Designer Crush: Hopie and Lily Stockman of Block Shop
Author:Michelle Konstantinovsky1. Who is your biggest role model?
Hopie Stockman: There are many, but I just re-watched Broadcast News and I love Holly Hunter’s character– whip-smart, direct, resourceful, and vulnerable all at once. Our mom and grandmothers are our biggest role models- charming, tough as nails, can pull the shoes of a horse and throw together a dinner party in one evening.
2. Which movie or play do you wish you could have designed the set for?
HS: Interiors by Woody Allen, for its use of space as a character (could have used some neutral Block Shop pillas in those dreamy creamy 70s abodes).
3. What is the best way to gauge a client’s personality before starting a project?
Lily Stockman: Bring them to our studio, pile textiles and dogs on top of them, ask them about books, feed them burrata toast, and see what kind of follow-up email we get.
4. What new design trends are you excited to integrate into your work?
LS: Trend-free work zone over here, but we are thrilled by the audience Anni Albers is reaching thanks to the superb Black Mountain College show that just closed at the Hammer Museum (highly recommend the incredible monograph for the show, Leap Before You Look). We’re inspired by both Anni and Josef Albers’ work, and are looking for ways to pay homage to Anni’s weavings in our Spring collection.
5. How do you completely unwind?
HS: Morning calming activity (and one of my favorite things about LA): walking my usual beat at the LA Flower Market, then making arrangements for the studio. Evening unwind: post-work beer + walk or swim in Venice with my fiance and our dog Otto.
6. If you hadn’t become a designer, which career would you have pursued?
LS: Botanist or horticulturist.
7. What’s the worst pre-designer job you’ve ever had and why?
LS: Graveyard shift as a lowly desk assistant at ABC News
8. What’s your favorite recipe?
LS: Late summer salad: sweet corn cut off the cob, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, basil, arugala, pesto, wheatberries, lemon juice, olive oil, touch of agave.
9. Create your perfect playlist for us.
HS: Our perfect playlist is mellow…Block Shop Playlist:
10. Would you rather shop new or vintage?
LS: New Rachel Comey, old L.L. Bean, mix of new and old Indian textiles.
11. First celebrity crush?
HS: Scott Wolf in White Squall.
LS: The Beast in Beauty and the Beast.
12. What’s your hidden talent?
LS: Spotting red tailed hawks.
13. Best restaurant in your area? Where is it?
LS/HS: Ostrich Farm in Echo Park.
14. SF or LA?
LS/HS: LA.
