For their second location of the Wing, a women’s-only social club that, according to its Instagram bio, is “a coven, not a sorority,” founders Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan brought back designer Chiara de Rege and architect Alda Ly, who conceived “a feminine and elegant [design] with curves and soft edges,” says de Rege.
Because the whitewashed, 10,000-square-foot SoHo loft space is long and skinny, they added a series of arches connected by gradient pink walls that “amplify the experience and act as transition zones that give each space its own character,” Ly points out. That includes the entrance where banquettes and terrazzo tables wrap the perimeter; the light and airy Perch café that sits below one of two original skylights (the other is in the library); and a large work area made intimate with modular seating in pale pink, mustard yellow, emerald green, and ruby red. “The beauty of the Wing is the idea of it being this extension of some great home,” adds de Rege.
Trickle-down feminism is also part of its allure. To curate the space, De Rege and Ly worked with almost exclusively women who selected artwork and plants, handpicked the library’s color-coded books (all by female authors), and crafted the beauty room’s quirky wallpaper with vignettes of a New York woman’s life, among others. The all-women design team from Pentagram helped build the branding, with odes to feminist icons, including the Thelma and Louise conference rooms and private phone booths with cheeky names like Ramona Quimby and Hermione Granger, the perfect witch to add to any coven. Perhaps the most telling piece comes in the form of a neon sign leading to the bathroom entrance. Against a pastel pink wall, it reads “No Man’s Land.”