Christine Gachot, cofounder, Gachot

Stacy Shoemaker Rauen: Hi, I’m here with Christine Gachot of Gachot Studios. Thank you so much for joining us on our latest podcast.

Christine Gachot: Thank you for having me. This is exciting.

SSR: We love your offices. We’re here in New York in SoHo. So let’s start at the beginning. Where did you grow up?

CG: I grew up in Saratoga Springs, upstate New York, and I went to college, undergraduate, upstate New York, also at Mount Saint Mary’s. And I really always knew I would come to New York City. As a very small child thought ‘I’m going.’ My parents took me to the theater here often. We went to see art exhibits and shows and the accessibility from upstate, you would get on the train and come and make a big day of it and go home. So I knew this is where I would land. And then after undergraduate, I had a job waiting for me with Peter Max, the artist.

They met me before I graduated. I had interviewed, and I think they thought, ‘We can do something with you.’ I was very interested in art and public relations at the time, and in particular, designing large events. And they had an opportunity for me to come and work at reception, PR Assistant, kind of babysitter of Peter at night when he was late nights in the studio. So I jumped at the opportunity, and I graduated on a Saturday and started work on that Monday morning. And it was wonderful. It was right place, right time. I think in life [that’s] is very meaningful. And with Peter, I hit him at a time where he was having a real renaissance in his career again. And he was very kind to me.

His whole team was very encouraging, like, ‘Let’s go do wonderful things.’ I was suddenly in the crazy art world of the ’90s and mass production artwork and all this fun stuff that was going on and lots of big events in the big city. And I thought, ‘I’m staying. This is great.’ It was wonderful. Then that kind of led to me meeting Bill Sofield and Thomas O’Brien at Aero Studios, and I went to Aero Studios. I had a friend who introduced me to Bill, and I had pretty good handwriting, I hope I still do. I had pretty good handwriting and I used to write out Peter’s invitations. So I met Bill and he kind of said, ‘Well, you’re not really a designer yet.’ And I said, ‘I know, but I can do events,’ and kind of pleading for this opportunity.

If any of you have ever been to Aero studios on Spring Street in the ’90s on the second floor. You went in, you went, ‘Wow, something amazing is happening here with these people.’ And interior design at the time was really becoming the cool place to be. It was like fashion. It was becoming very in conversation like fashion. They were doing events and they had all these wonderful parties and I knew I wanted to go help design, throw, and write out the invitations for them. So they gave me a handwriting test. I remember Bill passing me a Sharpie and an envelope and said, ‘Well, let’s see how good your handwriting is,’ of course, very Sofield style. And that was it. I got the job and Bill really took me under his wing, mentored me in life, in my personal life, in my professional life—everything.

He really said, ‘Look, if you’re going to do this and you’re not going to just do events, you’ve got to go back to school. You’re going to have to go to Parsons at night.’ He gave me a book that he had at Parsons and he said, ‘Just go.’ So I did that. I went to Parsons. I took drafting classes and then I was doing flowers for the Soho Grand Hotel in the morning, and it was this whirlwind lifestyle. And then Bill and Thomas split their teams, and I went with Bill and Bill was doing Gucci at the time when Tom Ford was at the helm and redoing all the Gucci stores. So again, right place, right time. You were in the studio surrounded by people that were so passionate about what they were doing.

We would all run out to get Interior Design magazine when it would hit the stance. It was just this moment in design that I think really took a pivot. It became mainstream. You had Ikea coming up and Crate & Barrel and all these things that I think that we all take for granted. Design wasn’t as accessible. It wasn’t out there in the world the way that other arts were available to people. And at that moment, it took a real turn and it was really one of the most glorious periods of interior design. You had so much talent at Bill’s shop. People now that are very famous were there at the time and artisans like Nancy Lorenz or Matthew Benedict, and Tom Ford. The access to knowledge and learning from these people who were so incredibly talented was a real blessing and a gift for sure.

SSR: What was one of your greatest lessons learned from Bill?

