Victoria Chlebowski has a documented professional identity that extends well beyond the biographical searches that often connect her with a famous surname. In design and professional sources, she is generally identified as Victoria Imperioli, with work spanning residential interiors, theatrical spaces, historic venues, and New York hospitality projects.
Her career spans projects dating back to the early 2000s, including SVE New York, Studio Dante, the Kips Bay Decorator Show House, and later spaces such as Scarlet and Dahlia. Her interviews also explain her views on history, function, reuse, and spirituality in her creative life.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Professional name | Victoria Imperioli |
| Primary field | Interior and theatrical design |
| Early design firm | SVE New York |
| Studio Dante role | Co-founder, co-artistic director, and designer |
| Kips Bay project | “La Dolce Vita” sitting and music room |
| Recent hospitality work | Scarlet and Dahlia |
| Design approach | Function, atmosphere, reuse, and respect for architecture |
Why Victoria Chlebowski Is Professionally Known as Victoria Imperioli
Reliable sources use both Victoria Chlebowski and Victoria Imperioli when referring to the same person. E! News identifies her as Victoria Chlebowski, while her professional website and much of the coverage of her design work use Victoria Imperioli.
Her professional name matters when tracing her career because projects, interviews, and design credits are generally published under Victoria Imperioli. That includes her work in interior design, Studio Dante, hospitality spaces, and other creative projects.
Reliable sources identify her as Victoria Chlebowski, while her professional work is published under Victoria Imperioli. Available sources do not establish Chlebowski as her birth or maiden name.
Interior Design Became the Foundation of Her Professional Work
Interior design formed the foundation of Victoria’s career. Architectural Digest reported that she established SVE New York with business partner Sonya Chang around 2002. The firm completed the renovation of a former factory building in Tribeca.
Her comments from that period reveal a practical approach to interiors. Rather than treating a room mainly as a showcase for a designer, she described design in terms of the people who would actually use the space. Comfort, atmosphere, and a building’s existing character were central considerations.
She also discussed working with existing furnishings instead of automatically replacing them. Reupholstering and reusing pieces could be part of the process when they suited the space, while architectural features helped guide design decisions.
That approach gave her early work a clear direction: the design needed to function for its occupants while remaining responsive to the structure and history already present.
Studio Dante Expanded Her Work Into Theatrical Design
Victoria’s work broadened when she and Michael Imperioli established Studio Dante in New York. Playbill dates the co-founding to 2003, while her professional biography describes transforming a raw commercial space into the Off-Broadway theater in 2004. The two dates can refer naturally to different stages of establishing the company and preparing its physical home.
Her involvement went beyond designing the venue itself. She served as a co-artistic director and worked on the visual development of Studio Dante productions.
Contemporary theater reporting documents her work designing sets and costumes for a 2007 production. An institutional production record from the same year also credits her as a producer and a scenic-and-costume designer for another Studio Dante premiere.
These records make Studio Dante an important part of her professional history because they show her applying spatial and visual design skills in an environment with different requirements from residential interiors. The work involved creating performance spaces and helping shape the theater’s broader artistic operation.
Kips Bay and the Wiltern Broadened Her Design Portfolio
In 2007, Victoria was among the designers represented at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House. Her contribution was a sitting and music room called “La Dolce Vita.”
The project placed her work within a major New York design setting and provided a documented example of her developing profile outside private residential commissions and Studio Dante.
Her professional portfolio also identifies the historic Wiltern in Los Angeles among her design projects. Later reporting by Time Out described her work there as period-sensitive renovations and the preservation of Art Deco details.
That historical sensitivity aligns with ideas she has discussed elsewhere about responding to a building’s existing character. Her documented involvement with the Wiltern covers period-sensitive renovation work, although the full scope and timing of the project are not clearly established.
Scarlet and Dahlia Brought Her Design Work Into Hospitality
Victoria returned prominently to hospitality design with Scarlet, which debuted on New York’s Upper West Side on December 5, 2023.
She designed the interior with influences drawn from the neighborhood’s history and the visual language of 1920s New York. In a direct interview with Cultured, she explained that the Upper West Side’s historical character shaped how she approached the space.
Her thinking about Scarlet also extended beyond its appearance. She described a bar as a place for community, social interaction, and creativity rather than focusing only on alcohol consumption. She also discussed the importance of having meaningful nonalcoholic choices available.
Scarlet was a collaborative venture involving Victoria, Michael Imperioli, and restaurateur Jeremy Wladis, not a project she created alone.
Her hospitality work continued in May 2024 with the opening of Dahlia on Columbus Avenue. Eater New York reported that Victoria and Wladis opened the venue and described it as the second bar she had designed within roughly a year.
The two projects provide some of the most recent substantial public documentation of her interior work. They also connect earlier interests in historically responsive design with commercial spaces intended for regular social use.
Her Design Approach Connects History, Spirituality, and Daily Use
Victoria’s own interviews provide useful context for the ideas behind her work. Her early comments to Architectural Digest emphasized spaces that serve their occupants, make use of existing architectural character, and do not depend on expensive or newly purchased objects to create an effective interior.
History also appears repeatedly in her visual interests. In a 2023 Architectural Digest interview, she discussed an appreciation for older Western art partly because of its philosophical and spiritual subject matter. Her New York home similarly drew on the building’s history and architectural character rather than trying to erase it.
Spiritual practice is another part of the creative context she has discussed directly. Victoria and Michael have spoken publicly about practicing Tibetan Buddhism, and Architectural Digest identified Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche as their teacher. Victoria also said that they often meditate together first thing in the morning.
A 2024 Lion’s Roar conversation further explored how Buddhist practice relates to their lives as artists and entrepreneurs. These first-hand comments provide a documented connection between her spiritual practice and creative life without requiring assumptions about beliefs she has not publicly explained.
Victoria Chlebowski’s professional story is most clearly documented under the name Victoria Imperioli. Her documented design work across residential, theatrical, historic, and hospitality spaces has drawn on practical use, architectural context, and the experience of the people occupying them.