EXOTIC TASTE Today

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Wallpaper, 1810-1830, Chinese.

at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

(image from the book EXOTIC TASTE)

The influences of interior design are great and broad. Often asked-is that Chinese altar table right for this room? Is it too exotic?
No, No & NO-
One of the most influential of all is perhaps the Orientalist room, its art, its textiles- it is EXOTIC TASTE. It works with everything, everywhere, and I know it is my own personal choice for what continues to awe and inspire my most creative urges in interior design. Consider in earnest rooms you are attracted to? If you don't know the back story- the history of the room-do the research and I think will find the mark of the Exotic in full exposure or a little hidden in the patina of a black lacquer- a sinuous figure- a subtle fretwork?

the designers interpret- left to right, Martha Angus, Miles Redd, Charlotte Moss, Jeffrey Bilhuber

a page from Exotic Taste

detail from  the Small Chinese Salon, 1762-68 in the Chinese Palace at Oranienbaum, 

frenetic geometrics contrast with delicate birds butterflies and flowers

A new book EXOTIC TASTE ORIENTALIST INTERIORS traces the influences of it all.  Written by Emmanuelle Gaillard and Marc Walter’s , the Silk Road is fully traced and found in the of late 19th & early 20th century rooms in the West.

from Vendome Press: Exuberant Chinese-inspired drawing rooms, Persian-style boudoirs, bulbous Mogul domes, and Turkish smoking rooms - stylistic influences from the exotic East have inspired Western architects, artists and designers for nearly 400 years.  Illustrated with extraordinary vintage and contemporary interior photography, fabrics, wallpapers, patterns, decorative objects, and costumes, EXOTIC TASTE tours the houses of writers, artists, business tycoons, princesses, and even the Russian Empress Catherine..

The Turkish Salon at Pierre Loti's Mosque in Rouchefort, France 1889-1894

Loti's Mosque is also featured on the Exotic Taste cover

Pierre Loti in the Turkish Salon

there will be antique embroideries, antique slippers strewn on the floor, antique Korans purloined from Sfax, even old and worn whitewashed arches. When you come we shall fuddle our heads with kif in there while playing the drums. Pierre Loti

The Chinese Salon, at Chateau de Haroue, Lorraine decorations by Jean Pillement, at left.  Chinoiserie

 1765-67 at the Petit Palais, Paris. (image from Exotic Taste)

(image from the book EXOTIC TASTE)

The photography of Tim Walker captures the mythology of the Exotic-with the French aesthetic

Every day we see the following - the patterns in Chinese porcelain, their shapes transformed-the sleek patina of coromandel screens and objets d’art with Eastern references- literal and interpreted in a more subtle modern way. 

Porcelains from the Russian Imperial collections at Tsarkoye Selo, Russia

& interpretations by Mary Katrantzou. below

detail of Christofle, Courge torchere cloisonne enamel and gilt, 1868, Mary Katrantzou, Fall 2011,center, detail of Charlotte Moss curtain r.

(image from the book Exotic Taste)

Japonisme. by William Merritt Chase ,1898.

detail of Charlotte Moss curtain

close-up of a Howard Slatkin curtain detail at left,
& at right-a plate from L'ornement polychrome,Recueil historique et pratique by M.A. Racinet,Paris, 1869-88. the motif from Alhambra at Granada

Modern - current, is what Katrantzou does with Exoticism in her Spring 2012 fashion collection. Katrantzou studied the famous room of Diana Vreeland and began “imagining a luxurious apartment inhabited by Babe Paley or the Duchess of Windsor.”

William Merrit Chase, top, Jeremiah Goodman interpretation of Diana Vreeland's Garden, bottom row, Mary Katrantzou l, and Beaton Turandot headress, r.

Exotic Taste wows. It is the fantasy scholarly book "exotics" all have been waiting for. As a celebration of exotic taste I will be revisiting the EXOTIC all month at little augury-


Mary Katranzou images from Vogue.com
EXOTIC TASTE at VENDOME here

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