For those who might thrive amid chaos or city dwellers whose apartments may not come with a real closet, Olano’s design approach involves seeing fashion as art. “I use the clothing rack beside the bed to hang my favorite pieces that I might want to wear that week,” he says. “If I have something new or that I haven’t worn in a while, I want to see it to inspire me to create an outfit. Even if you don’t have a big closet, a beautiful clothing rack can solve that problem.” Just stay away from mismatched hangers: “A set of coordinating natural wood ones,” he adds, “will make everything more aesthetically pleasing.”
Treat Fashion Like Art
Find a Focal Point
Create an Organization System
Inside the dresser, Olano worked his organizational magic, using expandable dividers to make sorting through his T-shirt collection more efficient. “It might sound cliché,” he says, “but getting ready really is that much easier if your clothes are organized. You can spend all morning looking for a specific piece and lose track of time or parts of your ritual that shouldn’t be skipped.” On top of the dresser, a leather jewelry box holds an assortment of gold bracelets and necklaces, while a modern marble tray, complete with gilded leaf-and-vine handles, serves as a base for personal items like fragrances, a sculptural vase filled with seasonal branches, and a Renaissance-era sculpture.
Rituals are important to creative spirits like Olano: “It could be a vanity, a desk where you have your morning coffee…they really all come back to cultivating our personal spaces within our homes.”
As he would an outfit, Olano uses an investment piece as a starting point. “The wood vanity reminded me of an old dresser that you might find in a French country house,” he says. “When we were at Versailles, we were able to get a private tour of Marie Antoinette’s home. I was so inspired by all the pieces she had custom-made for her, and this dresser felt like one of them. It became the catalyst for the area.”
Above the dresser sits two aged-brass wall sconces, a modern take on the Rococo-esque lights found in the palace’s most intimate spaces. “It’s important to have the right lighting,” explains Olano. “It can make or break the colors of a look you’re trying to put together.” Also present is a Baroque-style mirror, which he calls a necessity: “You always need somewhere to get a last look before you leave the house.”
Self-described minimalist Arvin Olano’s Las Vegas home is a haven of neutrality; the design content creator’s space is ripe with bouclé, Italian marble, and organic shapes. But a recent stay at Le Grand Contrôle hotel at Versailles had him reconsidering his understated approach.
“I was thinking about the ritual of a king and queen getting dressed by the members of their household,” Olano says of walking through the Jules Hardouin-Mansart-designed halls of the palace. Surrounded by French Baroque architecture, he pictured the extravagant preparations they would deal with each morning—and how he has similar, albeit slightly scaled-back, routines at home. “For me, putting on my jewelry, makeup, and clothing is a special moment, so I wanted to create a space within my bedroom that channeled that period,” he explains. Olano pulled pieces from Walmart’s spring style offering—which calls attention to the elegance of the Regency era but with a twist—and designed a dressing area that makes getting ready more personal.
“When I think of Regency, I think of modern-day Bridgerton,” says Olano. To translate that idea within the confines of his near-monochromatic home, he selected “vintage-inspired items that one might find at Versailles, but reinterpreted them with my own modern touches.” The result is all the formality of a Louis XIV–style space without compromising on function.
Photos by Jazmyn Le Words by Landon Peoples
This YouTube star’s dressing area marries minimalism and Marie Antoinette.
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For me, putting on my jewelry, makeup, and clothing is a special moment, so I wanted to create a space within my bedroom that channels the Regency era.”
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