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"View Slideshow\n\nCouturier Ralph Rucci has a reputation for meticulous craftsmanship matched by few in his field. Mixing architectural zeal, minimalist perfection, and a sensual embrace of the luxurious, his garments display such exquisite precision that former New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn once ventured, \u201CIt is no joke to say that Mr. Rucci makes the kind of clothes that could be worn inside out.\u201D\n\nThis theory has likely seldom been put to the test, but one might argue that the idea has been played out on a large scale at his eponymous company\u2019s new Manhattan headquarters, where architects Enrico Bonetti and Dominic Kozerski of Bonetti/Kozerski Studio basically inverted the conventional fashion-house floor plan.\n\nThe duo\u2019s concept for the 13,000-square-foot space (an entire level of an early-20th-century building in Chelsea) was to place the firm\u2019s atelier front and center, bordered by a broad expanse of windows, and move the offices\u2014including Rucci\u2019s\u2014and the frock-filled showroom to the back. As a result, the first thing one sees from the glass-enclosed lobby is a light and airy work area outfitted with cutting tables, sewing machines, and other tools of the trade. There, skilled artisans dressed in white coats can be observed plying their craft, whether stitching one of Rucci\u2019s famously immaculate seams or putting the finishing touches on an ethereal fringe of feathers.\n\n\u201CRalph immediately liked the layout,\u201D says Bonetti, who was delighted and impressed by his client\u2019s reaction. \u201CIt\u2019s hardly typical that the head of a company would decide to move to a windowless office.\u201D\n\nNot that Rucci\u2019s personal domain or any of the other areas got short shrift. Accessed via a wide hallway\u2014one side of which is lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves displaying hundreds of books and custom-bound magazines, as well as an enviable array of art\u2014is what the couturier calls his \u201Csanctum.\u201D This long, rectangular space enclosed by black-lacquer partitions comprises two sections: his office and a fitting room. Veritable laboratories of luxury, both have been as rigorously assembled as one of his legendary gowns. Walls are either painted in Benjamin Moore\u2019s Super White or paneled with mirrors whose low-iron content eliminates any green tint. (The ample mirrors recall Halston\u2019s iconic showroom in Manhattan\u2019s Olympic Tower, where Rucci worked during his first job in fashion.) Overhead, rows of recessed lights bathe the areas in a carefully calibrated glow.\n\nThe scheme continues into the showroom, a radiant jewel box for Rucci\u2019s creations. \u201CWe wanted these spaces at exactly the same color temperature and intensity,\u201D explains Bonetti, \u201Cso that he could move from one area to another and still see a fabric in the same way.\u201D\n\nThat consistency is further reflected in the floors, all of which have been coated in gleaming white epoxy. Well, almost all. For his own office, Rucci opted for creamy wall-to-wall carpeting.\n\nThe velvety, bone-color carpet was chosen for reasons beyond pure aesthetics. \u201CWhile we\u2019re making a collection, I\u2019ll throw myself on the floor to take a nap,\u201D says Rucci with a chuckle, alluding to the late nights and long hours that precede any runway show. \u201CI said to Enrico and Dominic, \u2018Please make sure that the padding and the carpet are really comfortable.\u2019\u201D A perfectionist even in sleep.\n\nTour Ralph Rucci&amp;#39;s elegant Manhattan atelier."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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