Where a Designer Gets Her Vintage Cartier
Veronica de Piante has an eye for good outerwear, whether it’s finding a holy-grail piece in a vintage store or creating her own. The designer’s namesake brand is a reflection of her evolving personal style. “I love sharp tailoring and dark colors, but I’m opening myself up to more colors just done in my own way,” she says. “It makes you more confident. I don’t need to stick to what I know — I can venture out.”
She considers good style a mix of vintage and unique pieces, even without the designer budget, and cites her teenage children as style inspiration: “They buy their vintage pieces, and I’ll want them. They take a unique piece and really make it theirs.”
See where de Piante got the pieces that made their way into her curated wardrobe and home.
Where did you get your signature scent?
I love the scent of neroli. I use Neroli Portofino from Tom Ford, and I layer it with Cristalle by Chanel. Neroli was something I grew up with; my mother was very big on baby cologne, and I would put it on my children, too, and it’s still fresh. It reminds me of growing up in the Middle East, where orange blossom and jasmine are quite prominent scents. The Tom Ford one is the perfect neroli, and I live in fear that they’ll discontinue it because everything I love gets discontinued. I buy in bulk — it’s really embarrassing when you open my bathroom cabinet. They repackaged the Chanel and it disappeared for a year and I thought they discontinued it, so I went to some dodgy website and found 15 of them.
Chanel Cristalle Eau de Toilette Spray
Tom Ford Neroli Portofino, 50ml
Where did you get the inanimate object that brings you the most joy?
My faux leopard coat is from Yves Saint Laurent. I don’t think the vintage-store owner knew what he had. I went to Saint Laurent a few months later and the woman there pulled out a book and showed me the coat in their archives. My daughter had just left for university and my family lived in Florence, and one weekend, when we were visiting, my daughter said she found a cool vintage store. We were walking in the store, and I was Googling leopard coats on my phone, and two seconds later we walked into the store and this coat was there. It was almost like it was meant to be.
Where did you get your favorite piece of clothing?
The Charlotte trench is from Veronica de Piante. It’s the first piece that I designed, and it’s based on my dear friend Charlotte. Her style is very unique, and I envisioned her wearing this trench. It’s a mixture of who she is, her style and personality. It’s casual, it’s cool, it’s sharp. I gifted it to her and I have one myself and we wear it to death. A lot of the pieces in the first collection are very personal to me and named after my husband, my children, my mother.
Veronica de Piante Charlotte Trench in Leather
Where did you get your most recent purchase?
My Ungaro dress is from Desert Vintage in the East Village. I’m not a long-dress or a ruffle person, but I just saw it and tried it on and I loved it with the sneakers I was wearing. There’s something interesting about the movement of the dress, and the black and the navy reminded me of ’90s Prada.
Where did you get your favorite item to layer?
I like the Luna knit or a simple merino crewneck. Cashmere irritates my skin after a while, but I love fine-gauge merinos and tend to layer one of those, a snood, and a big coat. When it’s really cold, I’ll go with a thick cashmere-wool mix. Sometimes I wear a T-shirt underneath. I like the T-shirts from Zara, Toteme, Khaite, Prada, and James Perse. Prada has T-shirts that come in packs of three, and they last for so long. I wash and wear them thousands of times, and they look brand new. It’s embarrassing to say I have plain white T-shirts from Prada.
Zara Slim Fit Short Sleeve T-shirt
Where did you get what’s on your nightstand?
This is my 1950s Murano “bullicante” glass table lamp. These lamps remind me of sea urchins, and I find them so beautiful that I got some for me and some for the girls in pink. I just fell in love them and I kept buying them. My husband said, “How many of these do you need?”
Where did you get your skin-care routine?
My skin care was pretty basic until my girls got me into it. They have 600 products, they’re on TikTok, and every week there’s a new product they have to have. They recommend a lot of Korean skin-care brands. They make me wear these collagen masks that turn white on airplanes. There’s also a brand called Nulastin that a dermatologist in London recommends. They said I should up my game on my body creams because I use Nivea, which I still love. I love the smell — it’s comforting to me.
Biodance Bio-Collagen Real Deep Mask - Set of 4
Nivea Creme
Where did you get the item you wear the most?
My Cartier watch is from my mother. When I’m layering, one arm is very chic with nice pieces my husband gave me, and the other side is bracelets my kids made me or gave me years ago. I also have a Cartier onyx ring that I got from a vintage market in New York that a jeweler recommended to us. It’s a simple onyx piece, and out of all the sparkly pieces in that room, I went straight for that. I thought it was so elegant and simple.
Where did you get the item you splurged on the most?
At an art auction house in New York. I had fallen in love with this artist Cecily Brown and my husband auctioned a piece gifted it for my birthday. She uses a lot of color and there are hidden figures in it and it’s very abstract and you keep seeing things you haven’t seen before. There’s great color, she really nows how to create this feeling. I keep it in the living room.
Where did you get your favorite pair of shoes?
Those would be my biker boots from Paris, Texas. I walked into a store in East Hampton with my eldest daughter and she saw them and tried them on, but I really wanted them, too. She said, “You always copy me, Mom,” but she copies me more. But I really wanted them, so we both got them. The other day we went to see Coldplay and we were in the pit, so I wore them; I wear them with a nice dress or out to dinner. I also like wearing Nike Air Force Ones and Daybreaks. I like Adidas too.
Paris Texas Roxy 45mm Biker Boots
Nike Air Force 1 (Women’s)