La Fumée.
Part speakeasy. Part listening room. 100% decadent micro disco.
I see my home as my personal laboratory, a place to experiment and write the formulas that create the tangible atmospheres I wish to share with family and friends. My newest equation has solved the problem of where to go on a Saturday night (or any night for that matter) that feels inviting, sensual, private, and transportive. The answer is La Fumée, my decadent micro disco, a study in the nuance of noir, save for the luminous brass wall that begs you to linger in its glow. A private realm that brings my friends together for intimate conversations, impromptu dancing, and slipping into an alternate universe in which we are connected in collective auditory and tactile pleasure.
Pour a drink. Drop the needle on the turntable. Illuminate the disco ball. Fall into another world, if only for a few hours.
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Photography: Tré Koch @trekoch (/trekoch/) @go__see (/go__see/)
Producer: Nicolas Rivet @nicolas_rivet_ (/nicolas_rivet_/)
Makeup : Gregory Arlt @gregoryarlt (/gregoryarlt/)
Hair: Jon Lieckfelt @jonlieckfeltbeauty (/jonlieckfeltbeauty/)
1st Photo Assistant: Mikey Massas
2nd Photo Assistant / Capture Pilot: Dillon Padgette @dillonpadgettephoto (/dillonpadgettephoto/)
Branding & Marketing: @auntieagency (/auntieagency/)
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#atmosphere #ElementsOfAtmosphere #sensualspaces #theatmospherist #moodyinteriors
My dear friend, Pegah Watson @beyondvintagehome found this lit wall and sent it my way, knowing it was exactly my kind of faded glamour.
It came from a dismantled 1970s casino (I suspect it was originally a ceiling). When it arrived, it had deep scratches, layers of dust, and no electrical grid. It lived in storage for years, waiting for the right room.
My new house—designed and built with my father—was supposed to have a library. Instead it became La Fumée: a sultry, intimate room for late-night gatherings with close friends, vinyl on repeat. The second I imagined this piece in there, I knew it could be the focal point… even though I’d already committed to the main structural elements of the room without planning around it, including the found bookcases from @hammerandspear .
My design philosophy is simple: if you love it, it works. Usually that’s aesthetic—but this time the logistics agreed too. I measured the piece and the wall, and it fit within inches—one of those rare alignments where the object and the room just click.
Restoring it was hands-on: cleaning, polishing by hand, rebuilding the electrical system, and solving problems as they came up—plus help from family when I needed extra hands. Now it’s the room’s finishing move: warm glow, intimacy, and a controlled dose of vintage decadence.
As we close out 2025, I’m full of gratitude for the opportunities and experiences I’ve built and been part of—personally and professionally. More than anything, it’s a celebration of the creative artists and visionaries I’m so lucky to call friends, and what happens when you bring that talent together: friends of many years, and those we’ve only just entered each other’s orbit.
This shoot was a reminder of the alchemy of a great creative team—shared trust, a room charged with vision and chemistry, and everyone moving in sync. And it was also the joy of relinquishing control (something I rarely do, haha) and letting myself be interpreted through their collective vision.
Leaving 2025 grateful for community, collaboration, and the people who make the work what it is. Onward, together.
Photography: Tré Koch @trekoch@go__see
Producer: Nicolas Rivet @nicolas_rivet_
Makeup : Gregory Arlt @gregoryarlt
Hair: Jon Lieckfelt @jonlieckfeltbeauty
1st Photo Assistant: Mikey Massas
2nd Photo Assistant / Capture Pilot: Dillon Padgette @dillonpadgettephoto
Branding & Marketing: @auntieagency
This piece came from a long-held fascination with feather sculpture and the quiet intensity of working by hand. I’ve been deeply inspired by artists like @kate_mccgwire , whose sculptural use of found feathers transforms something delicate into something architectural, almost alive.
The corset was built intuitively, one feather at a time. Each feather was sorted by size and bend, clipped individually, and placed slowly, narrowing at the waist, opening again through the bust, allowing the form to emerge as I worked. There were no sketches, just observation, repetition, and constant reference back to how feathers naturally fall on a bird’s body.
This kind of making is where I feel most grounded. It’s physical, focused, and meditative, a process of problem-solving and instinct, of trusting the hands to lead. I return to this work again and again because it brings clarity, calm, and the deep satisfaction of building something entirely by touch.
I’m now beginning to offer these feather corsets as bespoke pieces. If this process speaks to you, you’re welcome to DM. 🖤🖤
These still lives began without a plan. They’re gathered slowly, often alone, on beaches, by streams, or deep in the forest. I’m drawn to shapes first, bones, shells, plant life, things that feel quietly charged.
I collect what catches my eye, then lay everything out like puzzle pieces. Sometimes they become small assemblages, sometimes little figures, sometimes something almost humorous. Most of the time, I leave them behind, placed gently in a room or on a table, small treasures for someone else to find.
This is my form of meditation. Walking, observing, noticing what others might pass by. A way of grounding myself, wherever I am, and letting nature start the conversation.
The Nuance of Noir
Many dismiss an all-black wardrobe as a style cop-out—lazy, colorless, or performatively goth. But for me, black is an endless wellspring of inspiration and discovery.
When color palettes are removed, I can focus on the aspects of fashion that truly excite me: silhouette, embellishment, cut and drape. Victorian mourning garb, 1920s decadence, and Japanese restraint convene in a salon of ideas—an improbable conversation that somehow works. Beading, embroidery, feathers, plissé, laser cut, fringe, ornate tassels—techniques and embelishments that make my heart beat a little faster. Jacquards, brocades, velvets, leather, lace, textured wools and light-as-air chiffons—materials that celebrate mans innovation and span the arc of the invention and refinement of production techniques. Noir is a never-ending education in the art of the mix. Every texture tells its own story. Every detail gets its moment.
In my three plus decades of sourcing and curating my palette of noir, I never tire of it. I’m always excited to discover the next piece to invite to the salon and hear what it has to say. Yes, I have my jewel tones. And in my wardrobe philosophy, leopard and metallics are neutrals. But I return to black again and again—not in protest of color, but as a philosophy. And within it, infinite possibility.
Revisiting one of my earliest creations:
Everyday Exotics — Raven by Raven Kauffman Couture.
This collection was born from a question I couldn’t stop asking—how do we capture the sensuality and history of exotic skins without using them? The answer came from an unexpected source: vintage Victorian crocodile bags. I collected them, carefully took them apart, and created molds from their century-old textures. From a single antique bag, I could cast thousands—infinitely, ethically, and with almost no waste.
From those molds, I developed a proprietary, hand-cast rubber “skin” that I sculpted, poured, baked, and painted to mimic the nuance of alligator and crocodile. Ten meticulous processes, 28 pairs of hands, and no two pieces ever alike.
The bags were fully vegan, water-resistant, feather-light, and crafted in the USA with recycled Ultrasuede and custom tassels made in Los Angeles. Even the raven’s-head motif and cast-feather zipper pull were hand-carved in my studio.
When the collection launched, the response was immediate. Editors described the bags as “luxurious… convincingly crocodile or alligator” and celebrated how they blended couture-level craftsmanship with ethical innovation. They appeared in WWD, the Los Angeles Times, and became favorites of women who love pieces with personality, history, and soul.
Sharing them again now feels like a return to my creative roots—a reminder that material alchemy and reinvention have always been at the center of my work.
2009 - The year this creation was born from hundreds of hand-painted feathers, with each stroke of gold turning fabric into motion. A quiet armor of light, shaped by undulating patience, repetition, and the shimmer of imagined wings ✨
