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SEPTEMBER | PAGE 72 | 2015 entourage.. "It was the times," says Smith. "If you had a look they liked, they let you in. I wore red alligator cowboy boots, a raccoon coat to the floor and a Cartier Rolling ring, Love bracelet and Tank watch. That was my look. But when you are walking home at 4:30 in the morning in that outfit in Brooklyn, you'd better know how to run in cowboy boots." T he next decade was a wild ride that included an eight-year stint as Allen's costume designer and manager, where he traveled the globe on tour with the performer. Later he became proprietor of a restaurant in the West Village — bankrolled by the Mafia he says — then he was a fund-raiser and event planner when the AIDS epidemic hit. The liaisons with Allen and Warhol had introduced Smith to an exotic world of jet-setters, artists and celebrities. It also acquainted him with the best in furniture, art, antiques and design. His own apartment in New York was filled with antiques and contemporary furnishings he'd collected during his globetrotting with Allen, as well as art given to him by Warhol and other artists he'd befriended. People asked him to do their apartments, and at one point he'd worked on 15 apartments in his own building, including one belonging to Tony Award-winning theater director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell, who remains a client. "My whole reference for interior design is from life experience and from the artists I know," he says. "I learned about lighting and making a space comfortable from running a restaurant and planning galas. All these The TV room incudes a coffee table designed by Smith's friend of 30 years, Vicente Wolf, and rug from Creative Flooring Resources. Of the many works of art on the walls is a photo by Robert Mapplethorpe and a portrait of Smith by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (far left). Artwork is by emerging Houston artist Max Messenger. Carved and water-gilded early 18th-century Italian side table. Vernon Fisher's Oh Roy hangs in the kitchen. Pair of artworks on the wall by Isca Greenfield- Sanders, daughter of artist Timothy Greenfield- Sanders. In the TV room beyond, artwork above the sofa is by McKay Otto, a gift from the artist. The black chairs are by Art Deco designer Gilbert Rohde, which Smith has owned since age 15.