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How designer Erin Fetherston celebrates the Holidays

Erin Fetherston smiling and leaning over a set table to place a vase of flowers in the center.

Photo credit: Elizabeth Messina

Family, food and festive decor are quintessential elements of any holiday gathering. Every family has its own unique dishes and traditions, but a sense of warmth is definitely a throughline for so many celebrations. That very sense of warmth characterizes much of designer Erin Fetherston’s work with interiors. In this exclusive Q&A, she’s answering all things holiday season to show you how she cultivates a cozy home environment during the most wonderful time of year—and even how she pulls off a turkeyless Turkey Day!

Where are you spending your holidays?

We are excited to stay home this year! It will be our first holiday season in our new house as a family of five! 

How do you decorate your table? 

I like to decorate the table with local and seasonal flowers, greens and pickings like gourds and pomegranates. We are lucky to have olive and fig trees in our yard that can be clipped in a pinch for instant greenery. For place settings, I love linen placemats and napkins from Annie Selke, ceramic plates from Year and Day, and cutlery from Canvas Home.

What's your favorite vegan meal to serve during the holidays?

We do a turkeyless Thanksgiving, so I like to bring in the fall flavors with squash and root vegetables. This is my favorite vegan butternut squash soup recipe.

What's your favorite White Elephant gift idea?

I love to give tapered beeswax candles from Lomar Farms. They are so elegant and I love to support small, independent, sustainably minded family businesses like theirs.

 

What are your favorite traditions? 

Before we light holiday candles, we invite every member of our family, including our children, to share a positive sentiment about the other members. It’s an opportunity to express gratitude, love, and thanks to one another and usually ends in a big group bear hug. The cutest is when my three and six year olds thank one another for things like sharing toys or helping one another after a boo boo. 

 

Erin Fetherston is a fashion and interior designer based in sunny Los Angeles. She believes good design should work hand in hand with lifestyle and, as a mother of two boys, aims to create homes where children and adults cohabitate seamlessly without compromising design. Her talent for family-friendly spaces has made her a go-to resource for celebrities like Jenna Dewan, Jamie Lynn Sigler, Odette Annable, and James and Kimberly Van Der Beek.

 

Best known for her work as a fashion designer, the California native launched her eponymous womenswear collection at just 24 years old while living abroad in Paris. A graduate of UC Berkeley and Parsons School of Design, Erin was quick to find her footing in the fashion world and has graced the runways of Paris and New York with her feminine and ethereal collections. 

 

Among her honors, Fetherston was a recipient of the 2007 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award, a finalist for the 2007 Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)/Vogue Fashion Fund and was inducted as a member of the CFDA in 2009. While her namesake line has been carried in stores like Barneys, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Harvey Nichols, Fetherston has also had notable collaborations with brands and retailers like Target, Juicy Couture and Cosabella.

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