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The authentic and timeless world of Ralph Lauren

August 2025

RL/People

The RL Q&A: Antoine Ratigan

The maverick architect-designer on harmonizing interiors, the magic of Careyes, and what he’s learned from traditional Mexican crafts

CASA PARASOL

Set above Playa Rosa, the soft pink home is emblematic of Ratigan’s design philosophy in Careyes: artful, open, and rooted in craft.

On the western shores of Mexico, a few hours’ drive south from Puerto Vallarta, lies a coastal enclave known only to a few—a self-selecting crowd of the artistically inclined, the culturally curious, the well traveled, and well heeled who value nature and creativity over pomp and circumstance.

The town, Careyes, was founded on the rugged shores of the Mexican jungle, having been spotted by Italian banker-turned-artist Gianfranco Brignone while flying over the coast. Brignone saw the potential inherent in the area’s natural beauty and spent the next 50 years of his life turning Costa Careyes from a wild jungle into an aesthetically stunning and art-driven community, protecting the vast majority of the area as a biosphere reserve and helping to develop slivers of its jaw-dropping coast with equally jaw-dropping residences.

The area’s artistic mindset is reflected in its homes, with their traditional-yet-unique architecture and design-forward interiors, and those who have helped create them—like Antoine Ratigan. The French-British architect-designer has a soft spot for Careyes and now calls Mexico home after an earlier life spent working in the fashion industry in London and Paris. And while his design studio, Studio Antoine, now has projects all around the world, nowhere is his passion for design and its relation to architectural space better displayed than in Careyes. The homes he’s created there demonstrate not just a unique and sophisticated eye for all things design but an appreciation for local Mexican craft and heritage, to spectacular result.

And, as he tells us, it all started with a chance trip to Mexico and a gut feeling that he had found a new home.

—Andrew Craig

CASA PARASOL

Set above Playa Rosa, the soft pink home is emblematic of Ratigan’s design philosophy in Careyes: artful, open, and rooted in craft.

How did you create Studio Antoine and find yourself in Mexico?

It’s actually a bit funny—I studied architecture and then worked in fashion for a long time. I was never originally a designer, never had formal training. I discovered Mexico by chance and just fell in love with the culture. When I visited, it was the first time that I had that feeling of finding my happy place, so I took a year, left fashion, and moved to Mexico.

When I was there, I worked with a Mexican architect to revamp a hotel in Acapulco, and after that, people kept asking me to build brand and interior concepts. I went into restaurants first—everything from the merchandising to the marketing to the interiors to the branding, looking after the uniforms, and what type of food are you offering, how the food functions with the branding, and the concepts to make the messages coherent. Eventually, I started to focus on private homes. But it’s all the same idea: I take everything in and align the interiors and the architecture to make sure that everything speaks the same language. That creates a harmony, a kind of soothing effect when you’re in a space.

Part architect, part designer. That’s brilliant.

Traditionally, there’s sometimes a lack of language between the architect and the interior designer, such that the end product can be less than the sum of its parts. So, I’ve tried to create a company which really creates a full artistic direction, with coherence between the volumes and the volumetric. How facades capture light and how you translate that so that the interiors complement the light, for example.

I take everything in and align the interiors and the architecture to make sure that everything speaks the same language.

How did you first come to know Careyes?

I first heard about it through French friends of mine during my first year in Mexico. They described this magical little community that was distinctly Mexican but had a European twist, with incredible homes. That it was relatively unheard of and full of people who really relate to aesthetics.

I can still recall arriving and being magically wowed by this very specific place. It has a very specific vibe, a spirit of elevating simple things to become extremely elegant and relevant. And it’s full of people who value the idea of community. Who have a free-spirited approach to things but who live well and travel well. Who know how important it is to promote and support the local villages and to give back. And arriving on the beach, everyone says hello, acknowledging each other’s presence with a curiosity for newcomers, embodying the Mexican saying mi casa es tu casa, which truly defines the spirit of Careyes.

What are the aesthetics of the area like?

