10 Haute Bohemians Who Live Beautifully—And Make It Look Easy

Rose Hanbury

Six years ago, Rose Hanbury took up residence in Houghton Hall, the sweeping 18th-century Norfolk estate built by Britain’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and now owned by her husband, David Rocksavage, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley and Lord Great Chamberlain. She felt right at home. “Most of the house is pretty perfect as it is,” Hanbury, 32, offers diplomatically of the stately William Kent interiors. “I don’t feel the need to put my mark on it.” Nonetheless, her personality comes through in the private quarters—Houghton Hall is open to the public part of the year, not unlike a modern-day Downton Abbey—to which Hanbury has added Moroccan tiles and splashes of vibrant color. And it’s not the only way in which Hanbury—who grew up in Devon, in Wembury House, the scene of many a glamorous society bash—has injected the current into the historical. She has also been instrumental in bringing contemporary art to Houghton—most recently, a spectacular James Turrell installation. “I am not someone who likes to be held down by conventions. I’m far happier walking around the house in a floaty Victorian nightgown or a caftan and bare feet than in a cocktail dress and high heels.”

Hanbury, pregnant with her third child, in the Yellow Room of her home in Norfolk, England, wears a Salvatore Ferragamo dress; her own jewelry.

Tatiana Casiraghi

“It sounds stupid, but when people ask me, ‘Where are you from?,’ I never really know how to answer,” says Tatiana Casiraghi, 32, who is half-Colombian, half-Brazilian, was born in New York, grew up in Geneva, and spent her summers in Bali and India. “From a very young age, it made me realize that not everyone lived the way that I did, and it made me curious to discover the world.” Casiraghi now resides firmly in London with her husband, Andrea, the son of Caroline, the Princess of Hanover, and channels her worldliness into Muzungu Sisters, an online shop she founded with her friend Dana Alikhani, where the offerings include one-of-a-kind clutches crafted from Pakistani textiles and embroidered blouses from Budapest, all of which are ethically sourced to support local artisans. “The notion of luxury is starting to change. People are looking for something that nobody else can have.”

Casiraghi, in the living room of her London home, wears an Etro blouse and pants; Muzungu Sisters jacket, earrings, necklace, and cuffs; (right hand) Venyx by Eugenie Niarchos ring; Jimmy Choo sandals; her own ring (left hand).

Elettra Wiedemann

“New York City is full of impatient people,” says the model and food blogger Elettra Wiedemann. “The world increasingly is catering to them.” And so is Wied­emann, with her almost-two-year-old blog, Impatient Foodie, which brings elements of the slow-food movement, like farmers’ market shopping and an emphasis on home cooking, to fast-paced, urban dwellers like herself. Ironically, the 32-year-old New Yorker says she owes her kitchen prowess to her modeling career (she was a longtime Lancôme spokesmodel), rather than to her upbringing (she is the daughter of the actress and model Isabella Rossellini). “I had to be more careful about what I ate, so, by necessity, I learned how to cook.” One thing that she did get from a childhood spent shuttling between Texas (the home state of her father, Jonathan Wiedemann, now principal design director at Microsoft), Italy, and Sweden, is a sense of comfort in impermanence. In fact, the idea of putting down roots makes her feel, well, impatient. “It just sounds so constricting and limiting,” says Wiedemann, who is at work on a cookbook. “I always enjoyed being more of a nomad.”

Wiedemann, in the dining room of her Brooklyn home, wears a Salvatore Ferragamo dress; Rochas coat; her own jewelry.

Debonnaire von Bismarck

“Discretion is really all-important,” says Countess Debonnaire von Bismarck, known as Debbie to her friends. She is referring to Debonnaire, her recently opened, by-appointment-only, posh London shop. But the Oxfordshire native, who is married to Count Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen, could just as easily be speaking about herself. Von Bismarck, 56, has modeled for Mario Testino and the milliner Philip Treacy, and was a good friend and supporter of Alexander McQueen’s, appearing with aplomb in some of his most daring creations. But socially she has managed to maintain an aura of privacy. Not one for idle gossip, she’d much rather discuss her far-reaching adventures to places like Myanmar, Laos, India, and Brazil, which provide fodder not just for conversation but also for Debonnaire, where she stocks Venetian slippers, colorful jackets from Morocco, and shawls from Nepal, among other discoveries. But then, von Bismarck seems able to find inspiration even in her own backyard. “Everything is surprising. It’s all exciting for me.”

