Inside the Closet of a Financier Who Moonlights as a Stylist
Closet

Inside the Closet of a Financier Who Moonlights as a Stylist

Les Best’s Amy Patel on wearing Balmain & Gucci to the boardroom, being a hoarder, and balancing two very different careers. Toronto.

Renée Rodenkirchen
Noah Lehava
Hands if you’ve ever walked through the financial district and seen a suited sea of navy blue blazers and pencil skirts? Of course you have! But hands if you have ever seen (or heard) an investment banker jingle into a boardroom in silver sequined Nina Ricci and an Hermès Hapi or two? We hadn’t...until we met Amy Patel, of course. Imagine the complete opposite of what a suit’s home would look like, and that would be the moonlighting stylist, consultant, and the woman behind Les Best, Patel’s West-End Toronto home. Floor-to-ceiling canvases painted by her and her boyfriend, Kona, cover practically every wall of their three-story town house, save for the kitchen, which is bestrewn with handwritten cards and fashion week invitations. Other surfaces, like the coffee table, are stacked with books peppered by Hermès boxes and crystal bowls filled with bracelets and scarves. Hats! So. Many. Hats (she collects them), teeter in the corner of the living room. And we haven’t even gotten to the second floor! We counted four closets. The first, filled with Dior Lady bags, Céline, and Saint Laurent, the second, third, and forth with Dolce & Gabbana, CHANEL, Gucci, and vintage leathers. As we thumbed through the vintage Parisian phone book sitting on her jewelry-covered dresser to find Coco Chanel’s phone number (more on that below), we spoke to Patel about her obsession with skin care (see her skin, and you will follow her routine to the very last step), never letting go of anything in her home, and why she’ll always balance her day job with her *other* fashion job.
Closet

Les Best’s Amy Patel on wearing Balmain & Gucci to the boardroom, being a hoarder, and balancing two very different careers. Toronto.

Renée Rodenkirchen
Noah Lehava
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