13 SOUTHERN HOME | MAY/JUNE 2019
Charlotte Moss
WHILE THIS DESIGNER’S WORK OFTEN INCLUDES MUSEUM-
QUALITY PIECES, SHE LEAVES THE VELVET ROPES BEHIND,
BELIEVING PERSONALITY, ATTENTION TO COMFORT, AND
A DASH OF THE UNEXPECTED TURN A SHOWSTOPPING
ROOM INTO ONE THAT’S EMINENTLY LIVABLE. TEXT KAREN CARROLL
DESIGNER Q&A
Southern Home (SH): As a Virginia native who has lived in New
York for a number of years now, how do you define Southern style?
Charlotte Moss (CM): Congenial, welcoming, gracious, relaxed,
unselfconscious. Those words carry over to how we decorate.
It’s about having an ease and a lack of pretension. But we’re fierce
in a lot of ways, which is the exact opposite of what Northerners
might think of us.
SH: OK, now we’re curious how you define fierce?
CM: When I was growing up in Virginia, I can remember my
mother and grandmother baking, knitting, gardening, and
decorating with the best of them and then heading out to waterski
on a summer afternoon and coming back to put on a crab feast for
- As Southerners, we know how to have a good time and how to
make everybody else have a good time as well. We’re concerned