Carly Sioux is returning to her roots here in Cincinnati. The interior designer, artist and businesswoman brings along her stylishly curated interiors business, called House of No Era, which is setting up shop in Camp Washington.
Sioux initially worked in freelance interior design in New Orleans, settling there from 2016 to 2023. During the pandemic, she decided to break away from freelance work and start her own company that fulfilled her creative vision.
House of No Era encompasses art, design, fashion and interiors. The business offers an array of design services, including interior styling and staging fine consignment. Sioux works to buy, sell and collect items and showcase them in a way that is appealing for customers and reflects her personal style.
“No Era implies a sort of timelessness,” Sioux said. “I think it’s a more clever way of saying eclectic because eclectic almost sounds like you don't have a defined style, but with No Era, it's about choosing some of the best pieces across the broad spectrum of time and having all of these pieces live together harmoniously.”
While Sioux’s pieces do not fall under one specific era or style, she does tend to gravitate towards certain periods that strike her.
“I would definitely say some standout periods for me would be 1970s Italian,” Sioux said. “I like to mix that a lot of times with European Art Deco pieces. I'm really into a lot of coastal postmodernism. And then I also really love a lot of the mid-century modern classics that got more interesting later into the mid-century period.”
Sioux’s interest and fascination for art, interiors and fashion have been ingrained in her throughout her life. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, majoring in visual art management. Her studies encompassed both the creative and business aspects of the design and art industries, something that Sioux has greatly utilized in the formation of her own business.
“I think a lot of people think that design is just making things look pretty, but design is problem-solving,” Sioux said. “Part of the parameters that you have to work around are client expectation, deadline, budget, quality. There's a lot of things that you're balancing and, so, there's a lot more business that goes into it and then you just happen to be fortunate that you have good taste.”
While Sioux loved her time in New Orleans during the early days of her business, after a while, the area was no longer realistic for her artistic endeavors. In late 2023, she found herself drawn back to her hometown of Cincinnati, believing the city would serve as an energetic landscape for herself and her clientele.
“Everything comes and goes through Cincinnati,” Sioux said. “You're so close to so many great cities and Cincinnati has really beautiful architecture. It’s a place where people come to make things happen and work and get things done. It’s a very productive city and I was very drawn to that. It just felt like the right place for me to come and actually put roots down.”
Throughout the time she spent away from the city, Sioux recognized the developments that Cincinnati has undergone over the last 20 years, encouraging her to reconnect with the city — and the Midwest overall — to recapture the urban energy she wanted as the backdrop for her artwork.
“My slogan for No Era when I first came back to Cincinnati was ‘the dream of ‘90s Soho is still alive in Cincinnati,’ where you can still have these beautiful loft spaces and in places that feel cool and interesting,” Sioux said. “It’s not that interesting to live in New York anymore. There’s no space for creativity because it’s just so expensive to be there. I think in the coming years, places like Cincinnati and Detroit and Chicago are going to see a lot of people migrating from some of these other cities that are just not as inhabitable.”
With her move to the Queen City, Sioux hopes other individuals will recognize these progressions too, and she aims to collaborate with other local artists who share similar sentiments.
“Sometimes Cincinnati gets a bad rap, but I think that comes from a lot of people that just quite frankly don't know what they're talking about and don’t have the ability to see the vision of what this place has to offer,” Sioux said. “Cincinnati still has that underground, urban raw environment that I think is really conducive for creativity and production.”
While Sioux has focused a lot of her time on collecting items to showcase, she has recently moved to developing her consignment business, called Chairish. Sioux has clients in New Orleans, Miami, New York and now Cincinnati, allowing folks to either shop locally in-person or purchase online.
“I started to notice that there was a huge gap in the market for people that have higher-end furniture and they often don’t have the outlets to be able to sell them and get a good return on their investment,” Sioux said. “Creating this consignment business was a really great way for me to help people out while also cutting through the sourcing process and have it be less time-consuming and more valuable for customers.”
This consignment venture ultimately allows Sioux to conduct her business from anywhere, but she is excited for Cincinnati to be the sole location of her in-house studio.
“I’m trying to explore what it’s like to be local in a global world,” Sioux said. “E-commerce and social media allows us to be in several places at once. So, that’s kind of my goal — I want to be everywhere. But, I think Cincinnati is a really great base for me.”
While Sioux works to establish her business in the city and beyond, she is hopeful that her desire to curate, collaborate and create will be welcomed by Cincinnati residents and artists alike.
“I’m happy to be here,” Sioux said. “When you’re from the midwest, there’s a shared value — everyone has a similar work ethic. Cincinnati has the right energy and momentum. It feels really good to be back.”
To learn more about House of No Era, visit houseofnoera.com.
This story is featured in CityBeat's Sept. 4 print edition.
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