31 March 2011

a Princess, circa 1972

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when you've got it-
rarely do you lose it.
take Diane von Furstenberg. don't you already know her? she was a Princess, married her prince in 1969 wearing her own design- made for her by Dior- no less.
she was an overnight hit-just for her beauty &  her smarts in marrying well.
what more could a  girl want?-
well?

"I was 22 years old and had just gotten married to Prince Egon Von Furstenberg...I arrived in October, so it was New York at its best—that beautiful, blue crisp. Coming from Europe, I had expected the city would look modern, and actually, it didn’t.
 
I was a young princess, so I lived on Park Avenue and had some small children and blah blah blah. 

But we were a young couple, and fairly good looking with a nice title, so we were invited everywhere. We would see Andy Warhol, Halston, Diana Vreeland, Giorgio Sant’Angelo, and, of course, lots of Europeans." 

 DVF from NYM







it could have been the same old story-that could have been it-
But for DVF-
it was just the beginning.


"When Diane and Egon came here, they received an enormous amount of publicity; they were the 'it' couple - she was gorgeous, and they had titles- Paul Wilmot



& today- on it goes.
Now-an established since 2010- yearly DV Award, honoring inspiring women.
Now, 2011,  a home collection line. Expect- animal prints, geometrics, florals, butterflies & of course Success!
& of course there are bumps in the fairy tale-

but how did it all start?
The couple moved to New York & was ensconced in a Park Avenue apartment by the end of 1969. Prior to her move, Diane had apprenticed for Angelo Ferretti and found a genuine love for textiles and fashion. Once in New York -she decided to start designing simple dresses out of her apartment dining room-that was 1970.  By April of 1970 with encouragement from Bill Blass, Kenny Lane & Diana Vreeland , she had shown her first collection at the Gotham Hotel.


"Everybody expected her to do nothing, and then came the wrap dress and sold tons, so the wrap dress became the uniform of a certain type of woman in the early 70's: the spike heels, the wrap dress and the mink" Paul Wilmot


When these photographs of the von Furstenberg's smashing apartment were taken by Horst and published in Vogue 1972-her business was moving along; her marriage wasn't. Diane had it then- as far as interiors went-and she still does. Many subsequent photographs over the last three decades would reveal her taste  and design aesthetic- these by Horst in early 1972 are likely the first- and as I said-when you've got it-you always have it.

The photographs are beautiful & from all appearances- it was perfect.  At that point for Diane-it could not have been all what it seems from these images. Horst photographed the couple in their new up to the minute designed apartment- all Italian staffed & decorated with the assistance of interior designer Pierre Scapula.


All glamour aside, DVF's love for pattern and color can easily be seen in this Horst portrait. The  exotic mix of French Indiennes fabrics along with  pillows in a patchwork of the same fabric appear alongside her bold floral patterned dress.




the Princess posing for HORST in an alcove tented sitting area off the main living room



the Living Room

Resplendent  Luxury
Glamour
red vinyl walls are lacquered and filled with collected paintings
dark caramel velvet banquettes for seating
tortoise finished Parsons tables with pieces of silver, tortoise scattered about









Modern artists like Albers, Ernest Trova hang over a bold flamestitch covered sofa
Latour like lilacs stand by a French ormolu writing desk
Faberge designed bibelots dot a skirted table














the master bedroom
navy blue straw cloth walls, vicuna on the bed, hide covered director's chair
a Richard Anuszkiewicz   op art painting hangs over the bed










a mirrored alcove in the bedroom, Marilyn silk screen & a white leather "bag" chair 










 son Alexandre's room
a graphic apple wallpaper, brass bed, & a Richard Hird portrait of the couple






just recently Diane was interviewed in the Financial Times  & talked about her personal style:


"I wanted to be a certain kind of a woman. 
I became that kind of a woman." DVF
as I began-
when you've got it- You've got it.

