Identified for her signature mix of classic glamour and fashionable edge, Alison Victoria has cemented her place as a number one pressure within the design world. As founder and president of Alison Victoria Interiors, her portfolio spans high-end boutiques, luxurious resorts and personal residences—together with vacation collaborations with the White Home.
Onscreen, she’s the creator, govt producer and star of HGTV’s Windy Metropolis Rehab and co-star of Ugliest Home in America and Scariest Home in America. This fall, she returns to HGTV with the collection premiere of Sin Metropolis Rehab. Offscreen, Victoria has launched Briefly Beautiful Productions to carry uncooked, genuine storytelling to actuality TV. She additionally not too long ago debuted a magnificence line with Volition Magnificence, impressed by her Greek heritage, and has fashionable partnerships with The Tile Store, Cupboards To Go and Hoodsly, the final of which presents her new customized kitchen vary hoods.
From houses to merchandise to actuality TV, Victoria brings daring imaginative and prescient and timeless type to all she touches.
Q&A with Alison Victoria
SUCCESS: You’ve constructed a formidable profession as a designer, TV host and now govt producer. What pivotal second has formed your journey probably the most?
Alison Victoria: There are such a lot of pivotal moments. It’s all totally different moments that give me the chance to make decisions. I [remember] look[ing] on the option to reply that e-mail that I acquired [from a Sacramento-based production company looking for an interior designer for an HGTV show] 15 years in the past and the way in which that I unapologetically went for it. Then I simply took dangers that led me to huge rewards.
After that, there have been so many pivotal moments—like making the selection to at all times comply with my coronary heart, as exhausting because it is likely to be. You’ve acquired one life, [and] it’s not lengthy. Why waste your time doing something you don’t love or working with individuals you don’t like or [who] dim your mild?
S: With a number of award nominations for Windy Metropolis Rehab and the launch of your manufacturing firm, what’s your imaginative and prescient for the way forward for actuality TV?
AV: My imaginative and prescient is to proceed the uncooked, unedited, unfiltered expertise that anybody has in any class. I’m not sticking with dwelling. I’m going into documentaries. I’m going into something that’s genuine.
I really like the truth that 15 years in the past, I used to be given this opportunity and that somebody noticed [an opportunity] in me. I continued to only keep true to myself, not altering for anybody. I wish to preserve discovering characters like that on this world—who’re passionate and actual. I wish to guarantee that the individuals [who] I placed on tv are the identical individuals you’ll meet for those who bumped into them at a restaurant. That there isn’t any distinction, that there’s solely one character of their li[ves], and it’s their genuine selves.
S: What’s your artistic course of like, and the place do you draw inspiration from?
AV: Inspiration can begin wherever for me. It might begin with a cloth… an vintage mild fixture… or an expertise that I had not too long ago, whether or not it’s via journey or a restaurant or actually something visible…. It at all times begins someplace. So the method is totally different for each job I do.
S: Your philanthropic efforts are inspiring. How do you select the causes you assist, and what impression do you hope to create?
AV: My philanthropic efforts have been at all times with animals early on and nonetheless are. I’m on the board of PAWS (Pets Are Value Saving). Habitat for Humanity has at all times been close to and pricey to me, particularly the Ladies Construct program—getting on the market with my staff and constructing houses for individuals who deserve them. It’s nice to comply with [the process], from framing partitions to bringing flowers and sitting within the kitchen you helped carry to life. Ladies Construct conjures up different girls to not simply construct however to be part of one thing necessary.
The way in which I acquired concerned with the Chicago Refugee Coalition was via my boyfriend, Brandt Andersen, who has devoted his life to serving to refugees via his group, the REEL Basis. Due to his movie, The Strangers’ Case, and us spending time with refugees in Turkey, Greece and the Center East, it made me go, “Chicago’s having an actual disaster proper now. How can I get entangled?”
S: Along with your busy schedule filming, designing and launching new ventures, how do you prioritize self-care and keep stability?
AV: I don’t know if I just like the phrase stability as a result of we’re all attempting our greatest to do all of it. However for those who’re doing it proper, you’re admitting which you could’t do all of it. That was an enormous tipping level for me—realizing I wanted assist. I’m solely pretty much as good because the individuals I work with and encompass myself with.
Jeff Bezos stated he prefers “work-life concord” over stability—life and work intertwined, not a trade-off. I cherished that. For me, it’s about doing somewhat of what’s necessary on daily basis. Once I’m completely satisfied, I really feel like I float world wide and happiness is drawn to me.
S: You’re increasing into magnificence with a collaboration with Volition Magnificence. How does this venture join along with your private values and Greek heritage?
AV: I’m obsessive about olive oil. There isn’t a meal with out olive oil and lemon. I’ve a tablespoon on daily basis. It jogs my memory of the Greek islands—there’s one thing nostalgic about it, and I imagine it makes an enormous distinction in my hair, pores and skin and nails. I’ve by no means worn basis, and I believe that’s helped me age gracefully.
I wished to create one thing that looks like summer time in Greece. It’s clear, it’s contemporary. We’ve been via a number of iterations to excellent it. I simply really feel like we’ve hit the jackpot with the Glow Drops, [a combination of resveratrol from Greek grapes and squalane from Greek olives], and I can’t wait to listen to what individuals suppose.
This interview has been edited for size and readability and initially appeared within the September/October 2025 challenge of SUCCESS® journal.
Picture by ©Sarah Barlow
