Betsey Johnson
Update (6/2016): Almost a year after fashion designer Betsey Johnson listed her funky East Hamptons abode, it sold for $1.75M, or about 18 percent less than asking.
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Original: Before she was Betsey Johnson with her unique line of clothing, handbags and shoes populating Main Street stores all over America, Betsey Johnson was an outcast member of Andy Warhol’s 1960s art scene, which made at least one foray to the Hamptons.
While the Hamptons didn’t immediately captivate Johnson, she soon got hooked on Long Island’s East End beach life and ended up buying a house.
Now, the long stay in East Hampton has come to an end. In an interview with Newsday, the 73-year-old designer says she will spend more time in Malibu, so she has placed her oddly traditional-style home on the market for $1.75 million. She started higher at $2.2 million, then dropped to $1.9 million before this latest price cut.
The 4-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home at 25 Grape Arbor Lane has a pretty open floor plan, and bears some of the lively patterns that hallmark Johnson’s products. The best part of the deal is that the home sits on 1.6 acres and includes a low-key, in-ground swimming pool. There’s a two-car, detached garage and easy access to the high-end shops in the village.
Johnson divulged some neat bits of art-scene history and her arrival in the Hamptons during her talk with Newsday:
I came out to the Hamptons with Andy Warhol in the ’60s with The Velvet Underground,” the 73-year-old Johnson recalls of her trip with the artist and the glam rock band. Her career as an avant-garde designer who created looks such as see-through plastic shifts and metal micro minis skyrocketed during that decade’s London-based Youthquake movement. It was marked by teenagers dominating the music and fashion scene.
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