Von Bismarck, in the bedroom of her London home, wears a Roberto Cavalli dress, scarf, and moon necklace; Rosa de la Cruz London star necklace and bracelet; Etro shoes; remaining jewelry, her own. Roberto Cavalli jacket, on chair.

Edmée Nicolis di Robilant

“Ever since I was a child, people have been telling me I should model,” says Edmée Nicolis di Robilant, 19, who has walked the runway for Giorgio ­Armani, appeared in a Bulgari catalog, and has become a favorite of Salvatore ­Ferragamo’s. “It’s in my genes.” Indeed, her mother, Moira Anastagi, and both of her grandmothers were models, but the Roman beauty is not just fashion nobility: The daughter of Count Filippo Nicolis di Robilant, she comes from one of Europe’s oldest aristocratic families, counting among her ancestors a French king and a doge of Venice. Di Robilant, who has been known to top vintage clothes with, say, a jacket from a street vendor in India (“I don’t follow fashion rules; I never wear the latest things”), notes that when it comes to fashion, her father was, in fact, her inspiration. “He traveled a lot for his job as a diplomat and brought us beautiful fabrics and things to wear. I love the idea of buying exotic clothes that I can’t find in Italy.”

Di Robilant, in the living room of her friend Natalia Bianchi Collobiano’s home in Milan, wears a Salvatore Ferragamo dress; her own ring.

Uberta Zambeletti

Wait and See is the name of Uberta Zambeletti’s eccentric fashion-and-­lifestyle concept store in Milan, and it’s also Zambeletti’s credo. “Not everything goes the way you plan it, and even when things get tough, it’s always for the best,” says Zambeletti, 48, who will open a London outpost later this year. “Eventually, you understand why your life has panned out the way it has.” The self-described black sheep of a conservative Milanese family, Zambeletti, who was born in Madrid, provides an ebullient counterpoint to the generally uniform Milan fashion scene. “I use myself as a canvas,” she says of her colorful, impulsive sensibility. “Because I feel rooted, but totally free to explore and not to have to conform, I only do things I really believe in. If people don’t get it, they don’t get it. And if they get it, all the better.

Zambeletti, in the living room of her Milan apartment, wears a Dries Van Noten jacket; Valentino dress; Sveva Collection for Wait and See necklace; Cornelia Webb Jewellery hand cuff; Atelier VM for Wait and See rings; Giampaolo Viozzi bespoke for Wait and See sandals.

Marpessa Hennink

Even among the outsize personalities that populated the fashion world in the 1980s, the Dutch model Marpessa Hennink stood out. “Gianni Versace would give me the most boring outfit for a runway show, and I would be like, ‘Ugh, why can’t I have something more spectacular?’ ” recalls the Amsterdam native, 51, who has lived in Milan since 2012. “He was like, ‘Because I know that you’re going to sell this one!’ ” Versace was just one of Hennink’s many fans: The illustrator Antonio Lopez championed her early in her career, Karl Lagerfeld and Azzedine Alaïa claimed her as a muse, and the photographer Ferdinando Scianna published a book of photos of her in 1993. That was around the time that Hennink quit modeling—“Fashion was becoming quite minimalist and grunge; I prefer elegance”—to pursue interior decorating, eventually moving to Ibiza, where her family had vacationed throughout her childhood. She has since been lured back into the fashion fold, as a consultant and global ambassador for Dolce & Gabbana’s couture line, Alta Moda. “Aiming for exquisite things of the highest quality is something I can stand for, especially now that fast fashion has become the rule. I like slow fashion. I like slow food. And I’d like life to be slower as well.”

Hennink, in the living room of her Milan apartment, wears her own Dolce & Gabbana jacket and dress and her own jewelry; Stuart Weitzman boots.