(By 1975 the Princess was separated, it would be 1983 before the couple was divorced.)




all photographs of interiors from Vogue  January 15 1972 by HORST
DVF here
2THEWALLS on DVF's office c 1983 here

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30 March 2011

Saint Laurent rive gauche interiorworthy

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 Paris 1966





Saint Laurent rive gauche

La révolution de la mode


“I want to be the Prisunic”(chain store)of fashion &  make clothes that everyone can wear, 
not just rich women”




YVES SAINT LAURENT




Saint Laurent with Betty Catroux &  Loulou de la Falaise


  the opening of the first Saint Laurent rive gauche boutique in London
New Bond Street -September 10 1969
© Wesley/Keystone/Getty Images











The Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent has recaptured the modern ambiance of  Yves Saint Laurent's 1966 Rive Gauche Boutique. designed by Isabelle Hebey for its 15th Exhibition this year. The shop holds sixty iconic ready-to-wear pieces by the designer

Loulou de la Falaise is artistic director of the Exhibition. She was the couturier’s muse for more than three decades, pulled together the designer's work from the era in order to mount the show:
"The tricky thing about doing this show was to find multiple editions of the same style and make themes,” de la Falaise


“The shop had to look real. If we’d combined lots of diverse pieces, it would have seemed like a sale.” de la Falaise



The boutique opened on the Left Bank’s rue de Tournon on September 26 of that year &  featured  bold firey Chinese red screen walls and carpet, of the moment Djinn benches by Olivier Mourgue ,Noguchi lamps and sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle


A full-length portrait of the designer by painter Eduardo Arroyo hung in the Rive Gauche boutique keeping watch over his flock...






All photos of the recreated boutique © Luc Castel, Courtesy of the Fondation YSL-Pierre Bergé












Eduardo Arroyo,  Spanish realist, painted the 30 year old Yves in his realistic pop art style.



 Velazquez, mi padre 1964 by Arroyo at r.





Olivier Mourgue  designed the now classic Djinn chairs in 1965 and Stanley Kubrick gave them their iconic fame in  his  own masterpiece '2001: A Space Odyssey.'  The chair, a wave-like, low-slung silhouette- was in fact- sculpture. Named from Muslim folklore, the Djinn was a spirit  that assumed human &  animal form and possessed supernatural powers of persuasion. 



Djinn from architonic




scene from Kubrick's 2001movie





Noguchi's "AKARI" paper-lamp designs were used throughout the space. The designer Noguchi was commissioned by the mayor of Gifu, Japan, to revive the town's lantern industry that, says Noguchi, had become "reduced to cheap party decorations and painted silk."  The Noguchi  lanterns were made of a mulberry paper, beautifully made and modern.











St Phalle with  day glo  vinyl silk screen NANAS
Vogue 1968


Inspired by Larry Rivers wife Clarice's pregnancy, artist Niki de Saint Phalle created her first Nanas made of paper maché and wool in 1965 and by September 1965, St Phalle exhibited the Nanas in her solo exhibition at the Galerie Alexandre Iolas, Paris. The surreal sculptures  explored the position of women in society- the Nanas represented every woman- clearly something the boutiques echoed.




a Saint Phalle Nana in the courtyard of the boutique
St Phalle Nana, 1968





YSL as seen in the Exhibition Boutique





Today- over four decades after the Boutique opened- the interior looks as fresh as it did on its first day. With that idea in mind, some of best of modern design-now classics- are held within the shop space. Yves Saint Laurent had the consummate EYE.

One sees it in the manifestation of the design of this everywoman boutique, his ready to wear and couture designs, his connoisseur's  collection of art, antiques and in his private homes. No surprise that this boutique withstands to test of time. To that end, his successor Stefano Pilati has in his tenure at YSL  published a seasonal Manifesto that brings 'the brand back to the streets'.  This echos Yves Saint Laurents own vision in making  it New.


the Spring 2011 video & Pilati quote below from Laura Bradley at another thing here
see the Manifesto here photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin,


Stefano Pilati:
"I fell in love with the idea of manifestos and with the term itself, because the word 'manifesto' implied a sense of breaking through something while still being connected to and aware of how things are today. In terms of the format, I didn't really relate to any historical manifestos I've seen because my medium is fashion… There is fashion photography in the manifesto so even the idea of showing the pictures larger than they appear in normal magazines was part of the act of manifesting. First of all you need to question whether it's interesting or not to be political about fashion, or instead you wish to reinforce a message to people that is simply about looking good and projecting a positive energy about yourself. I was no longer interested in thinking of fashion in an elitist way. Everything I picked up from the manifestos in the past suggested that they were trying to create energy around an ideology that was considered, in its time, underground. So I thought for today I would offer another perspective of a luxury brand to a broad demographic that doesn't necessarily relate to fashion in the way that a more privileged layer of people do. I wanted to create a wider influence for the message that was being sent from the catwalk, by taking imagery of a collection and giving it to people on environmentally friendly paper in the street without targeting a specific demographic. One of my visions for Saint Laurent is about giving back, so that even if you can't afford it, you can still pick up the essence of the message, the elements of fashion that might be considered increasingly irrelevant but remain for me its main aspects: the silhouette, the way the clothes are cut, the fabrics, a special pattern. It's to say – "These are my thoughts and this is my message – you can pick up something from this and do it yourself. The Yves Saint Laurent manifestos are against aggressively, against exclusivity, against classification, against isolation, against introversion, against always looking at oneself. This is what it comes to in the end. Fashion can give rise to all of these things and it shouldn't, especially today."




