Billionaire Diva In Houston

Billionaire lifestyle diva hits Houston, takes on every aspect of beautiful living: Move over Ralph Lauren!

As style and image director for Estée Lauder and more recently founder and creator of the luxury lifestyle brand Aerin, Aerin Lauder is one busy woman. Witness her recent visit to Houston when she made personal appearances at Neiman Marcus to talk beauty products, to Circa Lighting to talk lamps and chandeliers and finally to Longoria Collection in Uptown Park where she wowed fans with her home furnishings and accessories line — all in one day.

The indefatigable Lauder first worked at her grandmother's beauty empire, Estée Lauder Companies, in the summers during college and then began the climb through the ranks by starting at Prescriptives. After earning the mantle of style and image director, the mother of two young sons expanded her oeuvre to include lifestyle. Move over Ralph Lauren as she continues to expand Aerin from home furnishings and accessories to soon include bedding.

"Color can be tricky. I think color is great to live with but it's easy to make mistakes in color."

In 2012 she launched a capsule, edited beauty collection, followed that holiday season with candles and home objects. Over the past two years, she has added 11 categories, collaborations that include everything from sunglasses to lighting fixtures. That's a lot of work for the woman who reached the billionaire ranks last year according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

CultureMap sat down for a brief chat with Lauder during her Longoria Collection visit.

CultureMap: In your book Beauty at Home (published last year), you share images of your homes in New York and the Hamptons and provide inspiration for DIY decorators. What is your definition of beauty in the sense of home?

Aerin Lauder: It means something different for everyone because for me the definition of beauty and what makes you happy for me is about friends and family and it's living with items that have been handed down generation to generation and total comfort.

CM: What is the key to successfully decorating a home?

AL: If you really go with elements that you love, you can't go wrong. Also, comfort is very important. And I think that light fixtures can create a room. I've always loved lighting and that's one of the reasons that it's one of our largest categories. If you put a ceiling fixture up or you have a floor lamp, even if you have no other furniture, it immediately creates a space.

CM: How would you define the Aerin line?

AL: It's about comfort and wonderful home objects. Even when you are sitting in a dining room chair like these (from her collection and where we are sitting) they're super comfortable — the beautiful fabric, the finishes, the textures, the different accents all work together. Also, we do a lot of these wonderful home objects. It's a big category for us.

So it's the whole idea of accessories for you home, picture frames, vases, candy dishes. It's the whole idea of making your home feel inviting and warm.

CM: From articles on your homes that have appeared in Elle Decor, Architectural Digest and Harper's Bazaar, it's obvious you have a penchant for blue and white but I don't see it so much in this collection. What is your take on color in home design?

AL: Color can be tricky. I think color is great to live with but it's easy to make mistakes in color. I think you should live with color but do it in a subtle way. I think sometimes you can play with color in a smaller room or as an accent but in my experience a bright, bright color in a large room is hard to live with. I use a lot of gold — matt gold, textured gold — in my accessories. It's a great accent.

CM: As you expand the brand next to include bedding, it sounds as if you are giving Ralph Lauren Home a run for the money.

AL: Ralph Lauren is a wonderful role model and I do think there is a great opportunity in the market place for a feminine approach to lifestyle with a sense of heritage . . . It's very exciting it has made me so proud of what we've accomplished with a very small team but an incredible team.

And I think my grandmother would be proud as she always advised me to follow my dreams, work hard and be passionate about what I do.

Another slice of life from Aerin Lauder's "Beauty at Home" book.

210 Aerin Lauder Beauty at Home book December 2014

Another slice of life from Aerin Lauder's "Beauty at Home" book.

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Branching Out

Hidden gem Houston store offers timeless antiques at affordable prices

Photo by Emily Cotton

Hand-selected imports fill this Spring Valley showroom.

Not far off the beaten path, in Houston’s Spring Valley neighborhood, exists an unassuming industrial building with a door marked only by the giant, seemingly anachronistic, olive oil jar that houses an olive tree. Behind this door lies Living Century Home, a store that sells imported decorative goods from Greece, Turkey, Indonesia, and India — all 100-years-old or more.

Founded in 2023, this fledgling company has already gained “cult status” among designers and architects from all over the Southeast. Even more impressive is that their marketing strategy is merely old-fashioned word-of-mouth. This appointment-only showroom sees two visitors a day on average, which makes sense when each appointment lasts between two and three hours. These time blocks may seem extreme, but once immersed in Living Century’s santal-scented sea of olive jars, small pots, and wooden pieces, it becomes clear how easily a person could lose all sense of time while searching for that perfect piece.

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Umit Aktura founded Living Century Home for pragmatic reasons — he and wife Melis found it frustrating to source authentic antique olive jars for their own home. That previous lack of authentic inventory stateside is how Aktura explains their rapid success, even opening a secondary location near the Dallas Design District last year.

“I’m not someone who can sit behind a computer monitor all day,” Aktura tells CultureMap. The former software engineer and University of Houston alumnus decided to take the leap into home decor importing once the family had successfully sourced items for themselves.

“We try to source the best products, we have Round Top quality and better,” says Aktura. “We sometimes take two months overseas sourcing the very best.”

Living Century Home is aware that many garden centers and big box stores offer mass-produced replicas of the types of items in their inventory, but that’s not an issue for them. “That’s not our client,” he explains.

While many replicas exist of the large, white, olive jars from Greece, the highly textural and patinated jars from other countries are impossible to replicate. The three most popular styles come from Turkey and are known for their distinctive regional traits. These Turkish jars are Avanos, Aydin, and Odemis.

To assist clients with completing the Living Century look, the company also sells regionally appropriate “Shady Lady,” aka “Black Olive” trees in 6-9’ heights — very full service indeed.

Every item in inventory is subject to an authentication process and is tagged with color codes and numbered seals — they have provenance. “Everything we have I’ve put my own hands on and personally selected,” Aktura tells CultureMap.

Olive jars of all sizes, small jugs, bread boards, accent tables and stools carved from a single piece of wood, the list of items is impressive. Beautifully carved cabinets from India sit alongside a small selection of dining tables. The store also stocks rare, lime-washed paper mache “bowls” (just don’t add water!).

“The best pieces are only here because we love them,” says Aktura. “That’s why we take so much time sourcing.”

Most items from Living Century Home are purchased for private collections, though recently their antiques can be seen at Houston Greek restaurant Niko Niko’s, the new Yellow Rose by Kendra Scott store in the Heights, and what will be a very public-facing art installation in a soon-to-be-announced restaurant.

Do not be misled by their appointment-only approach to doing business. With pricing between $45-$2,000, their antiques are very accessible, but hagglers beware: “This isn’t a Round Top festival style ‘buy two, get 50-percent off’ sort of place,” says Aktura with a laugh. “Everything here is special.” Duly noted.

Photo by Emily Cotton

Hand-selected imports fill this Spring Valley showroom.

home design living century home shopping