CG: I write a handwritten note to everybody I meet to thank them, Bill does still. I got a handwritten note at Christmas for a gift. Grace under pressure. Bill is an incredible designer, but he’s also a lovely human being. So that quality I think of being thoughtful and generous with your time and knowing what’s important. Bill really taught me that. I also met John, my husband. John came into Aero Studios. This is even before Bill. And Bill started his own firm, and John came in and handed me his portfolio. I was working reception and that’s where we met first. And then it was a year later when he started at Bill’s.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. We were very good friends. We were a team. He kind of came over one day and took a water bottle off of my desk and just started drinking out of it, and I thought, ‘Whoa, like, get your cooties off of my desk.’ You know, of course that ended pretty quick. We had this studio B where Bill had all the fabrics and all the architectural models and everything. And John was in charge of that, so I used to go over and kind of flirt around studio B. And then it always led to a little making out during office hours. It was a wonderful, magical time in life. And Bill bought the shoes to my wedding and a lot of people were bridesmaids that were at Studio Sofield at the time and they’re still there. A lot of just longlasting friendships came out of that moment. Very long lasting friendships.

SSR: It sounds amazing. And so you’ve worked on Gucci, what other projects are memorable from that time?

CG: The Soho Grand Hotel was a big one. Bill was doing the Soho Grand Hotel. André Balazs was doing the Mercer around the same time. There was nothing in SoHo, and everybody was waiting to see what was going to happen. I really fell in love with hotels. I’d say during that time period. Watching the conversations and the back of house and the general managers and the housekeeping staff, I was very interested in how all of that came together. Of course along with the design but how it influenced the design. The discussions of the client and who was staying there and what their experience would be, it was very intriguing. Because I was doing the flowers at the time because I needed extra money and going to Parsons at night, I got to see a lot of the back of house.

That was a real prompt to me that not only is the front interaction important, but it’s really what goes on behind the scenes of the theater that’s so important. And all those wonderful personalities that work in hotels and what their roles are and how important their part is in all of it. And a lot of it is what you don’t see. I would say that really led me to André. It was that kind of time period where I wanted to go into development. I had been doing design for 15 years or something and 10 really solid with Bill, and I wanted to learn the business end of it and I wanted to learn hospitality. Again right place, right time. André took a big risk.

I was an interior designer. That was it. He was doing a hotel on 42nd street, the Hotel QT. And he hired me for one job, and I came in and 10 years later I was still there. That was again at the time doing the Standard High Line. The High Line being built in Manhattan, that whole redevelopment. If you were in New York development at that time period, we did 40 Mercer, Kenmare Square. The cranes all over the city, the activity that was happening at the time in New York was unbelievable. André really had something. He had hit his stride I think as a hotelier for sure at that point, by the time I had joined him. But he really came into his own in development with the Standard High Line, and it was remarkable to watch just the gymnastics of it. The structures of the deal all the way through to the candle being lit on the table. It was really a very holistic approach to building a building and building a brand.

SSR: And you are involved in all of it?

CG: I was, I was involved with all of it. I’ve always been attracted to positions that are very well-rounded. I will Windex, I have no problem with it. I don’t mind if I’m not Pledging on vacation with like a bottle of Pledge, I’m not happy. I like all of it. And I think that the more that you get to do yourself and the more that you are involved with, the more you learn and the more the people around you learn. Certainly at Peter Max’s you’re at an event one night, you’re writing out envelopes the next day, you’re answering the phone. You’re locked in overnight because they forgot about you and you can’t leave. It’s an art studio. At Bill’s, it was you’re doing everything. Everybody does everything. It is a true studio environment.

André’s was very much the same. There was nothing beneath anybody there. It was a really exciting young team that was coming together in development and I would be in the acquisitions team office. I would be writing RFPs, doing design, specifying floral arrangements. You got to do everything. So you’re constantly learning something new. And multiple projects at the same time. A lot of fantastic travel. I mean, one of the perks of being in hospitality, especially if you have a nice title. Whoa. You show up at Claridge’s. They’ve got you. It’s awesome. And so I got to see a lot.

