Athena Asanovich Rutigliano, principal, brings a lifetime of inspiration and expertise in fashion and merchandising to AR Interiors. Based in Bergen County, New Jersey, Athena was raised in a creative family that instilled in her a love of design as well as a strong work ethic. Her father supervised the construction and design of many fashion houses and high-end retail stores in nearby New York City, and her mother graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan and became a talented dress designer. Both are very thorough and detail oriented in their work and taught Athena to be the same. Through years of attending gift shows and trade fairs, along with browsing anything design related, Athena developed a love of sourcing furniture – a specialty she applies in her design work through strong relationships with high-end furniture vendors.
Athena graduated FIT in 2003, after completing the first level of her degree in Buying and Merchandising and the second in Advertising and Marketing Communications. While still in school, Athena began working for luxury brand Mercedes-Benz, where she helped plan and organize its Fall Fashion Week 2002 including arranging press briefings nationwide.
After a successful stint at Mercedes-Benz, Athena worked in marketing for Pantone, a leader in the interior design industry. “They set the standard for color,” she says. While at Pantone Athena helped develop storyboards and color palettes for corporate marketing campaigns. But she missed fashion, so she returned to the fashion industry doing merchandising – visiting department store accounts to present the company’s line of merchandise and holding store seminars to educate the staff on the products. Athena merchandized for Buffalo Jeans and L’Atelier Group before finally leaving to work for Italian luxury and fashion design powerhouse D&G Dolce & Gabbana.
For D&G Dolce & Gabbana Athena was initially responsible for merchandising along the entire East coast before being asked to join the wholesale sales team in 2008. Athena eventually was tasked with presenting and selling their Women’s Collection to Department stores across the U.S including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, and all of D&G Dolce & Gabbana’s specialty store distribution across the country.
Athena attended New York School of Interior Design in order to expand on her knowledge in the Design world. The combination of all of her experience in fashion, product lines, luxury brands, and education is what fuels Athena’s love for design. Athena has a passion for creativity, and for seeing an idea come to fruition.