The ergonomic furniture of Miami-based Colombian designer Adriana Hoyos brings an effortless sense of style to her numerous projects worldwide
By Harriet Mays Powell
Adriana Hoyos did not start her design career with the intention of becoming a furniture manufacturer. That came later, at the suggestion of her husband-turned-business partner, Eduardo Perez, who helped launch her eponymous design brand in 1994. I learned this when I recently spent an afternoon with Hoyos, now an internationally renowned Colombian designer, at her new flagship atelier in the upscale Miami suburb of Coral Gables.
Perez explained that opening the furniture company was a natural progression to extend his wife’s talents as well as to meet her needs as an interior designer. Today, there are two separate but conjoined entities: Adriana Hoyos Design Studio, where we met, plus Adriana Hoyos Furnishings, the latter based in Hollywood, FL. “The company is completely vertical,” says Perez. “We control the entire supply chain, including the growing and farming of trees, five of which are replanted for each one cut down for lumber.”
As well as ensuring the sustainability of the firm’s resources, Perez says that both he and Hoyos care deeply about the social impact of the business. Currently, it provides jobs to 340 employees in Ecuador, with the workforce equally divided between men and women. (A significant advantage of having the manufacturing based in Ecuador is a shipping time of just 10 days. Most high-end furniture, Perez explains, is made in Asia, four or five weeks’ away.)
For Hoyos, the ability to supply her interior design work with her own furniture creations makes the work – ranging from residences to resorts and hotels, cruise ships, even airport renovations – a seamless operation. On my arrival, she pointed to myriad large photographs on the walls that showcase her projects – past, present and future. These commissions include the reimagined airport in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; the complete renovation of the clubhouse and restaurant on Miami’s Fisher Island; and numerous multi-million dollar private homes, stretching from New York to Central and South America and the Middle East.
Hoyos says that even as a young girl in Colombia, she knew she was going to be a designer. (Her childhood passion: constructing homes for her dolls, including all the furniture.) Later, she decided against a six-year architecture degree, opting instead for a four-year course in interior design. After graduating from Marymount University in Arlington, VA, Hoyos came to Ecuador. At that time, there were few interior designers in Quito and little demand for their services. She realized it would be a difficult industry to break into, saw the growth potential, and opened her own studio.
Initially, Hoyos could find only a few projects at architecture firms, doing schematic drawings. So, she considered going to France to pursue another degree, this time in fine art. But when she met Ecuadorian-born Perez, she decided on marriage over a master’s, realizing that he possessed the business skills and vision to complement her role as the company’s creative force.
The firm’s sunlit premises on Sevilla Avenue in Coral Gables now hold all the fabric and material samples for her work. A new furniture showroom, set to open on the ground floor by year’s end, will house the latest collection. Having long commuted from Ecuador to the U.S., the couple decided to move to Miami permanently three years ago, while still maintaining an office and staff in Quito. Hoyos says the decision to make Miami home was a simple one, not just because she had an established clientele in the city, but also because “Miami is a super eclectic city nowadays, with so many things happening. Construction is booming and it is both high-end and artistic at the same time.”
And now, almost three decades after founding the company, the second generation has become involved. Daughter Andrea Perez-Hoyos, a graduate from the well-respected Savannah School of Art and Design, co-created the company’s latest furniture collection with her mother.
As for the key influences on her design concepts, Hoyos cites her enduring admiration for Frank Lloyd Wright. “He is an inspiration, given that he was an architect as well as both an interior and furniture designer,” she says. Like Wright, Hoyos strives to create furniture with a timeless aesthetic. “I like my pieces to be sculptural,” she says. And while Hoyos keeps her eye on market trends, she rarely follows them, eschewing temporary fads. In general, she feels her background in interior design gives her an original perspective.
“Of course, my team and I also pay a lot of attention to comfort and textures, as well as trying to understand the needs of clients,” she says. “And we’re on the lookout for gaps in the market. For example, it was hard to find a stylish rocking chair, so my husband suggested that I design one for him, a comfortable yet modern take on the iconic piece.” The result: the ‘Eduardo rocking chair,’ with a design Perez says is suggestive of a sports car and not dissimilar to the lines of a Porsche.
Hoyos says her furniture is built to last. The unintended consequence, she chuckles, is that clients say the quality is so good they will never need to buy more. For Hoyos, the devil is in the details – the stitching, the piping, etc. – all of which are meticulously inspected. She says her company’s artisans offer the same level of workmanship found in luxury handbags and custom-made suits.
Another key characteristic of her work is the use of distinctive textiles. Hoyos takes notes of the colors, textures, and prints that are paraded down fashion runways, citing Chanel and Loro Piana as perennial favorites. She and her husband also travel annually to mills in Como, northern Italy, and Spain, where their exclusive fabrics are made. Each collection takes almost two years to complete and is designed around a theme. “Coco” used coconut shells as a leitmotif, while “Gem” took the facets and cuts of jewelry as its starting point. Her 14th and latest collection, “Lua” (“moon” in Portuguese), takes its inspiration from the textures, shadows, and ever-changing phases of the moon, and perpetuates Hoyos’ preference for furniture in curved organic forms and sculptural shapes.
Hoyos has some 30 projects underway simultaneously and says she acquires new business chiefly by word of mouth. She also has “shops within shops” in Clive Daniel Home stores – located in Naples, Boca Raton, and Sarasota – as well as representatives in 17 U.S. states, Latin America, and the Middle East.
It is this diversity of locations, environments, and climates that demonstrate the adaptability of her furniture designs. Each piece can be transformed by changing the fabric or the finishing. The same armchair covered in a bold black-and-white Chanel-like tweed for a Manhattan apartment can be upholstered in a warm yellow textured fabric for a home in Dubai. For Hoyos and Perez, a friendly and charming couple as well as a successful business team, Miami is now the epicenter of a burgeoning global empire.
