privileging of line, shape, and texture over graphic patterns and obstreperous effects. Like the man himself, the house speaks of quality sotto voce. “Our home reflects a blend of warmth and elegance with modernity. It feels simultaneously timeless and of the moment,” the designer avers. “It’s like a beautiful painting—there’s nothing distracting, but up close you appreciate the complexity.”

Lorenzo and Manuel moved to Beverly Hills after decamping from their erstwhile lair in LA’s Los Feliz neighborhood, a locus of eastside cool perhaps more predictable for a young, buzzy couple at the forefront of fashion. “We were simply looking for a bit more privacy and space, more peace and quiet,” Manuel says of the decision to relocate. “In Beverly Hills, it feels like you’re away from the chaos of the city but somehow still in it. It’s nice to look out your window and not be staring into your neighbor’s house,” she adds.

For both the Los Feliz project and this current home, the couple chose to work with Tommy and Kathleen Clements of the AD100 firm Clements Design, in whom they found simpatico collaborators equally committed to the power of serenity and stillness. “Both Jerry and Desiree like to keep it simple, which is always refreshing. They have incredibly cultivated taste, but it’s very pared down,” Kathleen says of the aesthetic kinship. “They’re totally in tune with the emotional, visceral aspects of a space,” Tommy continues. “They wanted to create rooms that are both comfortable and inspiring. It wasn’t about assembling a checklist of trophy objects and boldface names.”

Source: AD Magazine / www.architecturaldigest.com

By: Mayer Rus
Photography by: Rich Stapleton
Styled by: Lisa Rowe