
Need A New Mom Crush? Meet Quiet Town’s Lisa Fine
Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano
Photography by Photographed by Maria Del Rio
Mothers are natural multi-taskers. But Brooklyn mama Lisa Fine takes it to the next level, playing triple-duty as styling director for one of the top U.S. fashion brands (we can’t tell you the name, but trust it’s one of your favorites), mother to Indigo (“Indie”), 6, and Sunny, 4, and founder of Quiet Town, a recently launched line of thoughtfully designed, ethically sourced, beyond beautiful bath décor (she runs it alongside her husband, fashion photographer Michael Fine). The most impressive part: She’s incredibly grounded and present throughout it all. Marvel at her methods, style, and hilarious sense of humor, below.
- "When I was pregnant with Indie (our oldest), we needed more space than our 1-bedroom apartment in Clinton Hill. I was disappointed with what we’d been finding in our price range and described to Michael, my husband, what my dream home would look like. He scoffed and told me I was crazy. And the very next day he found our house. It was listed as a 1-bedroom apartment, but for some reason Michael had a feeling he should call. He walked in and found a 3-bedroom duplex with a backyard, washer/dryer, two fireplaces...it was one of the most incredible scores of our real estate lives. We’ve been here for almost 7 years. Carroll Gardens turned out to be an amazing neighborhood for young families. There are a bunch of great public schools, a ton of parks, good food, it's close to the water...we love it." Lisa wears Jesse Kamm pants and a J.Crew men's shirt.
- Tickle time!
- "It's a mix of mid-century, industrial, and ethnic finds. Lots of creamy neutrals with jolts of color here and there. The house itself has incredible old world charm with tons of beautiful plaster work and molding, marble fireplaces, and parquet flooring."
- "Anything goes. If we get butterflies over something, then it’s in. We don’t have a master plan."
- "My favorite piece of furniture is this mod thrift store chair in our bedroom that we reupholstered with a Mexican blanket. I also love our bed. We searched for a bed frame for maybe 5 years. It’s handmade in Vermont out of maple. My favorite piece of art, well, I have a lot of favorites. I love the photo over our bed by my husband Michael, who is a photographer. I asked him for a pink ocean and he laid this orange triangle over it as an afterthought. It feels cosmic and calming. There’s a small soft sculpture in the nook of our stairway that makes me so happy every day. It’s by my friend Rebeca Raney. You should see the work she does. So out there and beautiful and naïve and smart. We have this piece of art that we were forced to buy after Indie touched it in a gallery. I like it a lot actually (thankfully), but unless you look really closely it looks like a blank piece of paper, which is why Indie reached out to feel it in the first place. I think he wanted to feel the raised/embossed texture. A pretty horrifying and expensive experience at the time."
- "Honestly, I wish we had nothing in our house. If I could, I’d live like a monk. But I have to take a deep breath and remember that I live in the city and I don’t have a basement or a playroom for the kids. I go through their toys a lot and do a lot of donating. That’s my way of coping."
- "I want to do everything better than my parents did. Not that my parents did a bad job at all, I just want to be there for them in the most present and honest way that I can."
- "That my kids are going to do the careless (stupid) things I did as a teenager."
- "I look up to most of my friends as mothers. They are each such thoughtful parents. I do have one friend named Stacey who has such a wonderful, matter-of-fact way of parenting. She rarely loses her cool and is always able to keep perspective. She’s also a health coach and her children happily eat every veggie under the sun."
- "Self-expression and creativity were always very important in our house growing up. We were definitely not like every kid on the block. We try to encourage our kids to let their freak flags fly."
- "Indie loooooooves fighting—karate, wrestling, and this kind of breakdancing/sparring thing he’s trying on for size. It’s not a total problem for me. The other day we walked around Brooklyn playing a hand-slapping/staring contest mixed with slam-dunk jumps and Ninjago spin kicks. Kind of fun! Sunny is really into art and being a single mom. She has a baby and relishes feeding him, changing diapers, nap time. She also looooooves to play family with (or should I say, on) us. I have a love/hate relationship with this game. On the one hand I get to nap a lot, but on the other hand I can’t do stuff around the house because she has put me to bed until 'morning time.' She also loves ballet."