Hope Atherton

Hope Atherton’s studio, in the basement of the Harlem town house she shares with her husband, the gallerist Gavin Brown, and their 2½-year-old daughter, is teeming with the things that inspire her: animal bones, leather scraps, skins, Japanese patchwork textiles. “Having a space that feels like a shrine, to have the voodoo of all of my objects and experiences piled up and tucked around me, it’s like they create a spirit that keeps me separate from the outside world,” says the 41-year-old artist, who has been working on a series of abstract, almost-primal clay sculptures and vessels. Atherton’s appreciation for the patina of time and for the beauty in decay (which extends to her wardrobe of seasonless pieces with “great character”) is the result of a childhood spent on a cattle farm in rural Virginia. “I never thought being an artist was a career choice or an occupation. It was always everything: doing what you’re excited by and turning it into a practice.” Or, perhaps, a way of life.

Opposite: Atherton, in her studio in her Harlem home, wears a Chloé dress; Eres bodysuit; Jimmy Choo sandals; her own jewelry.

Suki Waterhouse

“I usually fall asleep in my clothes, because I hate accepting that I have to go to bed at night,” Suki Waterhouse, 24, says wistfully. Of course, depending on the evening, the British actress and model may find herself dozing off in, say, one of the flowing gowns by Reem Acra, Valentino, or Roland Mouret that she has donned for red-carpet appearances—or a tracksuit. “I couldn’t be in put-­together, great outfits all the time. It makes me anxious.” In her downtime, Waterhouse, who has fronted campaigns for Burberry and Redken and stars in the upcoming movie Billionaire Boys Club, with Ansel Elgort and Kevin Spacey, writes songs and takes photographs. Basically, her life is the polar opposite of the tidy, white-collar upbringing provided by her plastic surgeon father and nurse mother. “I live in a permanent mess, stuff is everywhere, and I’m quite a hoarder,” says ­Waterhouse, who has been on her own since she was 16, of her London flat. “I left the house pretty young; I was out early, exploring the world.”

Waterhouse, in the Terrace Suite at Claridge’s hotel, in London, the night after the Brit Awards, wears a Gucci dress; Miu Miu shoes.

Margherita Maccapani Missoni

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Margherita Maccapani Missoni—the daughter of Angela Missoni, designer of the fabled knitwear brand, and granddaughter of its founders, Rosita and Ottavio—is that despite her worldly appearance, she’s a small-town girl at heart. “It’s the village life that keeps me balanced, and that kept me sane when I was a young girl partying and having fun,” says the 33-year-old, who grew up in Sumirago, in the countryside near Milan, and recently moved back there with her husband, the race-car driver Eugenio Amos, to raise their two children. “I want my kids to have that too.” Maccapani Missoni, who has lived in Rome, Barcelona, and New York, has tried her hand at acting, but is now returning to the proverbial nest, professionally speaking: Last year she started a children’s line, Margherita, which, with its bright mix-and-match offerings, proudly embodies the Missoni DNA. “I was never told how to dress when I was a kid, and that’s what I really want to communicate: Let kids be free to dress themselves. They might come out with a great idea of their own.”

Maccapani Missoni, in the living room of her home in Sumirago, Italy, wears a Missoni dress; blouse from ladoublej.com, Mansur Gavriel shoes; her own jewelry.

Hair for Maccapani Missoni, Zambeletti, di Robilant, and Hennink by Guja at Atomo Management. Hair for von Bismarck by Alain Pichon at Streeters London; Hair for Hanbury, Waterhouse, and Casiraghi by Stephen Beaver at Jed Root; Hair for AtherTon and Wiedemann by Tamara McNaughton for wella professionals at management + artists; Makeup for Maccapani Missoni, Zambeletti, di Robilant, and Hennink by Martina D’Andrea at Atomo Management; Makeup for von Bismarck, Hanbury, Waterhouse, and Casiraghi by Hiromi Ueda at julian watson agency; Makeup for Atherton and Wiedemann by Marla Belt for dior at Streeters London. Digital Technician: Zoe Salt and Matthew Thompson; Photography Assistants: Cindy Leaf, Callum Toy, Ivan Genasi, Calvin Laszakovits; Videographer: Lindsay Watson, Alex Moreno; Fashion Assistants: Hannah Beck, Stefania Lorini, Emi Papanikola, Colin Summers.