“I want to be the Prisunic”(chain store)of fashion &  make clothes that everyone can wear, not just rich women” YSL
and that he did- becoming the first  French couturier with a ready to wear line- this recreation of his boutique reminds us...
and it was just the beginning.



Photos of the recreated boutique © Luc Castel, Courtesy of the Fondation YSL-Pierre Bergé
















from 5 March to 17 July 2011


 Links:

YSL here
more at Vogue.com here
Shop Noguchi 
Niki Saint Phalle blog here
de la Falaise quotes from universal excuses by Rebecca Voight here

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29 March 2011

making magic

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Michael's Way

 The Garden Room of Mrs. Stanley Dollar decorated by Michael Taylor

Michael Taylor found the naturalistic white metal banquette and pouf  for this room at Frederick P. Victoria & Son- along with other pieces for the Garden Room.  Four full scale metal trees- 3 made by Jansen- were added to the room- Victoria making the fourth. Elsie de Wolfe had purchased the forest from Jansen for her 1938 Circus Ball held at her Villa Trianon at Versailles. Both the designer and the client were enchanted by the idea of pulling the white trees into the room -setting the magic that their towering presence must have made.









some things-I never forget.
a room so exquisite, so beautiful- You see it. You don't forget. Many things you do.This you don't.
Design stagnates, it lags.
Some designers are good, some are very good- some are excruciatingly great.
Michael Taylor was.
He was- one of those great designers that could create a uniquely beautiful room-an unforgettable one. He knew where design originated, where it had been. This was just one of the small-but crucial elements that gave him that edge-that would give anyone an edge.

Yes, his clients were rich, but they recognized a spark- a brilliant spark.
This one was that brilliant spark- One we never should forget. This room was too- it was his.
He made magic.



and it's not easy to make, ask her.









 before I read the charming words of Hamish Bowles-another magic maker-
I spotted Magic.



Hamish Bowles from a Lunch Celebrating... here

Chilled pea soup was served in little ramekins in the conservatory. It matched perfectly the moss-green cushions on the Jansen banquettes (you will remember these from Elsie de Wolfe's Circus Ball), and indeed the bright green moss bedding out the exuberant potted succulents. That is the fastidious attention to detail of the Trevor Trainas for you.





Elsie's Way






the Triana Way


The conservatory of Trevor and Alexis Traina
The home of the Triana's has been decorated with the assistance of Alexis Triana's godfather, Thomas Britt, and family friend Ann Getty. Ann Getty has added these special seating pieces to her ANN GETTY HOUSE collection. I love the little benches.



seating by Ann Getty House here





Yes! of course-all inspired by Michael Taylor.
the pillows-Michael Taylor.
the  apple green- Michael Taylor
and the settees-Michael Taylor.
and the Magic- it reflects design history, but it's fresh.


when the clients do the homework- it has to be unforgettable.



in green below- excerpts from Hamish Bowle's Ode to Love in  Vogue here

The Trainas also looked to some iconic tastemaking neighbors for inspiration. It is an impressive roster. There is madcap Dodie Rosenkranz, whose villa was decorated by Michael Taylor in a style that Britt characterizes as "palace in Calcutta."

Trevor in turn applauds his wife's "fabulous and whimsical eye," informed by legendary decorators including Tony Duquette, Michael Taylor, and Thomas Britt.

Trevor's childhood homes were concocted by his vivacious mother, Dede Wilsey, in collaboration with the innovative Michael Taylor—dramatically pretty backdrops for dramatically pretty Impressionists.


another Taylor post-and the Dollar rooms happen to be my favorite of all the designer - here.
another  Frederick P. Victoria story here
more LINKS-
Ode to Joy by Hamish Bowles at Vogue.com here
San Francisco Luxury Living. com here
Ann Getty House here
Frederick P. Victoria and Son here


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28 March 2011

the white stuff

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today-it did this.
big  downy flakes on March 28th-
but I still do love to see it.

