Check Out Mona Steck’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mona Steck.

Hi Mona, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
My company, Settings by Mona was really born from my deep desire to create and surround myself with beauty. I love to entertain and host intimate dinner parties. My passion is to immerse guests in a unique and memorable dining experience. Some like to dress up at night, I do too, but I really enjoy dressing my table up even more.
This passion has ultimately manifested into a highly specialized company of designing table linens. We supply exclusively designed custom linens to the luxury hospitality industry. This includes luxury hotels, resorts, casinos, private clubs, private aviation, Michelin-starred restaurants, and high-end special event venues.

Some of our clients include Wynn Resorts International, MGM Resorts International, Rosewood Miramar Beach, Ritz Carlton, The Peninsula Beverly Hills, Pelican Hill, The Jonathan Club, and even the White House. I carefully consider each client’s unique vision and then bring their vision to reality.

It is such a thrill to see a project from beginning to end, and there is no bigger high than walking into a completed project and seeing the guests checking out the linens, being “wowed”, taking IG shots, and ultimately seeing a room filled with my creations. It is a very proud moment each and every time, and it never gets old.

HOW IT ALL STARTED.

My company actually started in the luxury retail space in early 2000. I was lucky to have my collection of linens picked up by Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, and Barneys New York in my first couple of years in business.

After a while, people such as Oprah Winfrey and the Kennedy family became fans of the collection, and soon high-end boutiques and famed event designers around the globe became regular clients. A cult following kind of ensued. It was a wild time. I worked 15-17 hour days for many years and my mantra was “just keep going”. I never looked back, I always looked ahead and I still do to this day.

While my retail collection was at its peak, I was living and running my company in downtown NYC. Then 9/11 happened. Shortly thereafter, wanting to be closer to my family I relocated to Las Vegas, where my family had moved years before. It was there that I was “discovered” by Steve Wynn and his amazing team, the incomparable Tom Cook, then Director of Catering for Wynn Las Vegas. With that my Hospitality Division was born.

As Wynn Resorts being my first hotel client, it was an amazing calling card, which provided me the opportunity to work with other incredible properties both domestically and worldwide.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh, there were alot of struggles along the way. I had said back in the first 2 years that if I had known just how hard this was going to be I probably would have never started Settings. The first 3-5 years were extremely challenging and very exhausting. Now that I look back in the rearview mirror 23 years later, it was certainly worth all of the hard work, time, and effort.
Struggle – one example that immediately comes to mind, and there are dozens in the beginning, I needed to warehouse my linens to be able to ship to clients worldwide. At the time, I could not afford to hire an outside fulfillment facility, so I literally stored the linens all over my NYC 700sf apartment, including having them “warehoused” aka all piled up in my bathtub. Every morning I had to remove the inventory, take my shower, wipe it down, and return the inventory.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We are a luxury brand of fully customized linens for the high-end hospitality industry, and each and every piece is made by hand. When a client comes to us they do not pick a design from a catalog.

I consider all aspects of the clients’ vision along with all existing architectural and design elements and then craft a custom, one-of-a-kind creation, ensuring balance and visual cohesion of the final space. Each project we work on becomes exclusive to that particular client. If you see particular linens in one property, you will not see them elsewhere. Fully bespoke.

Whether whimsical, sexy, chic, classic or simply elegant, my job is to define and enhance the intention of the space, then elevate the overall aesthetic with exquisite final touches, ensuring a visual feast, as well as a tactile one. I am brought into a space to complete the room, and linens do just that.

Linens truly create the canvas for chefs to showcase their fine cuisine. Or, for a ballroom space, linens bring the whole look and vibe together. The right linens have the power to set the mood for any special event while harmonizing the design elements in each venue.

We have done some incredible projects, from 5-star luxury properties worldwide and Michelin-starred restaurants, and I suppose there is alot to be proud of but as I said I hardly ever look back. If I had to choose, I would have to say being called by The White House to create custom linens to match the Presidential china for the G8 Summit. They reached out again to create custom linens for Camp David, both for the Obama administration. Those are kind of a monumental moments in one’s career.

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
As a city kid growing up in NYC, I would go to sleep-away camp every summer up in the country.

It’s kind of what many east coast kids do to be out of the city and be in a natural environment.

It was there that I was exposed to living in nature, we lived in a tent all summer, learning everything from boating to archery, and, of course, my favorite was the arts and crafts time we had each day.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.settingsbymona.com
• Instagram: @settingsbymona
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SettingsbyMona