A Funny Thing Happened

on the Way to Charleston

/ by Brendan Blowers / photography by Inspiro 8 Studios

A stone’s throw from Pelham Road sits a quintessential Charleston-style home.Welcoming pineapple statues lead to aside-facing privacy porch, Georgian features,rich wood accents and a lush secret garden. The house is owned by two creative New Yorkers, but the story of this home is a layered collage, much like the green, gold and silver place setting of the antique dining table that sits under a shimmering chandelier. The house wasn’t supposed to be here; at least, that’s what Linda Derector and her partner Sonia Col thought. The women had reached a point in their lives where they wanted a place that would serve as an exit strategy from the hustle of New York City and assumed the perfect Southern home would be discovered next to its counterparts South of Broad on Charleston’s storied Battery. “We fell in love with Charleston,” Derector says, but life has a way of writing detours into welll laid plans. A chance meeting with a Clemson alum in Saks Fifth Avenue led to Derector learning of the Upstate. “My mother could live anywhere in the world, but when she retires she’s going to move to Greenville, South Carolina,” the Clemson grad had said. The bold statement piqued Derector’s interest and after convincing Col it was worth a visit, they packed up their BMW 750 and aimed it more west of the coast and the promise of a place worth relocating to. The realtor who showed Derector and Col this Charleston design home, knew it would be the best one they would see. Designer Eric Brown had been renting the house at the time. “We walked in and it was a total show house,” Derector says. It was literally and figuratively miles away from the cookie cutter homes of Levittown, Long Island where Derector grew up. The couple are both from humble, working-class families. Col, who is Brazilian, has always been a risk-taker; she’s a New York immigration lawyer representing corporate finance and multinational organizations and is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and English. In Manhattan, Derector worked for nearly forty years in the fashion industry selling menswear, then women’s wear, even Italian fabrics for a time. For five years, she ran a luxe eyeware boutique in Nolita (Linda Derector Out of the Ordinary Eyewear) and counted Sean Combs among its clientele. Derector had met Col as a personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman, on the “ready to wear” floor. The two hit it off and have complemented each other’s talents ever since. When Col leaves New York to come back to Greenville, she relaxes more, immersing herself in sensual and tactile comforts including cooking, gardening and painting. Derector says the house speaks to her. Today Derector runs the household dayto-day with their two dogs, Pucci and Gigli, by her side. She curates the home’s eye candy with the same full spectrum attention she used to use styling New York’s most distinguished shoppers. Col and Derector enjoy hosting parties. An evening often begins with cocktails in the living room, one of several spacious parlors where a classy bar cart sits cornered. Just being in the home makes guests feel properly indulged (even the bathrooms and butler’s pantry are elegant). Assuredly, great stories have begun here. The strength of a Charleston-style home lies in its versatility. Half of the space is grand enough to serve even large parties, while the back den and upstairs quarters are more insulated. High ceilings, thick moldings and Grecian columns wrapped inside of a solid brick exterior can feel heavy, but the right amount of personal expression has balanced the home’s interiors. Art by Amy Leigh Carstensen in the living room and Yuroz in the master bedroom add the right amount of flair to the more formal lines. A portrait of Derector by Brooklyn artist Mary Ann McGinnis captures the confident personality of its subject. To give the rooms a fresh face, Derector handpicked wallpaper by Clarence House, Fornasetti and Mario Russo. Fitzpatrick rugs soften and break up the wide-plank wood floors. When merchandising her eyewear store, Derector recalls organizing the frames by color rather than brand. She treated her collection like museum pieces and the fashion-conscious that came through her doors appreciated the approach. She’s always designed things her way, not paying too much attention to trends. She brought this same attitude to decorating their Greenville house but wasn’t above getting help from expert interior designers James Wood of SW Design Consultants in New York and Renee Johnstone of RL Interiors, locally. What was achieved is a traditional Charleston home dressed up with smart tech and a splash of twenty-first-century glam. Col and Derector developed their broad appreciation of art, fine furniture, fabrics and custom handiwork from their tapestried life, entrepreneurial spirit and travel to culturally rich places such as South Africa, Brazil and Miami’s South Beach. Over the years, they’ve grown to appreciate all of the beautiful things they’ve picked up along the way. In the past they have owned a home on Long Island’s Sag Harbor as well as a 167-acre ranch in Brazil. Over time, the fine things they’ve collected have become treasures and support the greatest work of art anyone can hope to achieve: a fascinating life. Col and Derector are captivating women and their home represents them well. “When we moved here, we didn’t know a living soul. What brought us here was this house.”