When Zak Profera left his day job to launch a fabric business in 2012, he did what many self-employed New Yorkers do: turned his apartment into an office. “The biggest work space I had was my queen-size bed,” he recalls with a laugh. “I’d sit among a pile of fabric swatches, writing all the product info on the back of each sample.”
Six years later, the rising textile talent behind Zak + Fox—which he runs with his Shiba Inu, Shinji—hit the real estate jackpot, moving into the top floor of a glamorous early-20th-century savings-and-loan building on Park Avenue South. “I can’t believe I come to work here every day,” he says of the building, which boasts an old-school gilded elevator (with operator), a spiraling iron staircase, and a rooftop space that Profera can’t wait to get his hands on (an outdoor fabric collection is reportedly in the works).
Textile racks by Matt McKay stand amid reupholstered vintage furnishings, all for sale.
Of course, like most buildings with rich histories, it needed a little TLC. Five decades of thick white paint covered the bronze moldings; bleached pine floorboards hid turn-of-the-century herringbone parquet; and the drop ceiling concealed a large skylight. Renovation done, Profera rolled in racks of his globally inspired textiles—from ocher-hued linens printed with Tibetan dragons and Japanese obi-inspired geometrics to luxurious new additions in velvet, alpaca, and mohair. Shelves are filled with lively, patterned cushions, and his new wool throws (wittily named Yak + Fox) are stocked by the sofa.
Profera also put his auction-shopping habit to good use, sprinkling the place with blue-chip vintage furniture, including Gio Ponti sofas and Lehr and Leubert chairs that he’s dressed up in his own textiles. Elsewhere are exotic trinkets from his travels, such as an Igbo spirit-dance costume and an assortment of exotic masks. The best part? It’s all for sale.
At 25th Street, the showroom—not unlike its contents—feels like the perfect middle ground between the uptown and downtown design worlds. As a testament to that, Profera’s clients, which run the gamut from hip new firms like Damon Liss Design to decorating legend Cullman & Kravis Associates , have already popped in. “We want it to be a one-stop shop,” he explains. “I think the collection is robust enough that you can at least find something here, if not a whole room.”
The only thing that isn’t for sale in the nearly 3,000-square-foot space? Profera’s hulking copper partner’s desk. Which is understandable, considering that it once belonged to revered furniture designer Edgar Bartolucci. “It was the first thing I got when I signed the lease,” Profera says, adding with a laugh, “I needed a boss desk.” zakandfoom