And André is very generous in the sense of bringing his people with him to the table. You were never left out of a meeting. You were always invited to participate. You got to travel, again, all over the world, encouraged to really seek out the best talent. I definitely believe that hiring people around you that are better than you is a really good idea. And knowing what you don’t know. And André’s not intimidated easily. So he hired a lot of very talented people. Many women-supported careers. Really you would walk into a meeting and most of the women at the table were the partners and really promoted that success. And it was magical.

I was going out to LA, and he invited me to the Chateau [Marmont]. It was Oscar weekend and I showed up and I just went, like, ‘Wow, where am I and what am I involved with?’ So again, I think when you kind of hit the person that you are supporting and it’s their moment, it becomes your moment too. Because you do get to be a part of that journey of where they’re going, and if you’re lucky enough and they take you with them, which I had been very fortunate on all three of my jobs that I’ve had in my [life]. I’m 50. I guess I have time for another job. But you know, those people were very generous with them allowing me to be a part of what they were experiencing.

And then when I joined John, my partner and husband, he had this opportunity where he was starting his own firm and Marc Jacobs was a very big, kind supporter of John’s personally. He was working on his townhouse with Paul Fortune. Again, another wonderful mentor to John and myself. And they really helped John start the business. I was coming off of a project in London, and we were really starting to see institutional financing loosen up. I could feel the deals coming in, and I knew that if I didn’t leave, it would be another cycle. There would always be another hotel. Hotels are like bad boyfriends. There’s always another one. I get very obsessed and in love with my current hotel that I’m working on.

I get asked a lot, ‘What’s your favorite hotel?’ And I always say, ‘It’s the one I’m working on right now.’ So I knew that it was time to leave as a businessperson. I knew it was that moment. And John invited me and I knew it was John’s moment. So again, right place, right time. I knew I will come do this and support and get the business going. And then I came to Gachot, and I brought 10 people with me, so we had to get some work quick. And we did. We relied heavily on contacts that I’d made in the development world. And, people again, extremely generous. If you’re really going to do this, let’s do it. Certainly, we had our first big project with Taconic who said, ‘Let’s take a risk.’

There are a lot of people, especially in Manhattan, I have found that are willing to take a chance with somebody new. They’re not nervous. You don’t have to check every box, which is refreshing, and it helps people. It helps small businesses like mine grow. That’s really how we kind of got here today, where we are. So, it’s great.

SSR: What do you think was your breakout project or your big break for your studio with John?

CG: Architectural Digest has been a huge supporter of ours, of the arts in general. We’re no longer in that age of information where people are posting books and scanning images and tearing sheets out of a magazine. Except for me who, if you sit next to me on a plane, you will know I tear out of imagery. But there are people that are out there that are still doing it. They’re really trying to support the arts and support teams like mine, studios, artisans, and getting that message out and that validity is very important for a business. Shinola, obviously, is a big one. It was so meaningful because I was a part of the development team also on the front end. So I got to really flex that muscle again. And that sense of urban planning and working on that business content, it’s wildly important to me as a person.

I think it’s wildly important to the success of a project. It is a business, and we were talking about this earlier. Design is a business and there are so many talented people out there. But you have to also recognize that at the end of the day, if you’re not doing a private residence, it’s a budget to somebody. It’s a schedule to somebody. It is their livelihood and it is all the people that work for them. So you have to be very responsible and respectful of that. Commercial development, it’s just different than residential development. You’re held accountable. You’re also affecting potentially the skyline of a city. That’s a responsibility that I take very seriously of how what we all do will impact the local community. So certainly coming into a city, Detroit, that we’re not from. We’re from New York and knowing what’s going on in Detroit and the growth period, we jumped in. We went to benefits there. We became good friends with people. We attended political rallies. We did it all and we kind of, we found our way of what we thought people would really need and want. Tom Kartsotis, Dan Gilbert’s team, they allowed us to step in and have such a great voice in it all and take ownership. Tom is one of the most generous people I’ve ever met and talk about somebody who will say to you, ‘I know what I know and I know what I don’t know and I’m going to get everybody around me that is strong and can really make this happen.’ And they can got together this team of people that was extraordinary. That was pretty amazing. And then coming off of working in Europe, America needs a good hotel. I am really convinced, and I felt like we can do something very special here.

