‘A lot of the work I do in New York City is more serious, so this has been a fun project,’ says Michael Bargo as he offers a tour of the light-filled Cape Cod–style home in the Hamptons enclave of Amagansett that he worked on for two and a half years. The designer stops to note a 1940s French cabinet, its door fronts inset with square leather panels in primary hues. ‘I don’t usually use a lot of colour,’ he says. ‘I wanted this to be a little funky and weird.’
This comes from the man who once presented Mark Ronson and Grace Gummer with 19 different shades of white for the walls of their Manhattan townhouse. He’s also someone The Row’s Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have on speed dial for all their Mid-century Modern furniture needs in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris. Other style-minded clients include Lorde and the fashion designer Matthew Williams.
Bargo’s secret sauce is that he is a passionate collector of serious design pieces – especially 20th-century French — and he has a flair for mixing eras in a magnetic, cohesive way. And he’s never precious about it, a quality his clients and collaborators clearly respond to. ‘I don’t really trust my taste when it comes to decor,’ Ronson says. ‘I trust my wife and Michael Bargo. There’s such elegance in Michael’s work – classic, but very much of his time – that it never tips into pretension.’
Bargo was enlisted to join the Amagansett project by artist-turned-architect Isaac Brest. The two had previously vibed while working together on the Elder Stateman’s Crosby Street store and were looking to do another project together. The house was built in 1972 by architect Alfred Scheffer, who is renowned for designing a collection of rustic-chic cottages in the Hamptons. The family now living in the house likes to entertain, and their directive to Bargo was to give it personality, make it feel relaxed and beachy.
Though the property essentially underwent a gut renovation, its crown jewel, the living room, which has Scheffer’s signature 16-foot vaulted ceilings and walls of windows, remained intact. This is where Bargo, who names Jacques Grange as his all-time design idol, could really bring the funk. A Paolo Buffa chair sits near a custom marigold couch beneath a jet-black painting by the Abstract Expressionist Frank Okada. Overhead dangles a vintage white cloth ceiling lamp from Silvio Coppola for Studio Artemide.
Bargo lives in New York but maintains a pied-à-terre in the 1st Arrondissement of Paris, where he sourced 90 per cent of the vintage pieces from flea markets. A few treasures were foraged locally, like the giant cast-iron sunflowers adorning the fireplace. ‘They’re so dramatic in scale,’ he says.
What's everyone reading?
A Kentucky native, Bargo moved to New York in 2002 to attend the New York School of Interior Design. But he dropped out after two years and began working at Prada’s Soho store as a visual merchandiser under the late, great stylist and Miuccia Prada confidante Manuela Pavesi.
One day designer Thomas O’Brien walked in to do some Christmas shopping, and Bargo introduced himself. O’Brien happened to be looking for an assistant, and the next week Bargo got the job; he stayed at the firm for almost four years before breaking out on his own. ‘I was just dumb enough and just smart enough,’ he says of his pluckiness at the time. ‘There was nothing to lose.’
He started out by helping friends with their apartments, and — inspired by the antiques dealer Florence Lopez, who has been dealing out of her Saint-Germain-des-Prés studio for 20 years — adopted a home-as-showroom business model, which garnered a fair amount of press. ‘It’s not a gallery per se,’ he says of his current space in the Financial District. ‘It’s pieces I’ll use in projects, or designer friends will come when they’re looking for things. I’m happy to sell and acquire new stuff.’
Step inside this Hamptons house
Bargo says that his ‘shopping addiction’ is fuelled by a curiosity to discover designers. His easy-come, easy-go mentality works well for return clients looking to replenish their spaces, add to them, or start anew. This includes a second Ronson remodel as well as Bargo’s ongoing gig — eight years and counting — kitting out The Row’s showroom to match the mood of each new collection. ‘Michael values and understands authenticity,’ Mary-Kate Olsen says. ‘He has a brilliant and unique way of looking at space,’ adds her sister Ashley.
‘I feel very lucky in that respect,’ Bargo says about his steady patrons. ‘It’s such a tedious process. You never know how happy someone is. But to have so many repeat clients is a nice thing. I get to work with people I really respect and also happen to thoroughly like.’
