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26 COLOR ME KEN BY REBECCA SHERMAN. PHOTOGRAPHY RHI LEE. K en Downing has serious sartorial chops, and lately he's been training his stylish eye on fashionable interiors. The longtime fashion director and senior VP of Neiman Marcus Group recently redecorated his tiny Art Deco-era pied-à-terre in New York, and he's in the midst of restoring a multi-story 1916 mansion in Detroit that will have studios for artists. As part of its ongoing Designer Interpretations program, Arteriors tapped Downing to design pop-up vignettes in its flagship showroom in Dallas Design District. "He's got such a great aesthetic," said Mark Moussa, founder and creative director of Arteriors. "We let him have free rein." There was also free rein with a party, which drew the Dallas style world's top brass, mixing design and fashion contingents. Anyone who knows Downing knows his more-is-more philosophy of layering color, pattern, texture, and smart bibelots. "My mother taught me never to trust anyone with a blank wall," Downing said. His color combinations were more Paris than Pantone. "I was sitting on the plane to Paris, putting vignettes together in my mind, and I was feeling very mauve," he said. "When I landed, everything in Paris was all about yellow and mauve — and so that gave me a push to go over the top." Mixed with Arteriors accessories were Downing's own books, exotic African masks, and his father's 1960s Murano glass pieces (disappointingly, not for sale). It all looked, as many commented that evening, very Ken Downing. "When you walk into someone's home, you get an immediate sense of who that person is," says Downing. "Everything is a vignette for me — life is a vignette!" Ignaz Gorischek, Ken Downing Joseph Steffen, Lisa Duffee, Lisa Garza-Selcer, Dan Rodriguez Heidi Dillon, Mark Moussa, Tina Craig Rob Brinkley, Chandra North Blaylock Hillary Hamilton, Courtney Price Sam Saladino Meaders & Robert Ozarow Michael & Karen Katz Erin Mathews, Russell Davis Deborah Scott, Rob Dailey Ken Downing for Arteriors — "Life is a vignette!"