Supernova Houston Designer Gets Major Bergdorf Goodman Love — The Inside Story Of Nina Magon’s New Home Collection

The supernova status of Houston-based design star Nina Magon is being further confirmed with Bergdorf Goodman NYC launching her inaugural home collection in its prestigious Seventh Floor Home division. Cosentino, a force in innovative and sustainable surfaces, introduced Magon’s Dekton Onirika line just last week. And work is already underway with Monacelli Press for a design book featuring Magon’s projects.

The indefatigable designer with projects internationally jets to New York this week for a VIP reception on Thursday introducing the home collection which includes furniture, lighting, tabletop and accessories. All exclusive to Bergdorf. The display will remain up through November 8.

“The Bergdorf customer wants something maybe modern, but also something that can go in a traditional setting,” Magon tells PaperCity. “So I had to be very careful when I was creating.”

At the same time she notes, “Clients don’t come to us because they want a beige room. They come to us because we’re delivering something out of the box. Our only trademark is the uniqueness and the highest taste level.”

In the Bergdorf showcase, custom marble tables will be flanked by Nina Magon’s unique dining chairs and tables set with Magon’s Pavus collection of porcelain dinner ware crafted in Portugal and with her coordinating placemats produced by Von Gern Home. Studio M lighting of her design, custom powder coated exclusive to Bergdorf Goodman, will be hung above the settings. And an array of her accessories, handcrafted from marble and limestone by artisans in Turkey, will pepper the scene.

The Bergdorf installation and the Cosentino designs are merely part of Magon’s strategically orchestrated trajectory.

“In my head, I didn’t want to be just another designer. I’m trying so hard to be ‘one of THOSE designers,’ ” Magon says. “And it’s especially difficult coming out of Houston because Houston isn’t necessarily a city that’s recognized for design . . . And I really wanted to make a name for myself coming out of Houston so that in itself is already very difficult.”

Yet, Magon has the ability to make it appear a smooth ascent. Her Houston office has 15 employees and she recently opened a branch in San Francisco with three on staff.

Nina Magon Brings a  Laser Focus

But how does Nina Magon command an exclusive with Bergdorf Goodman and develop a line with Cosentino while continuing projects that include luxury residential, hospitality, spa and luxe high-rise living? With two children and a husband.

“I’ve been so focused, I have such a laser focus,” she says. “Since COVID, my eyes just went into a certain direction that was like I have to do this because this is how my career can get to the next level.”

During the pandemic, Magon created a design board with her goals clearly defined. She proudly notes that 18 months later, she has accomplished 60 percent of those goals already.

“I wanted to focus on what do I really want,” Magon says. “What do I want to do in this business? What is going to help propel the name?”

After numerous requests to create a product line for Cosentino, Magon finally convinced the firm. At the time, Magon’s design of Houston’s 5115 restaurant in Saks Fifth Avenue and the first floor bar was the largest Cosentino installation in the country. A partnership made sense and the result is a glamorous collection — Dekton Onirika by Cosentino. The ultra-compact, carbon neutral surface comes in a variety of color veins, in both lustrous and flat, and with such convincing production that one can’t be certain if it’s marble or manmade.

The Next Step For a Designing Woman

Magon’s design book, accepted by Monacelli Press, is well underway and expected to be released in September of 2023.

“It’s not going to be your typical design book because I told everyone, ‘If it is, I don’t want to do it,’ ” Magnin tells PaperCity. “Because it’s not worth it for me to have another design book because everybody has a design book.

“It would have to be a statement book that people will want to have in their house because they have to have the book because of what the cover looks like. The cover is going to be a statement in itself. It’s nothing that you’ve seen before.”

Nina Magon is not stopping there. Her dream, sure to be a reality someday, is to have a Nina Magon branded luxury high-rise that features all of her product designs, much like the Fendi building in Miami.