RECLINE AND THRALL Muriel Brandolini on her sofa on the Upper East Side. yogurt heiress Elena Coumantaros; makeup artist Moyra Botta.

Muriel Brandolini was born in Vietnam, raised on Martinique, and is New York’s designer of the moment. Entering the Upper East Side town house that she shares with her Italian husband, Nuno, two gorgeous young children, and a corgi named Saigon is like popping a tab of acid; the walls are decked in her own cottons, the furniture swathed in swirls of silk, the windows curtained by vibrant saris, all of which create such a festive, comfy atmosphere that one never wants to leave. Brandolini, 40, claims that there are days she doesn’t set foot outside, running her various businesses (apartment decor, furniture, fabrics, clothing—her new line of caftans and djellabas is sold at Barneys, Scoop, and Neiman’s) with the help of the speed dial on her Nokia 6160 cell phone.

“Speed dial is for work,” says Brandolini. “Not for calling lovers or husbands.” Which isn’t to say her clients don’t become friends. “I wouldn’t take the job if I didn’t like the people.” The people include Nancy and Andrew Jarecki (No. 2), “the inventors of 777-FILM,” and Elena and John Coumantaros (No. 4). “Her family owns all the yogurt in Greece,” Brandolini confides. “He’s a businessman.” What kind of business? “Who knows? They’re all businessmen; my husband’s a businessman, I don’t know what he does.” Still another project is decorating the ultra-modem glass house in upstate New York of the couple at No. 3, Moyra and Andrea Botta (makeup artist and ... hmm, another businessman). When she’s not on the phone with clients, she’s on the phone for them, ringing up the Paris shops Galerie de Nobele (No. 6)—“They have exquisite taste in furniture”—and Galerie Leda (No. 7), which showcases 19thand early-20th-century European pieces. But with No. 8, Brandolini breaks her rule, speed-dialing the husband she met 13 years ago when a friend sneaked her into his offices to type her resume. When she asks him, “Where are we having dinner?,” the answer is, more often than not, happily, at home.