Inspired by summers in Ibiza, artists Ally Hilfiger and Steve Hash made a Spanish home in La Quinta their bohemian haven
Words by ALESSANDRA CODINHA
Photography by LANCE GERBER
When Ally Hilfiger and her husband, Steve Hash, came across an abandoned house riddled with rattlesnakes in the La Quinta oasis in the Coachella Valley, it took a creative effort to see past the immediate obstacles. Not only had the previous owner made “a lot of odd choices,” chaotically combining two separate properties in a pink marble–accented style, but snakes also happened to be a phobia of Hilfiger’s. Luckily, creativity is something the couple has in spades.
“When Steve saw the home, he could see beyond all of it,” Hilfiger says, citing her multihyphenate artist spouse’s background in home building. “To me, it was a lot.” But she immediately sensed the “beautiful, fun, creative energy,” and it was the doors, of all things, that convinced her. “Our bedroom got me, and the front door was the only thing that kept me hooked to the house when I felt, ‘I don’t know about this.’”
They discovered the house during the pandemic, when their young family — including daughter Harley, now 9, and a growing menagerie of beloved pets — had needs: respite from the shut-down Silver Lake neighborhood where they lived; room to work on their various art practices (mostly painting for her; sculpture and installation for him, occasionally music for both); an outdoor space to entertain visiting friends and family, including Ally’s father, fashion mogul Tommy Hilfiger; and a home for her extensive clothing collection (including archives from her own prior fashion businesses, NAHM, and a vintage army-inspired project called Series8).
They found the answer in the cobbled-together pink house in La Quinta and became determined to turn it into their own fantasy island finca. “We go to Ibiza in the summer, but not the party side,” Hilfiger says. “We always go to the family side, where it’s just long days and cooking and the children are running around and it’s just very beautiful and sort of free and chill.”
“Coming from New York, it was a luxury to have my own space that I can close off to recharge.”
ALLY HILFIGER
Designing the space, Hilfiger decided, was a matter of making a connection to that blissful Balearic Islands feeling of “being happy, being home all day, swimming and cooking and making art.” Hash got to work ripping out any evidence of the prior owner’s tastes, and Hilfiger got out her inspiration boards. “I had materials and tiles and fabric and color, and none of it happened,” she says, laughing. “But it was so much fun, because I think it took off the overwhelming pressure and burden of the project in itself, because I just went into creativity.”
“It wasn’t preconceived, and I think enjoying the process, in its intuitive, organic way, is what the house is,” Hash says. “It’s been a process of making decisions based on what we’re feeling in the moment and less about, ‘Let’s get a designer to make this an incredible luxury home.’ It’s more of a realistic house for us: We live in half of it and we work in half of it.”
“What was great is that we had children running around everywhere all day long while making art, and that was the dream for me,” Hilfiger says. “We were way out of a city and in a place we don’t know well, and what else is there to do?”
They moved in their existing furniture and their art collection — Hilfiger collects Basquiat lithographs and newer works by Marc Quinn and Henry Hudson — and some of their own projects. It was the first time they had lived with Hash’s sculptures and had adequate space for some of Hilfiger’s large-scale paintings. They filled in the gaps with finds from local consignment and thrift stores. “Not the fancy ones,” Hilfiger says, “but Goodwill, Revivals, the sort of unexpected places. That hunting was really fun for us — finding those gems and sometimes repainting or bringing them into the home. It’s a great activity in the desert.”
In addition to their artistic endeavors, Hilfiger and Hash are entrepreneurs in the tequila and cannabis spaces, via their brands Tepozan Tequila and Green Horizons, a vertically integrated California-based grower. Part of the plan for their new home was to host parties for their network of artist friends and business associates, as well as their newfound neighbors. “We’re very community minded, and we have a big group of friends,” Hash says. “A lot of us are traveling all over the place, so it’s not uncommon for us to have people in our home. This house is large enough to accommodate them.”
During the nearby Coachella festival this year it became something of a clubhouse, with its poolside tiki bar and in-house music studio. “I avoid the festival,” Hash says, “but we’re like a little reprieve from it.”
“It feels like you’re in this vortex, creative bubble.”
ALLY HILFIGER
Hilfiger, for her part, likes to “go and dance and then come back and chill.” Her favorite room in the house is the former bedroom, which they converted into her studio, closet, and bathroom. “Coming from New York and living in an apartment or a smaller home, it was such a luxury to be able to have my own private space that I can just close off to recharge,” she says.
As she roams the property, you’re also likely to see her clad a little more fancifully than you would when she’s in mom mode in Silver Lake, where Harley’s school is.
“I think because it does feel like you’re in this sort of vortex, creative bubble,” she says. “It’s sort of fun to have more fun, to dress up.” Having her vintage collection under one roof helps, although when it’s hot she’s equally apt to reach for a bikini and a silk bathrobe with a pair of boots — because, after all, the rattlesnakes were there first.
“When we were living in the city, we were looking at spots and I remember Ally saying, ‘Oh, I just really want to be in nature,’” Hash says. “So that’s a reminder whenever we see a rattlesnake or a scorpion.”
“Or a huge tarantula the size of my hand,” Hilfiger adds.
“It’s a living house,” Hash says. “It’s a living project.”
“Maybe it’s our art project together,” Hilfiger says. “We have so much fun making any type of art in that environment with whoever is in town. You know, we’ll spend a weekend making music.”
For a pair of artists, what could be better?
MICHELLE MONAGHAN wears LORO PIANA jacket and skirt, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN shoes, and VRAI x PETRA & MEEHAN FLANNERY jewelry.
Feature image: The living room features a “Flesh Painting” by Marc Quinn.
This story originally appeared in the Fashionable Living 2024 issue of C Magazine.
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