Design Dreams Realized: Dana Feller and Julie Rankin Debut Hamptons Blue

It’s immediately clear upon chatting with Dana Feller and Julie Rankin that their new business venture together is kismet. The friends, who met over 20 years ago while living in London, lost touch over the years until last summer, when a mutual friend in the Hamptons reunited them. They quickly found that they both had a deep love of the East End, a passion for interior design and a desire to own and run their own homeware and lifestyle brands. When they separately came up with a name for their budding venture, they both incredibly pitched “Hamptons Blue.”

“Sometimes it’s just the right timing and the opportunity to do something that you know and love,” Rankin said during a recent interview. “Hamptons Blue is a dream, and Dana and I are fulfilling that dream, in a sense.”

The brand, which you can currently shop from at hamptonsblue.com, is a homeware label that prioritizes the Hamptons aesthetic — what the duo describes as a traditional, classic American style that draws on English and European influences but has coastal but local sensibilities. Its merchandise includes sumptuous handwoven linens, artisan-made ceramics and glassware and decorative accents — many of which are blue and white, pulling in on the tranquility of the ocean as well as the traditional Hamptons’ aesthetic you might find in some of the oldest homes here. Two other rules exist at Hamptons Blue: Everything it sources is made in the United States, and its collection contains pieces both Rankin and Feller would put in their own homes.

“Nobody who has a condo in South Beach of Miami will like our stuff,” Feller said.

“This is not flashy,” Rankin added. “This is a very understated, sophisticated, American classic style. You think of driving down the beautiful, tree-lined streets of Southampton or East Hampton, and you can imagine some of the oldest estates, and it’s basically what I see out in the English countryside. You know, those homes that have been passed through generations, and the collections that are inside there are infused with stories, right? And this, HB, it’s a story. It’s a story first.

To source their products, the friends go to a number of fairs across the U.S. and Europe to find brands and makers who exude the sense of heritage, tradition with an airy and coastal touch. The collection has been curated in a way that shares the Hamptons style with everyone, they said.

“It’s not that the Hamptons needs a spotlight, but maybe a different sort of light can be shown on the Hamptons,” Rankin said.

Of course, when you want to exude the Hamptons, you can expect to pay Hamptons prices. There are high-end items for sale at Hamptons Blue, but there are also more affordable pieces. For example, there is a set of four Santorini blue tumblers for $64 for the 16-ounce set and for $72 for the 24-ounce set, and a set of four Marrakesh dip bowls for $70.

“What we want is for there to be enough products that are affordable that, yeah, this wonderful woman in Ohio will be able to buy something that’s enhanced the beauty of her home, and she’s going to feel happy every time she sees it, and she’s going to know that if she bought it through us, it’s absolutely high quality,” Feller said.

Rankin’s and Feller’s devotion to presenting the Hamptons in this way is actually a long time in the making. Rankin is an interior designer based in London and New York, who grew up in California and would often travel with her mother to New York City when she went to go buy for Donna Karan and Michael Kors. She’s been living and working in England for 30 years, so she brings her knowledge of European and British interiors to Hamptons Blue. Feller, a full-time Water Mill resident, spent 25 years in the financial services world but had always wanted to run her own store. As she got older, she decided she wanted to use her passion for design to do something creative, so she founded an LLC to begin an interior design company — and that was even before she spoke to Rankin about joining forces. When they reconnected last summer, they learned they had the same dream, the same style preferences, and were in the same life stage.

“Dana and I know exactly who we are. We know what we’re giving out to the world, and we don’t need to deviate from that,” Rankin said. “This is a luxury, high-end, heritage-infused brand that is story-based. I think that’s really where we are going to be significantly different.”

Only time will tell — this is only the beginning, they said. Their plan is to someday open a Hamptons Blue in every Hamptons village and have their very own designed line. Right now, they have branded candles and a baseball cap.

“Dana and I want people to walk into a home decor store, whether they’re in the U.K. or California or here and know immediately it’s an HB fabric paint color, or that I can walk in any store, from TJ Maxx to Harrods or a little boutique on Kings Road, and recognize it’s HB,” Rankin explained.

And while the brand is currently online only at this point, Hamptons Blue is hosting its first-ever in-person, pop-up experience at the Hampton Classic Horse Show, August 24 to 31, where you can shop from the collection within a fully-appointed space.

“Sometimes you just need to talk to a person, or you need to touch something, or kind of feel the energy of the space,” Rankin said. “I hope that people fall in love with it.”

You can shop from Hamptons Blue at hamptonsblue.com and visit its Instagram at @HamptonsBlue.