We had all these different buildings that we had to connect, and then we created the sky bridge that was just an idea one day. Let’s do this sky bridge to connect this building that was a parking lot. And they said, ‘Okay, let’s do that.’ And next thing you know, I’ve got like the whole team in Tribeca looking at sky bridges and you’re thinking, ‘Is this really happening right now?’ And it did. It’s just such a wonderful impact on the local community. If you go to Detroit, and you can see that it has become truly the living room. And I know I say that a lot about hotel lobbies. I do consider them living rooms. But this lobby living room, in particular, has created jobs. It has created a place for people to work, to stay. It’s not just about who’s visiting Detroit. It’s about the people who are in Detroit now. And that was very meaningful to our team.

SSR:  And what was it like taking a retail brand and transforming them into a hotel, a hospitality space?

CG: I think it’s like with any brand and the Standard was certainly good training ground for me. I had my creative partner at the Standard Claire Darrow [Mosier] and she’s still with André, the head of design and development there now. She’s just so talented and sticking on brand and with the message. And creating a kind of a common thread where there should be one and then going off when there doesn’t have to be. I learned a lot from her at that time. We applied that here. Knowing what people thought the message would be and what people thought Shinola was, we knew it really wasn’t. It’s not this hard, heavy, industrial brand. It’s really about an elegance of connection. And it’s about the people that work there.

They have a lunchroom that’s amazing. Lunches all the time, and it’s a sense of community. So I knew what not to do very quickly getting to know their team. Tom brought me a pie once from a plane, and Daniel, their creative director, is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. And we’re good friends. They’re soft people. This isn’t this hard machine I think that gets this kind of heavy industrial play. So we did want to come in and make sure that that sense of community, being available, that we were friendly and open to everybody. And it was a little soft, and it’s a little feminine in a really nice way. It’s comfortable. There about 129 rooms. And instead of kind of cutting up all the rooms and having them be a repeat, we stuck with the historic fenestration, and we went for it.

So you have 50 different room types out of 129 and then we went in and kind of decorated them all differently. Our team needed a vacation. It was crazy. But it’s all about the experience. And I am one of those people that when I travel, I will go to your hotel room to see what your room’s like and check it out. Half of our family vacations are of floor baseboard details or the concierge and what they’re like. And so we wanted to make sure that when when you’re in Detroit that you get a different experience every time you’re there. And there’s a hierarchy. What I love about the Standard High Line, which I’d have to say is probably always going to be one of my favorite hotels, certainly my favorite project that I’ve ever worked on and probably will again. But there was something for everybody at the Standard High Line.

It’s very democratic that way in the sense that you’ve the beer garden, you have a lobby, you can work there. You have the top of the Standard. It offers something to everybody. When we were working on the project, the one thing I had noticed early on is there’s nothing for children. So we did the ice skating rink. So I think creating those moments, that’s what makes a good community, right? Diversification. And I think that’s what makes a good hotel also.

SSR: Question about the Standard. Did you know the impact it was going to have. You said you were a part of André’s journey. Did you realize it then or is it easier to look back now?

CG: This is going to sound so strange. I wish somebody had followed André with a film camera because going on the High Line and going up to all these abandoned, horrible buildings as time. We would climb over people and go upstairs and open a little door and then you’re on a roof of somewhere. I knew what he had done with the Mercer. He changed a community. I had a feeling that this would be big. I was very nervous about how it would be perceived. It’s one of these moments where you’re like, ‘Great, I’m the design director. Uh-oh. I’m the design director. What’s this going to be like?’ And, of course, it was wildly successful.

