Stylist and decorator extraordinaire Peter Valcarcel has spent the majority of his life making people and places look beautiful. His journey as an artist has led him through many different areas of the fashion and design world. Along the way, he’s worked at some of the most well-known stores in New York, met wonderful people and made great friendships, and had some amazing adventures.
His interest in both fashion and design began as a child. When his mother took him with her as she shopped at the department stores, he enjoyed looking at their display windows and at the mannequins dressed up in the latest styles. As he got older, the education and experience he gained helped him obtain several positions designing window displays at various department stores in New York City, such as Lord and Taylor, JC Penney, and Macy’s in Herald Square. He loved the combination of dressing the mannequins as well as the art of creating and designing the display areas, painting and decorating to get just the perfect look. At JC Penney he worked with designer Bill Pandolfo, who became a mentor to him. “I learned a lot about the work ethic of this industry,” Peter says. “Bill taught me that there was a time to be creative, to think and to plan, and then there was a time to work, to make sure the project got done on time.”
It was at Macy’s that Peter became interested in visual merchandising, i.e. designing a room or area in a department store. He learned that what may look like a simple room configuration entailed a lot of hard work. But his beautiful layouts led him to success, and as a result he received bigger and more detailed assignments, such as the annual Macy’s Flower Show. He also decorated several of their holiday events, wrapping thousands of empty boxes that were used as decorations.
After Macy’s, he accepted a senior position at Wallachs, a specialty clothing store for men, that gave him his own assistant. Peter was in charge of both window displays as well as the interior design work of the store. Unfortunately, Wallachs eventually closed all their stores, but it was an acquaintance at that store who introduced him to people at Barneys, which led him to a new position.
Working at Barneys was an amazing experience for Peter. “It was the mecca of clothing creativity, and it had the most amazing merchandise. I always had to be conscious of their very specific style. It was inspirational and forced me to learn and be even better.”
After three years, he left Barneys to do freelance visual merchandising and design, where he took assignments at places such as Bergdorf Goodman and Calvin Klein. Eventually he went back to full-time work, this time at Sotheby’s, where he styled for special events. He worked with the most exquisite items, such as beautiful china and elegant tablecloths, which allowed for endless possibilities yet in the end, everything had to look perfect. It was here that he was exposed to upscale, extremely stylized items and really learned the power of beautiful objects. “When you can sit in a room full of Picasso paintings, it gets to you.” The exposure and experience he gained at Sotheby’s helped him refine his taste even more.
After Sotheby’s his career took a new turn and he began a career in fashion styling, dressing models for photo shoots. His first freelance gig was styling for a fall/winter IZOD campaign on an iceberg in Alaska!
At the same time, he was also working for Ostafin Design, an interior design company, specializing in home visuals. He started off by doing work for Bergdorf Goodman. And then he had his ultimate assignment—he was invited to Southampton to decorate Calvin Klein’s house, and he had lunch with Calvin Klein, the designer himself! It was this experience that made Peter realize that he wanted to focus his career on interior design. And although he has spent the last few years freelancing at a variety of different places, he still styles the showrooms at Calvin Klein Home on Madison and 60th Street.
In addition to interior design, Peter has recently started his own business selling items and accessories for the home that he’s either created himself or found and collected over the years. Peter has always worked in retail, and to him, “Retailing is telling a story about how things are presented.” He recently opened a pop-up shop at KrisTEES in Astoria (see the accompanying article about Peter’s pop-up shop here). The shop came about because Peter wanted his own space to tell a story. He decided to create his pop-up shop at KrisTEES because he and owner Kristie Foster’s styles match, and he wanted to sell to her customers. Kristie’s initial response to his idea was, “Fantastic! Let’s try it.” Peter says that she’s been extremely positive and supported him when he had his doubts. In return, his shop is increasing the experience her customers can have at her store. Peter is hoping the pop-up shop will eventually turn into something bigger.
Between his freelance assignments making the stores of New York City look fabulous and running his pop-up shop, Peter is a busy man. But he’s always available to take on new clients for interior design projects, whether it’s helping someone style their house or apartment from scratch or assisting a client with making their home look gorgeous for a party or special event. If you’d like to hire Peter to design your home or business, contact him at info@petervalcarcel.com. In the meantime, check out his website and plan a visit to his pop-up shop in Astoria.
Opening photo and next following photo courtesy of photographer Matthew Baker.