- "Indigo Seymour is my son. We just liked the name Indigo and love his nickname, Indie, so much, too. My grandfather was called Seymour, and we were very close. My daughter is Sunny Gray. Sunny is how we want to feel every day and if a name can grant that kind of luck in life then why not try? Michael’s grandmother’s maiden name was Gray."
- Pops of color, everywhere.
- "The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. It’s not a parenting book, it’s a new way to look at communicating with everyone in your life. It was life changing for me. I also love The Conscience Parent by Shefali Tsabary."
- "Check out a lactation group as soon as you can get out of your house with the baby. It sounds weird to non-moms, but you learn so much hearing from everyone’s experiences. And not just about breastfeeding either, about sleeping, diaper rash, burps (major), and acid reflux. And if you’re lucky there will be a scale that you weigh your baby on before and after breastfeeding so you know how much they drank. Fascinating! And you’ll meet other new moms (priceless)."
- "Nope." Lisa wears a Caron Callahan dress.
- "I work as the director of styling for a big American brand during the day and at night and on weekends I put my Quiet Town hat on."
- "I grew up in Miami and was in magnet schools for the performing arts. I was, and still am, a musical theater nerd. Then I discovered 'normal' high school and desperately wanted in. I always loved fashion and writing and decided to ditch the performing arts for fashion. I definitely thought I was going to be the next Anna Wintour. I went to the University of Maryland for college and majored in journalism. I moved to New York and got my first job at Woman’s Day magazine. It was a far cry from Vogue, but I didn’t care. I was working at a magazine! Then I went to In Style, YM, and finally, Vogue. I was pretty stressed out working there, I don’t even think I noticed because I was just so excited about it. But then my old boss from YM offered me a job at Abercrombie & Fitch working in this pretty amazing department called Concept Design. We traveled around the world and shopped for a living. It was pretty fantastic. I was in Japan three or four times in one year. After that I went to the brand I’m at now...that was 11 years ago!"
- Mommy pile!
- "I was up late at night breastfeeding Indie. He had trouble sleeping, so our pediatrician recommended that I keep him upright for 30 minutes after eating. So, I’d sit in his dark room and just zone out. For some reason I started thinking about shower curtains and how deep the dearth was for cool, easy, non-frilly, non-cheesy, non-hotel’y shower curtains. Once the idea got into my head I could not shake it. As soon as that 3 a.m. feed came around I’d be at it again, designing shower curtains in my head." Quiet Town's Narlai Sunset curtain and Moon Jelly rug.
- "First, and probably most notable, is the size difference between the rooms. But, you know, Indie was born first. So far it doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but when sleepovers become a thing I’m sure we’re going to have to reorganize. Before Indie was born Michael and I went to the beach and shot all of these pictures for his room like balloons over a dune and bubbles in the sky. And then one day he came home from school and told us he heard the word 'f***' and then all of a sudden bubbles and balloons seemed wrong. Now we’re kind of letting him dictate his style. He moves decals around and his Lego creations are pretty predominate. So is this life-size self portrait he did in Pre-K. It’s pretty dark and ominous. He’s supposed to be a ninja but he looks like the unibomber. Sunny’s room is a little jewel box, those are the easiest rooms to pull together. It’s all white with little bits of colorful, homemade ephemera.”
- "I love Indie’s curtains that I made from some Ikea fabric. There’s something about the white painted dots on natural linen. Sunny’s room has this curtain from Paris that we use to cover up the French door between the two kids’ rooms. I love everything about this thing. I love the colorful, hand-cut, and sewn polka dots and the touch of metallic at the top."
- "For sure! Having kids helped boost my confidence. I was someone’s parent. I had to deliver. I was finally an adult (at 34). I work so much more now that I started Quiet Town, but I try to do the majority of it when the kids are sleeping. I want to be with them as much as I can. If my two jobs keeps me from that, then that’s not okay. What is all this work for, if not to spend time with the people I love most?"