You go by the building and you’re not quite sure. Has it been there forever? Did they reskin it? What happened? And it’s exactly what we all wanted it to do at the time. Hervé Descottes did the lighting. He’s a best friend. It was one of those moments where you just cannot complain about going to work because you’re literally working with your closest friends and creating something. And you’re there for years and you’re there overnight and you miss Thanksgiving because you have to be there. But when you’re with your close friends, somehow that all works out and it’s pretty great when your kids go by the building and they say, ‘Oh, Mommy built that building.’ It’s kind of badass.

SSR: And speaking of creating all these brands, you helped create the Standard, and then Shinola, you also just worked on the Eaton DC.

CG: Katherine Lo is a friend. She was starting this brand new. She comes from hotel dynasty, royalty, really. She knew that she wanted something that was outspoken and that had a real voice. That’s difficult with a physical property: how do you do that and not get gimmicky or tricky? So we worked very closely for years on that message. I think she’s very up and coming in the hotel business and as a woman, super powerful,yet like the nicest person. And it was great. One of my close friends is the general manager there, Erin Hosler.

I was with somebody recently and I said, ‘It’s just that easy. Call a friend.’ And I do think that, especially in what we all do and in design and architecture, I do find that you can call a friend. When we started Gachot, I’m very good friends with Roman and Williams, with Robin and Stephen, and I’ve known them for a very long time and admire them tremendously as people, designers, and architects. But when we didn’t have any work they would call and say, ‘We’ve got this project, we’re too swamped, this would be great for you guys.’ Everyone kind of helps each other out. It really is that type of business, industry, at least my experience has been that way.

So Katherine, again, is somebody just like ‘Call a friend.’ Okay, I’ll call Christine, and it all just kind of shakes out. We also worked on another real all-star female team with Glossier. Everybody on the team, all women. We’re a pretty casual team here. People are in jeans most of the time and whatever. And so we kind of did method designing, and I brought in all this Glossier and put it out on the conference table and everybody, people are Boy Browing each other and products were flying. It was like the Devil Wears Prada here for about three months. People were dressed up. It was like the whole studio tone changed. It was all day, every day getting blowouts, Glam Squad. I’ve never seen an office just change.

And it was really fun. Again, you are with 12 wildly talented women in a room designing a store for other women. At a moment where there was a lot going on in the world and you would sit in these meetings and just say, ‘Okay, this is a really proud moment for our team.’ We have 27 people here, four of them are men. Throughout my career, I’ve always been surrounded by, at André’s and Bill Sofield’s and certainly at Peter’s, by very strong, powerful women. There’s just never even a question of qualification or anything. I’ve never encountered it, which is very, you know, it’s refreshing. It’s refreshing.

SSR: Glossier, again was building a brick and mortar for something that didn’t have it.

CG: Emily [Weiss, the founder and CEO] had a real vision. She knew that she wanted a monumental stair moment. And we worked very closely with their team to make sure that again it’s not the ‘Us Show,’ right? It can’t be. When you’re dealing with other people’s brands, it’s about them. It’s not about you. So our team kind of approaches it like a film. We’re there to produce your film. We’re there to guide, we’re there to design. I’m not suggesting that everything have to be aligned, but it cannot be about us. My brand is not Glossier. My brand is different. So you have to really help people get there, but you also need to know when to kind of stay in your lane too. And not just like for ego’s sake, put your DNA all over somebody else’s brand. And again, I think that goes back to the Standard and watching people protect that brand. And seeing their efforts pull through 100 percent every time. And Glossier, again, it did what it had to do. I have people go all the time. I think it is so much fun. People feel good about themselves when they’re there. Emily is empowering women to express themselves in a really playful, fun way. Again, I think right time, right time.

SSR: Very refreshing as you said. And Katherine’s doing something similar too. Tell us a little bit about the brand from your point of view and how that was translating her vision into design.

