From dressing Club Kids during the height of New York’s nightlife in the ’90s to her new furniture collaboration with Zuo, Allison Eden’s world has always been a cacophony of color. After growing up in San Diego, Eden moved to New York to pursue a degree in fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology before landing at Nautica as an assistant designer for the women’s wear collection.
Her glittering empire of mosaics happened by chance. When walking around downtown Manhattan one day, a store selling colored sheet glass caught her eye, and she bought some pieces to experiment with. Initially envisioning it on clothes, she realized it was too sharp, so she glued it to poster board instead.
“I used to bring my samples [to work at Nautica] and put them on my desk. During my lunch break, I would go around the Garment District and see if anyone was looking to redecorate,” Eden says. One sample she brought to a tile store became her first big break. “I would sit on the floor and glue [the glass] with Elmer’s. I started getting jobs from that.”
A stained glass and mirror mural at the Mohegan Sun resort and casino in Connecticut
In search of more work but unsure how to classify herself, Eden placed ads in different categories in the Yellow Pages. Soon after, she got a call for her first commercial job—creating a Brazilian Wave mosaic on the floor of a Burger King in Times Square. Since founding Allison Eden Studios in 1995, she has brought her signature sparkle to everything from cruise ships to restaurants, including mirrored columns at Jardin restaurant at Wynn Las Vegas.
What hasn’t changed is her passion. “My tiles are made by hand in my Brooklyn studio; I don’t use any machinery. I hire other New York artists, and most of them have been with me for 15, 20 years. What comes out of the studio is magical,” she says. Inspired by both the chaos and nature of New York, Eden gets ideas from walks in Central Park and people-watching on the train—anything bold, bright, and cheery is a starting place when choosing a color palette.
Although best known for her tile work, Eden also creates custom carpets, wallpaper, and textiles in her kaleidoscopic range of colors. “My style is my own. I’m not trendy, and I’m not fashionable. I love outlandish things. I love sparkle. I love movement.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s May/June 2022 issue.
