Master of Disguise: Simone Harouche

THE DOSSIER: NAME: Simone Harouche. TRADE: Fashion Stylist for Miley Cyrus and the one and only Xtina. Designer of tribal-infused handbag line Simone Camille. STYLE COHORT: Courtney Applebaum. VIBE: Old Hollywood glamour with a hit of midcentury and surprise pay-offs for miles. ABODE: A 1930s colonial in Beverly Hills, CA.

THE DOSSIER: NAME: Simone Harouche. TRADE: Fashion Stylist for Miley Cyrus and the one and only Xtina. Designer of tribal-infused handbag line Simone Camille. STYLE COHORT: Courtney Applebaum. VIBE: Old Hollywood glamour with a hit of midcentury and surprise pay-offs for miles. ABODE: A 1930s colonial in Beverly Hills, CA.

 

 

A soft-spoken blonde with her own starlet appeal, celebrity stylist Simone Harouche and her husband, commercial real estate whiz Marc Bretter, moved into their two-story 1930s colonial residence soon after getting married in 2010. The pair enlisted decorator Courtney Applebaum with scarce furniture to build from, save for a black army canvas couch from  Environment, beloved by Bretter for its crazy-comfortable factor. ?We were not allowed to get rid of it,? Applebaum sighs. ?Whether I liked it or not, that was a starting point: it required the entire room to be shaped around it because it?s so large.?

 

 

FROM THIS COUCH FORWARD The scale of the controversial piece was contagious: a mammoth  Zanini de Zanine Brazilian rosewood coffee table and an ?Alice in Wonderland-sized? (Harouche?s words) vintage leather club chair were installed, along with the room?s focal point, a towering landscape by painter Deanna Thompson. Around the corner, a faceted Art Deco mirror from JF Chendominates a wall in the dining room, opposite a reverse-painted-glass dining room table set with Milo Baughman chairs. Even Harouche?s taxidermy has a drumroll-worthy presence; a pair of dandified chickens by Francois Daneck, tricked out in bowtie and rippling cravat, preen in front of her grand fireplace.

 

 

 

AND DON?T FORGET THE GOTHIC ?I like things that look a little creepy,? Simone Harouche tells us, by way of introducing us to a photo collage in the living room titled 100 Guys You Shouldn?t Introduce to Your Sister. ?People don?t realize they?re prison mug shots until they get closer,? she says of the framed collection of 1950s arrest images. ?I like that.?

 

 

LET?S QUIET DOWN A BIT Her bedroom, however, is a refuge of neutrality. ?I want it to be clean and calm,? she explains, noting the milky spectrum that spans her Matteo sheets to her silk chenille rug. Jewel-like glass pendants flank the bed, while a hyper-saturated Ellen Von Unwerth photo, a wedding gift from Aguilera, hangs over a dainty Mastercraft desk.

 

 

 

NOBODY PUTS BABY IN THE CORNER ?Simone definitely knows what she likes and doesn?t like?in the end, she really went for it,? says Applebaum of the nursery of Harouche?s seven-month-old son Dashiel Bretter (who was two-and-a-half-months at the time of our visit). For flair, Harouche enlisted Alexandra Fisher and Kevin Johnson of Clamdiggin for a custom black and white mural. ?I was like, ?I want robots and airplanes, and an owl, I?m into horses and Native American stuff, and my dad?s Egyptian?so maybe put some hieroglyphics on there,? she says of the sprawling creative direction she gave the artist duo. They went one better, incorporating everything, along with the phases of the moon for the baby?s birthday sign, Libra. ?My Dad was like, ?This room is really weird,?? Harouche laughs, acknowledging her un-baby-like approach. ?But Dash is obsessed with that wall and stares at it all the time,? she smiles triumphantly. ?So to all the naysayers: he loves it.?

 

 

 

Shop the collection from Simone Camille here.