Multi-hyphenate Jeremiah Brent, the newest member of Queer Eye’s Fab5, loves design and can’t imagine doing anything else. “This is how I show love, this is how I communicate, this is how I express beauty,” he told Interior Design Editor-in-Chief Cindy in a talk in Manhattan on Oct. 16. spoke passionately to Allen, beginning his third season as host of the California Closet podcast. idea of order. However, the star was looking to take his career in a different direction.
In his early 20s, Brent was working on fashion designer Rachel Zoe’s reality show, The Rachel Zoe Project, where he was criticized for being more interested in furniture than clothes. “She was the one who looked at me and told me I was doing something wrong,” Brent said, noting that he filed paperwork for the design business soon after. Since then, his company has grown to a team of 30 people with offices in New York and Los Angeles. And Brent grew up with it.
From designing chic residential neighborhoods to glimpses of his life with partner Nate Berkus and their two children on various reality shows, to being a successful podcast host and writing a book, Brent’s career has no limits. However, each project is deeply rooted in a central theme: exploring the meaning of home.
Cindy Allen and Jeremiah Brent on the steps of The Landing at Penn 1.
“Why is home so important to you?” Allen asked Brent as the two sat on chairs in front of a crowd at The Landing in Penn 1. “We grew up without a lot of money,” Brent says. He said he would walk around Target with his mother and look at model homes, imagining different ways people lived. “For me, the fantasy of home has always been about the moments people spend together,” he added. He explores this idea in his podcast Ideas of Order, which features appearances by his Queer Eye co-star Karamo Brown and singer and actress Kelly Rowland, to name a few. The next season is shaping up to be particularly interesting. “The podcast is truly a tapestry of design styles and aesthetics,” he shared, thanking California Closet for giving him the freedom to pursue such a story.
Brent, a successful creator who also happens to be gay, feels he has to share his home life with the world to expand queer representation. “I got better at being who I was supposed to be,” he told Allen, reflecting on the period in his life before coming out, or, as Brent aptly put it, “letting people in.” Embracing her queer identity has allowed the designer to connect more deeply with others and build a career rooted in community and authenticity. “My favorite part of design is the human element,” he said. “Shut up.”
Want to learn more about what home means to top creators? Listen to the SURROUND Podcast Network’s Ideas of Order podcast, hosted by Jeremiah Brent, and stay tuned for Season 3 in early 2025.
Brent will be leaning into that element on the upcoming season of Queer Eye, which will be his first appearance on the show. “I don’t think you can ask someone what you’re not willing to give. Getting people to open up and share the weakest parts of their lives…The only thing I can offer them is my The Queer Eye cast also welcomed Brent into their first authentic queer community. “I had the best time of my life while doing the show,” he said. But the challenge of redesigning a space in 72 hours during filming is steep. Time pressure is real, Brent assured attendees, adding that he loved every moment of it. “Every episode is different stylistically because everyone is different,” he said.
Brent’s first book, The Space That Keeps You: When Home becomes a Love Story, published earlier this year, further showcases the human side of design. “This book is an exploration of the people I met and loved and why they never left their homes,” he said. “It’s about the beauty of intention and ritual.”
When asked about his dream project, Brent was quick to respond. “If Kamala (Harris) wins, I want to run the White House,” she said with a smile, inspiring everyone in the room to follow their dreams and stay true to themselves. themselves.
The October 16th event attracted many architects and designers.
On October 16, 2024, Jeremiah Brent and Cindy Allen’s Pen 1 Conversation, held in partnership with California Closets, was dedicated to the brand’s recently deceased former chief brand officer, Edward Lehman. be.
