The Hilda Stories

Looking very ‘au courant’ in head-to-toe black, a shaggy caftan-length vest and an oversized strand of Tahitian pearls, Hilda Longinotti cuts a formidable figure in the reception area of Herman Miller’s New York City showroom, her old stomping ground. At 80 years old she looks great, but it isn’t really until she opens her mouth that her true stylistic gifts come to the fore. A natural storyteller, Longinotti has turned her 21-year run as executive secretary (à la Joan Holloway) at George Nelson’s renowned design studio into a string of speaking engagements the world over. She was even tapped for Seth Cohen’s popular blog-to-book, Advanced Style, which is dedicated to creative older folk who prove “that personal style advances with age”.

It’s Longinotti’s inherent panache that led Herman Miller to hire her to work in showroom sales after she left the Nelson Office in 1974. Her strong knowledge of design and extensive network in the architectural and design communities enabled her to develop a pilot programme for strengthening communication between Herman Miller and the New York design community. The success of this programme led to her appointment as Manager of Design Community Programmes in 1979, which became the foundation for Herman Miller’s A+D efforts today.

To celebrate the silver-tongued Longinotti, WHY created a series of short animated films based on her best-loved stories from the Nelson Office, which paint a piquant portrait not only of the Nelson Office in its heyday, but also of a certain era in New York City, when it still felt possible for a school dropout from Queens to find her calling in the world of design and in turn go on to teach countless others how to see.

Each story in this animated series represents a “best of” anecdote from your time at the Nelson Office. But if you were to take your 21 years there as a whole, what do you feel was the greatest takeaway?

Listening to George Nelson dictate his writings, letters and editorials taught me how to listen, how to speak and how to write properly. In the beginning, he would have to add punctuation; he would have to spell many of the words. He also advised me to buy a copy of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. But going into that office – very young, unsophisticated and a school dropout – I think that the major lesson I learnt is: how to see. When you learn how to see, you learn to appreciate all that goes on around you, from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go to bed at night. It was a question of seeing what good design is all about. For me it was an incredible education.

Were you immediately aware of what you were learning at the Nelson Office, or did that realisation come later?

No. When I first walked into that studio, I was in a totally different world. Immediately I needed to adjust to my surroundings and to the wonderful people that worked there. All of them had many quirks. It took me a while before I really got it – what they were doing, how they were doing it and how the world around them was appreciating what they were doing. Especially Herman Miller, who was our biggest client. And because of Herman Miller, many wonderful new clients walked through the door.

Was there a particularly memorable project or era for you at the Nelson Office?

In terms of importance, I would have to say the time leading up to and during the 1964 New York World’s Fair. We had more designers then for a year than we had ever had before, because of the scope of the commission. We were asked to do the Chrysler Pavilion. We were asked to do the Irish Pavilion. We were also asked to work on the Hall of Presidents in the Federal Pavilion. This was a huge undertaking for the Nelson office. But there were many smaller projects that were fun, engaging and interesting. One never knew who was going to walk in that door.

We did a wonderful project for Barney’s. At the time, Barney’s was a very inexpensive boys department store on 7th Avenue and 17th Street. Very low-end clothing. When Barney died, his son took over and decided he wanted to do more. He found George and said, ‘This is what I envision’, and George made his vision come true by doing a series of boutiques of internationally famous clothing designers; it had never been done before. So into our brownstone walked the most famous European designers that are so well known today. We then created the first boutique in the city, and it made Barney’s famous. From there Barney’s went to Madison and 60th Street and then all over the world.

“I think the major lesson I learnt in my 21 years [at the Nelson Office] is: how to see. When you learn how to see, you learn to appreciate all that goes on around you, from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go to bed at night.”

-Hilda Longinotti