- "It’s possible that motherhood has pushed me even harder. I don’t know if I would have started Quiet Town if I wasn’t a mom. I probably wouldn’t care so much about building something for myself that could eventually be passed on."
- "With Indie it was summer-into-fall and the weather was amazing. I made great friends in my hood and we supported each other endlessly. But there was no sleep for any of us, so that part was pretty horrible. With Sunny, I was a sleep dictator and followed The Contented Baby by Gina Ford semi-religiously. It was so much easier the second time around. I could take a step back and enjoy things a bit more because I had done it before and Sunny slept. But it was winter and cold as f***. I took the standard 12 weeks off with both kids. It wasn’t long enough."
- "My husband. Michael is a freelance photographer, so when he’s not shooting he’s working on Quiet Town. I could never have done this without him."
- "My neighborhood in Brooklyn is teeming with young families and we have so many great friends in the same boat, kid-wise, as us. When I threw my back out I called my friend Sammy who came over at 6 a.m. to get Sunny out of her crib because I couldn’t move. I’m able to come home from work, put the kids to bed, and then hop on my bike and meet friends in the hood for dinner after they’ve put their kids to bed, as well. During one of my really dark sleep-training moments with Indie, my friend Anna listened to Indie cry for hours on the monitor with me. All of my friends nearby are ridiculously relatable. And generous. And empathetic."
- "My day job is amazing. I love styling and my team is incredible. With Quiet Town I’m amazed every day that we have created this thing from scratch. I love that we’re building something for ourselves. And I love that we’re doing it our way. Definitely not the easy way, but a way that feels good to us."
- "Try not to talk about work all the time."
- "I’d love to keep growing Quiet Town. We have so many ideas."
- "Comfy, oversized, 90’s, simple. My body sure has changed with motherhood, so I’m guessing my style has gotten a lot more 'comfier and oversized.' But for the most part, not really." Lisa wears a vintage Wrangler sweatshirt and Suno skirt.
- "Jesse Kamm pants, high-top Chucks, crew neck sweatshirts, men’s button-down shirts, a camel coat, 90’s easy dresses."
- "Jesse Kamm beause her pants fit like crazy, Caron Callahan because her wrap dresses are so wearable and cool and easy, J.Crew men's section because I always score big-time at the sale rack on cashmere and shirting, Suno because they always reference the things that make my heart race, and I love vintage because I love clothes with a story and the idea that no one else will be wearing what I’m wearing."
- "High waistlines, simplicity, volume, tons of denim, pink."
- "Narnia, Oroboro (both in Williamsburg), and online at J.Crew and Madewell. I don’t buy a ton of clothes. Once a year I treat myself to something great, but other than that I’ll pick up one or two things here and there throughout the year. It’s never really premeditated. If I need something specific it will take me forever to find it, but I’m a great impulse shopper."
- "Cetaphil cleanser, toner from Claudelie, face oil from Beauty Counter, sun screen. I was really into this lush facial cleanser from De Mamiel, but I left it in a hotel and haven’t replaced it. I comb my hair in the shower when I have time (I have a lot of hair), but that’s about it."
- "I try and do yoga whenever there’s time and we have a foam roller that I’ll take out and roll around on while watching TV. I watched that movie The Martian while on the foam roller the whole time, I felt like a zillion dollars after. I’m trying to ride my bike to work sometimes, but that keeps getting put off by weather and not wanting to get hit by a truck."
- "There’s always someone to hang out with. There are a ton of parks we can walk to. Great food. Great public schools."
- "Totally. Southern California. Barcelona." Quiet Town's Orient Philox curtain on brass hooks.
- "Pig Beach, Buttermilk Channel, Frankie’s, Colonie, French Louie, Brooklyn Crab, and Lavender Lake." Quiet Town's Topanga Canyon rug.
- For more on Lisa and Quiet Town, check out her Instagram feed.
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