Home shui home.

Feng shui guru David Raney has improved the vibes and struck a perfect balance for everything from the Hype offices to Donna Karan's flagship store

When David Raney walked into the DKNY store on Madison Avenue in New York, the feng shui master immediately sensed something was awry. Donna Karan had hired Raney precisely for his expertise in the ancient Chinese science to ensure a harmonious atmosphere where retail success and spiritual serenity would reign. As he contemplated the space, it became clear the shoe department had been misplaced. "It was in the north corner," Raney explains matter-of-factly. "That's an area that tends to be lower-flow energy. Shoes are so important, especially because your power base is found in the sole of the foot."

That was it. He spoke, and the shoe department was moved.

Karan isn't the only one in the fashion world who consults Raney. Though the interior designer favors the pure essence of sandalwood because of its "cleansing properties," he is far from hippie-chic. His upscale clients include Hugo Boss, Broadway diva Betty Buckley, and the new Sally Hershberger at John Frieda salon in West Hollywood, Calif.

Feng shui, which literally means "wind and water," is an environmental science that considers how cosmic universal cycles influence the five natural elements we find in our living spaces--earth, metal, water, wood, and fire. It's Raney's job to assess his clients' environments and determine where "karmic fine-tuning" can create mundane benefits like allowing them to get a good night's sleep or more grand results like bringing success and fame.

Terry Sweeney, Lanier Laney, and Scott King, the gay creators and executive producers of the new sketch comedy show Hype [see page 89], all have hired Raney to redesign their homes and offices. "I used to call it `phony shui,'" explains Laney, who is also Sweeney's life partner. But a Raney tweak in the "fame" area of their home led to glowing articles in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety three days later. The results made Laney shed his doubting-Thomas attitude and inspired King as well.

"I'm someone that hadn't had a date in ten years," King says with a slight sense of irony. "David told me I had to get rid of the busted suitcase, the two shoe boxes, and a bag of miscellaneous Nike items that were cluttering my love area. Now I've started dating. I guess I started putting it out there when I cleaned up my love corner."

Raney, who's waiting for a boyfriend in his own love corner, started his career as an artist (sculpture and ceramics) and later garnered success designing jewelry for his own company, Artcessories, and for Georges Marciano. When he discovered feng shui in Los Angeles ten years ago, he realized it was a great way to meld the skills he learned growing up in Waxahachie, Tex., with his yen for creative work. His mother was an interior designer, his father sold furniture, and his great-grandmother's Cherokee heritage spawned an interest in symbology and spirituality.

Raney now spends his time meditating and doing yoga when he's not jetting between his offices in Los Angeles, Paris, and New York. He's working on Donna Karan's new store at the old Versace boutique in Manhattan ("There are a lot of ghosts there," he says), but he's most inspired by the pro bono feng shui consulting he's doing for a charity called Prasad that's building a hospital for women and children in Ganeshpuri, India. "I may work for the rich and famous a lot," Raney says, "but I think I'm just lucky that right now old-school consciousness is resonating with people. People are just burned out on spaces that look good but feel terrible."

Find more on David Raney and the art of feng shui at www.advocate.com

Stukin also writes for Time.