ome six years ago, Ippolita Rostagno—creator and designer of eponymous jewelry line Ippolita—found a house in Springs, the Hamptons mecca for artists and those who prefer solitude over summer crowds. It was nearly the perfect space: an undulating rectangle that meandered from bedrooms and bath to kitchen and dining/living rooms to deck to studio, just the hybrid she wanted. The desire for a simple artist’s studio was answered— the shingled house had a large workspace attached, as the former residence of a painter/sculptor couple. Its abstraction suited this part of the East End—land of Jackson Pollack, Lee Krasner and Willem de Kooning. Rostagno is following their creative path. “The reason I got a house here in the first place was so I could make a mess and not have to clean up!” she says of the space in which she draws, paints and kicks ideas around. “It’s where I go to do my bigger artwork.” The location, off the beaten path, works well for country weekends where alone time is the goal. When she does venture out, it’s for the occasional dinner at nearby 1770 House, Nick & Toni’s or the Boathouse for a lobster at sunset. She also takes regular bike rides. “There’s a whole mess of little roads you can get lost in,” she says of the back roads between Springs and Montauk.
Thoughtfulness is evident in her Hamptons home, where carefully placed artwork is found at every turn, by both local artists and the more celebrated.
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