Jeff Gremillion 9/22/26 Jeff Gremillion 9/22/26

Salon Style: Houston Gets a Private Look at UNA Lab

UNA Lab left New York long enough to set up shop in Anne Carl’s living room.

Elizabeth Carl, Kirby Edmonds and Anne Carl (photo by Michael Monreal)

By Jeff Gremillion

UNA Lab left New York long enough to set up shop in Anne Carl’s living room.

Founder and designer Erica Crisses brought her made-in-New York collection to Houston on Sept. 16 for a private trunk show at Carl’s beautiful home, where Carl’s friends and her daughter, Elizabeth Carl, spent the afternoon trying on pieces and talking through the clothes with the designer herself.

The salon-style setup skipped the usual retail rush. Bubbly-sipping guests could handle the fabrics, test a silhouette and ask Crisses how she meant each piece to move through a wardrobe.The label is built on clean lines, careful proportions and fabrics meant to last more than one season, from quiet everyday knits and lightweight layers to dresses, tailored separates and matching sets that can be worn together or split apart.

Crisses’ mother knitted, sewed and tailored her own clothes, and the designer still works from the same rule: buy less, choose well, wear often. After years in luxury retail and buying, she launched UNA Lab — Latin for “one” and “only” — to make the polished, interchangeable pieces she says she could not find elsewhere.

The collection is available at una-lab.com.

Susan Plank and Anne Carl (photo by Michael Monreal)

Erica Crisses (photo by Michael Monreal)

Anna Mair and Emma Carruth (photo by Michael Monreal)

Jeff Gremillion 4/27/26 Jeff Gremillion 4/27/26

Houston Designer Benjamin Johnston Debuts Rizzoli Book on Timeless Homes

Inside a beautiful interior by Benjamin Johnston

By Jeff Gremillion

Houston interior designer Benjamin Johnston is marking a major milestone this spring with the release of his debut coffee table book.

In Refined Interiors: Timeless Homes for Modern Living (Rizzoli, February 2026), Johnston opens the doors to his own residence and eight rarely seen homes, offering readers an intimate look at the design philosophy that has shaped his work for nearly two decades. The pages celebrate unexpected parallels between design and theater, the beauty found in imperfection, and his firm belief that homes should gracefully blend history, artistry and modern comfort.

The book arrives as Benjamin Johnston Design celebrates its 10th anniversary. Since founding the studio in Houston in 2016, Johnston has built a global portfolio recognized for classical rigor, modern clarity and impeccable craftsmanship. In recent years the firm has grown into a full-service practice with the 2023 launch of its architecture division and earned prestigious honors including the John Staub Award from the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, the Palladio Award for Residential Architecture, an Architectural Digest home tour and cover features in Traditional Home and LUXE Interiors + Design.

To celebrate the release, Johnston has been crisscrossing the country on a national book tour with special appearances hosted by leading design centers and industry partners. With only one stop remaining, the tour has already taken him to Orlando, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Dallas, and High Point, N.C., and will wrap up with an event in Omaha, Neb., on Sept. 26.

In addition to the book, Johnston continues to expand his creative reach through a growing portfolio of licensed collections, including a third-edition furniture line with Chaddock Home, expanded wallcoverings, textiles and trims for S. Harris, and a new suite of fireplace surrounds and mosaics with MATERIAL Bespoke Stone + Tile.

As the studio marks a decade of design excellence, Johnston’s guiding principle remains unchanged: to create with care, serve with joy and pursue excellence in every project. The arrival of Refined Interiors offers a beautiful new chapter in that ongoing story.

Published by Rizzoli, the esteemed publisher renowned for its landmark coffee-table books on interiors and design — including The Enchanting Interiors of Bunny Mellon, Kit Kemp, Ralph Lauren: A Way of Living, and Interior Design Master Class: 100 Rooms — Refined Interiors joins an illustrious roster of titles that have long defined elegance and timeless living for discerning readers around the world.