It’s magical and distinct from anywhere else I’ve traveled. Careyes celebrates Mexico at its core, from the colored facades to the importance of integrating nature into the architecture. Instead of relying on air conditioning, houses are designed to utilize crosswinds, allowing the wind to flow through the openings and cool the interiors naturally. The Pilar Upper, a hallmark of Mexican architecture featuring large palm tents, is a distinctive feature in Careyes, often considered a pioneer in Mexico for introducing double-height versions.

Architecturally, Careyes is magical, having been born from creativity and spontaneity, with some houses initially sketched on paper napkins. While such impromptu designs are less common now, replaced by more formal planning and programs, the essence of creativity and magic remains integral to Careyes.

What projects have you worked on there?

I started with a house of a friend of mine, called Infinito. Then, I worked on a house called En Sueño where we reused some parts of the old house on the property, working new architecture around it—that was the foundation of my practice in using the values of Careyes and all its extremely specific heritage but learning how to bring it into the 21st century. With contemporary comfort but still remaining simple in the core. Elegance but in a way that doesn’t have to be expensive to be interesting. It can be unique.

Then, we worked on another project, a pink house just over Playa Rosa, called Parasol. And then recently we delivered a beautiful property called Candelabros, where we took a more terracotta-esque, earthy approach, pared down to essentials. With the idea that where spaces don’t have to be filled up to be compelling. Instead, it’s about how you create a feeling of elegance with expanding volumes and complement it through simple cushioning and built-in platforms. That’s something which is very Mexican and very Careyes: fewer furnishings and more cushioning.

Do you feel like you have a specific kind of aesthetic style across your projects?

Things started moving in a positive way for me in Mexico because, I think, I had a European background but valued Mexican heritage. Being half English and half French, my aesthetic eye was definitely developed more from the European artistic backgrounds. But discovering Mexico, I fell in love with the heritage of crafts and how they incorporate elements of the earth.

Pure aesthetics, in my cultural experience, seem to be more of a European thing, while dedication to craft is definitely a Mexican thing. The richness of works that come from the earth, from the hands, and are not thought about in such a pronounced psychological way but really are works of art—that’s the heart of what I find in my work here. I fell in love with the fabric weaves, the copper workings, the silver work, the barro de Oaxaca, which is an incredible black clay.

All of that is to say, my design style is more about the project and its place than anything. It’s about making sure the local heritage is taken care of, and then you can elevate it with your specific eye. This is how I work: The local heritage is the first part, the architecture of what you find in the space is another part, and then I mold myself around that. Ironically, working again now in Europe is the contrary of what happened to me in Mexico. In Mexico, people were interested in my aesthetic point of view because of my European background. And in Europe, now, people are interested because of my work with and my promotion of Latin and South American craft.

You can see that spirit in your Careyes projects—the furnishings and construction details really seem to speak the language of the area.

I believe in the richness of the world and its different virtues. And having a well-traveled eye, that’s what we value and offer clients. For Careyes, we’ve used French fabric makers to get specific indoor-outdoor fabrics that are beautiful but easy and comfortable, so you’re not stressed using the couches after coming in from the beach. But we mix that with what the local artisans do best, which is decorative textile weaves—they’re simple, raw cotton–based fabrics, which aren’t as practical to use as upholstery but look beautiful on the decorative side. So, it’s about mixing and matching and understanding what the strengths and what constraints you have in the local way.

You’ve got a unique point of view that cuts across several different aesthetic disciplines. How and why did you come to value all these different expressions of design work?

I think it’s definitely something I had as a child without realizing it. I really discovered it, properly, working in fashion and discovering how enriching the creative dialogue is. It’s just that in fashion, we used to develop products, and in interiors and architecture, you develop aesthetics.

That creative dialogue is something which I truly treasure, when you meet incredible artists and you’re able to converse with them and explain a space to them, and see how specific pieces then are created for each project. That’s beautiful, and it takes a lot of respect for and admiration of specific talents. I think that’s my biggest belief: believing in talent, and admiring it, and promoting it. That runs through the very concept of creativity, be it in fashion, be it in interiors, be it in art. There’s a lot of magic that can come out of that.

Destination Look

Careyes