Dressing Rooms

Clothing designer Daniela Corte uses the same kind of simple lines and bold details in her collections as she does in her contemporary-but-cosseting Back Bay home.

(Greg Premru)

DANIELA CORTE HAS ZERO TOLERANCE for the extraneous. “I can’t stand clutter,” she explains in her slight Argentine accent, adjusting a swath of Italian silk across a dress form in her Newbury Street studio. The 31-year-old designer, born in Buenos Aires but now a longtime Bostonian, has used that less-is-more philosophy in compelling legions of women to wear her trim-lined dresses and sharp-collared blouses.

She employed the same approach in designing her family’s home, a beautifully sparse 2,200-square-foot brownstone penthouse in Back Bay, just a few blocks from her studio. “I always think of my home as a minimalist place,” she says. “The pieces I love most have so much more impact when they’re in a space that’s designed as clean.”

Of course, keeping anything clean – in design or simple hygienic terms, for that matter – is no small feat, given that Corte and husband Stuart Roseman have two small kids, Natasha, 2, and Lucas, 6 months.But they manage to pull it off , armed with Corte’s love of color and strategic use of accents. “I’m crazy about textiles,” she says. “I love red: It stands out but still

goes with absolutely everything – from neutrals to prints.” Witness the tomato-red sofa that anchors her sitting area and acts as the perfect foil for two leopardprint Dolce & Gabbana-designed chairs she’s recently added. “If we added anything else to the area, it would just seem like too much,” she explains.

Another product of Corte’s affinity for color: the family’s enormous stainless-steel Wolf range, which sports bright red knobs outside and blue enamel inside. (The couple even owns matching blue-enamel cookware.) “This is exactly how I would design a stove: incredibly functional, classic, and minimalist in every way, except for one detail that has real personality,”

she says, pointing to the knobs. Then there’s the shared kids’ room – a gender-neutral mix of bright hues inspired by her new children’s clothing line. “Instead of patterns that overwhelm, we kept it simple with bright colors they both love. You know, it really is just like clothes. You live in both, and you should feel wonderful in both.” ■