I am a winter woman.







Giambattista Valli designer

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spirit

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When you see a fish you don't think of its scales, do you? 
You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through the water...
If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement, give a pattern or shape of reality. 
I want just the flash of its spirit.  
Constantin Brancusi























































Howard Schatz  has been taking underwater photographs for over 20 years-these new photographs show floating nymphs taken for Brizo, maker of bath and kitchen products.
 Howard Schatz here

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27 March 2011

together

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CHADO RALPH RUCCI & PETRUS CHRISTUS
American Master & Flemish Master




read little augury tortoise here


image from style.com

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26 March 2011

old blue eyes

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Maximilian von Österreich

 by Winterhalter
born 1832- executed 1867
His Imperial and Royal Highness Prince Imperial . Archduke Maximilian of Austria, Prince of Hungary & Bohemia
love child
traveller
lover
botanist
Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Navy 
progressive
Viceroy of Lombardy - Venetia
Milanese liberal
adventurer
Emperor of Mexico
executed by a firing squad
last words VIVA MEXICO

&


lover of emeralds

His Own

legend says the emerald belonged to Cuauhtemoc -last Aztec King
Cartier set the Emerald with diamonds for Marjorie Merriewaether Post
(Smithsonian image)





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having a dress up moment

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                                                                                                               Why don't you...
have a yellow satin bed entirely quilted in butterflies?   Diana Vreeland



Empress Eugenie as Marie Antoinette
Winterhalter







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25 March 2011

Sugimoto's History Lesson

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Sugimoto rekindles the dialogue between painting and the medium of mechanical reproduction. Sugimoto isolated wax figures from staged vignettes in waxworks museums, posed them in three-quarter-length view, and illuminated them to create haunting Rembrandt-esque portraits of historical figures, such as Henry VIII, Napoleon Bonaparte, Fidel Castro, and Princess Diana. His painterly renditions, lush with detail, recall the various paintings from which the wax figures were originally drawn. Through layers of reproduction—from subject to painting to wax statue to photograph—these images most consciously convey the collapsing of time and the retelling of history. taken from the Guggenheim here



  
Arthur Wellsley, Duke of Wellington, 1999. Gelatin silver print, edition 1/5, 58 3/4 x 47 inches (149.2 x 119.4 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin  2005.104. © Hiroshi Sugimoto





the Duke of Wellington by Robert Home





the WaxWorks at Tussuad's in LONDON

from picasa here






Napoleon Bonaparte, 1999. Gelatin silver print, edition 1/5, 58 3/4 x 47 inches (149.2 x 119.4 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin  2005.114. © Hiroshi Sugimoto





Napoleon by David





The artist's believes photography is a time machine,  preserving and picturing memory and time.







Jane Seymour, 1999. Gelatin silver print, edition 1/5, 58 3/4 x 47 inches (149.2 x 119.4 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin  2005.101. © Hiroshi Sugimoto





JANE SEYMOUR

 the Holbein portrait l,   r at Madame Tussuad's in London






Henry VIII, 1999. Gelatin silver print, edition 1/5, 58 3/4 x 47 inches (149.2 x 119.4 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin  2005.113. © Hiroshi Sugimoto





...putting the Light of the Holbein portraits of Henry and his six wives on the photographs of the Madame Tussuad figures enabled Sugimoto to create a portrait of the period.










 Anne of Cleves, 1999. Gelatin silver print, edition 1/5, 58 3/4 x 47 inches (149.2 x 119.4 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin  2005.105. © Hiroshi Sugimoto




ANNE of CLEVES
the Holbein portrait at left





 the 6 Wives of Henry the VIII by Sugimoto from historiful here
 Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.






Sugimoto's ELIZABETH in the home of designer Robert Couturier






 Elizabeth I, 1999. Gelatin silver print, edition 1/5, 58 3/4 x 47 inches (149.2 x 119.4 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin  2005.111. © Hiroshi Sugimoto





& where would we be without Wilde




Oscar Wilde, 1999. Gelatin silver print, edition 1/5, 58 3/4 x 47 inches (149.2 x 119.4 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin  2005.89. © Hiroshi Sugimoto







read more at pbs here



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