Jenny Wolf on Expanding The Huntress and Its Pack
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MILAN — Interior designer Jenny Wolf, who started out in fashion working in retail development at Ralph Lauren, has had a few second acts since moving to New York City.
The first was defecting from the fashion industry to embark on an interior design degree at Parsons and the second was starting her design career. The third was starting her concept store The Huntress, and the fourth was creating a community around her design ethos and energy.
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It’s Tuesday and she’s at her newly opened store on 632 Hudson Street in the West Village. Flowers are being cut and curated at the Fleurvoyant by Emily Swarts shop-in-shop corner and festive verdant decor cornices the antiques and mantles. The festive vibe is a part of the “A Very Huntsman Holiday,” which runs until Monday in collaboration with Robin Rice Gallery, showcasing a collection of Huntsman-inspired art pieces.
“When you’re an interior designer, you work through so many clients and you’re kind of working toward their taste. The store was kind of more of a creative outlet for myself,” she told WWD, adding that her brand messaging is centered around the idea that “home is a feeling.” In the rear of the store, the Huntress offers design consultations for clients seeking a curated in-home design service. This includes advice on furnishing the entire home or simply a final layer of styling.
Wolf is in what she calls Huntress gear — a fedora and a denim shirt, which she said should have been an Ida jumpsuit by London-based designer Donna Ida, because that’s an essential “Huntress 101” wardrobe staple that empowers women.
Upon noticing that customers “just like to hang out” in the retail space, Wolf decided to host a roster of events and rituals like tea ceremonies and intention ceremonies — all things that nurture oneself, she said, a reprieve from the frenetic city outside her charming doors. The Huntress’ list of members has grown to the thousands, she said.
“People are asking to be let in and they just love to spend time in our stores,” she enthused of her exclusive events and high-profile connections, noting that the firm works with fashion go-to healer and female shaman Deborah Hanekamp. Hanekamp, who goes by the name Mama Medicine, prescribes among a variety of rituals a prescription for a crystal and herb bath. Wolf admits she takes two of those a day.
The Huntress carries a broad range of goods: furnishings, lighting, tabletop items, decor, jewelry, accessories and the store’s own branded line of luxury bath products, teas and candles. Created to encourage performing self care rituals in the home, they are named after Artemis, the goddess of chastity, hunting and the moon, often depicted with a bow and arrow (The Huntress logo). “Artemis is my muse,” Wolf said.
Wolf, who has designed about 250 residential projects in the last 13 years, has interior design practically in her DNA. She grew up in New Orleans and on the coast of South Carolina in a family of furniture retailers. Her brother, Justin Sonfield, is the chief executive officer of Jonathan Adler. She opened her design firm in early 2011 and founded her first store in Pound Ridge, N.Y., in 2019. The Huntress also has a boutique at the Washington, Conn., Mayflower Inn & Spa. She completed her first luxury hospitality project, the White Barn Inn, an Auberge Resort, in Kennebunk, Maine, in the summer of 2020.
In addition to being a single mom of three girls and running her interior design and retail businesses, she’s embarking on a new journey around curated retreats. The first one will be spearheaded by Hanekamp herself and take place May 16 to 20 at Château de Gudanes in Château Verdun, an 18th-century retreat in the Pyrenees, for the price of 6,093 euros. Guests will be treated to cuisine selected from the gardens and crafted by Le Cordon Blue trained chefs, while mornings will be devoted to leisurely strolls through the gardens, yoga or choosing from a selection of restorative holistic healing modalities (reiki, yoga, acupressure massage, sound healing or meditation), indulging in The Huntress’ own Artemis line and browsing through markets and antique shops.
Wolf said that life is going at full speed, but on her own terms. And she finally feels like she is on the right path, learning, like Artemis the mythological huntress who lost her power when she began chasing her prey, that manifesting is more effective.
This, she said, is what the community is all about. “It’s kind of part of our brand messaging. Coming into oneself helps create and manifest beauty in our lives. It’s about empowering people.”