CG: It was difficult in a sense that Eaton is in DC. It’s the first one, and it’s a very politically driven brand and now I’m in the middle of a very politically driven place. Who’s coming? Who is your guest? People from all over the world are about to see what you’re up to. So translating that and making sure that you had this balance of outspoken quality. But then at the end of the day, you’re a hotel and I think the days of kind of tricky, smok and mirrors properties, that’s ending. People don’t really want that anymore. They want a very residential environment in hospitality. So we had to make sure that Eaton was a place that you want to stay. It’s a pied-à-terre. We talked about that you felt safe, but then you were surprised at moments.

Really the culture of Eaton and what their programming is from that standpoint. That’s what’s making that property so special. The design is very good. It’s great. Obviously, we worked on it, so we’re very proud of it. But I think they’re going above and beyond what the space looks like. Her message is so much more powerful than my sofa. It just is. It is. And sometimes, it’s the sofa, but not in this case. And it’s really about what she is trying to achieve  globally in the world, not just about a hotel brand.

SSR: Which I think is amazing.

CG: No pressure on the designer for that one, but yes, it is amazing.

SSR: Yeah, but it’s back to that point where you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m the design director. This falls to me.’ You’ve had a slew of great projects in the last couple of years. What’s next for the firm? What are you guys looking to do or hope to do?

CG: What’s really interesting, is we get to do is we get to travel a lot. We get to travel with our children. We get to travel together. Our teams travel. What’s next is a hotel in Costa Rica. We have a project that’s in Hawaii. We have a project that’s in Barbuda. So this is not difficult. This is warm weather, great swimming, wonderful cultures to go see that are completely different from the urban environment that we are in day to day. Different smells and cuisines and all of those senses. When you start to tap into that, it gets you going. It really inspires you to do something that you might not do. I’m having this kind of like love affair with a palette right now, and I keep taking all these tones of black and creams and green, and John looked at me and he just said, ‘You’re so obvious, you’re doing Hawaii.’ I’m like ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘Your new palette for everything is the palette of the Big Island.” I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I am.’ The inspiration of travel really is wonderful. My children are a little bit older now, so they get to tag along for free. I think half the time they’re wondering who we are in life, but it’s pretty great.

SSR: And how was it working with John and working with your husband?

CG: He’s hot. It comes with benefits still. We don’t have a Studio B, but we live nearby. He’s great. John’s really into the details, and I’m kind of not. So we’re a very good team that way. He’s wildly talented. I think that he will have a very long-lasting, important career in interior design and I’m really happy to be the backup band on that. So I think I’ve kind of found my next person to backup for sure. And again, we’re really lucky. It’s our 20th wedding anniversary in a couple months, and we were just out to dinner last night and he said, ‘Why don’t we get married again?’ And I was like, ‘Whoa. Definitely.’

So we’re really fortunate. We work hard at it, but we have a great time together. Our team is amazing. We’ve all known each other. There are a couple of us that have worked together, aside from myself and John, but Merced, Cate, Henry, there are few of us. My publicist, Tiana’s my best friend. There are few of us that are from the old days. So we’ve all known each other. We’ve been to each other’s weddings, children, you name it, we’ve all done it together. And that’s important. Again, I think when you get to work with your friends, it’s not work. It’s a really nice way to spend your time. So it’s wonderful. It’s a good environment.

SSR: And I love how you said before that design and running a design firm is a business above and beyond anything else. What has been your best piece of business advice that you’ve ever received or that you would give?

CG: Yeah I would hire a very strong accounting team. I tell everybody that, and I also think that you have to know what people are good at and allow them to do that. Trying to fit people into something … not everybody is proficient in AutoCAD, nor should they be. But they might be wildly creative or great with numbers or they can put together a performa. Allow people to do what they’re very good at and celebrate that. Don’t try to fit people into what you want them to be. And I firmly believe about hiring people that are more talented than you every time. That’s my best advice. Higher up.

SSR: Awesome. Thank you.

CG: Thank you, guys.

SSR: Thank you for being here. We really appreciate it.

CG: Thank you so much. This is such a lovely way to spend the morning. It’s great.