girls of Summer

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 Slim and Babe, 1953 taking a break ashore. The pair spent four weeks of their summer on board Alexander Korda's rebuilt antisubmarine boat cruising the Mediterranean.

Note- the pearls-white handbags-and the sensible shoes.



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Maureen Footer: about books

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photograph by Mary Hilliard

 Maureen wearing a signature gold charm bracelet "collected from my travels--Vietnam, Morocco, an elephant custom made in Jaipur, gold zori from Japan, an English seal, a pyramid and a scarab from the bazaar in Cairo, the Parthenon from Athens, bluefooted booby from the Galapagos, etc. I am so attached to it. It could not be replaced without retracing my footsteps."

Last month when I was in New York for several days-I got to catch up with Maureen Footer. I met Maureen along with Emily Eerdmans two years ago and we've stayed in touch. Maureen had a luncheon at her apartment on Saturday-with guests-Emily,Christopher Petkanas and Tim Sheridan.

Maureen has mastered the art of the Luncheon with aplomb-(sorry I did not get a photograph of the beautiful setting-as usual). What was prettiest were the table linens-her napkins were family heirlooms. There was lively conversation-talk of design,books,blogs and design-and books, etc etc.

a wonderful Library designed by Maureen

Maureen is a noted interior designer with a number of published projects. Her newest project though is her book to be published by Rizzoli in 2014. I can not wait to read it. Entitled George Stacey and the Creation of American Chic-it seems a great fit-as she is quite Chic-always looks smart & at ease whether dressed in an evening gown or something casual. On Saturday, Maureen was wearing a leopard print skirt -vintage YSL, a white Lacoste polo & Roger Vivier's Belle du Jour pumps called so because Deneuve wore them in the movie of that title-voilà -classic chic.

The subject of her book,George Stacey is perhaps best known as mid century society's crème de la crème decorator-specifically Babe Paley. Babe was famously photographed by John Rawling for Vogue in her Kiluna Farm Stacey decorated living room wearing Charles James in 1950. The Paley art collection is arresting-as is Mrs. Paley-but Stacey's decoration is equally so. The crimson gown must have been selected as complement to Stacey's seductive study in emerald-canary and cerulean. Stacey worshiped at the altar of high WASP-with women like Babe as his acolytes-his rooms gave off a decidedly French soignee.

“The look of being too deliberately dressed, with everything cautiously matching, always bores me. I like the sudden shock of non-sequitur color. Color, in fact, is my weakness.” Babe Paley. Stacey must have agreed. I asked Maureen for a tease about the book-and not wanting to reveal too much-(as any seasoned designer will tell you is A Don't) she sent me a portrait of Stacey with this description.

This Hans Van Nes Stacey portrait mirrors Stacey’s design sensibility in the 1930s, it’s an interesting portrait  and their work together was significant for both of them. I also love the over scaled baluster (so Stacey!) and how its echoing shadow and negative space is filled in by Stacey in profile. The sophistication of the work is the very same sophistication we see in Stacey’s work in the 1930s. Do you not just adore his suit?

 George Stacey and the Creation of American Chic

George Stacey photographed by Hans Van Nes

(photograph provided by Maureen Footer)

 

Van Nes was Stacey's charming partner in their antique business & went on to become an established photographer in the 1930s & shot some of the early projects that brought Stacey recognition and publication in Town and Country, House and Garden, and Vogue. One can imagine the symbiotic artistic relationship the two probably shared:  Van Nes knew Stacey’s aesthetic well and how to capture it to full advantage on his lens.  Perhaps even more important, George learned how the camera reads space and how to work intuitively with volume, light, contrast to design  incredibly photogenic rooms.  Not only did editors gravitate to his rooms like catnip, but great  fashion editors and  photographers used Stacey rooms for fabulously seductive fashion photographs.

Can't Wait for Maureen's book! I've longed to know more about Stacey ever since I saw the Babe Paley Rawlings photograph.

Now-In keeping with my promise to bring the best books-new and old to you this December, I asked Maureen what was in her stacks to be read.
Here's her list:



 Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr (that's for my perfume OBSESSION)

Faithfull by Marianne Faithfull (for my Rolling Stones fix)

 The Age of Comfort by Joan Dejean about the evolution of 18th c French interior architecture

Charlotte Moss's book Charlotte Moss: A Visual Life -just picked up at her book signing. 

American Lady (in French) about Susan Marie Alsop, a post War picture of Paris. just translated into English.

I've read the Alsop biography, and the Dejean book and Charlotte's book too. I am getting ready to read Emperor of Scent-after exploring Maureen's recommendation. Maureen and I are of like minds on a number of things-definitely books-along with good design-and great friends.


I've written about Maureen before-HERE are several post links.
Maureen Footer Design HERE.

Babe Paley: style, grace, gesture

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BABE PALEY by AVEDON

Zac Posen's Pre Fall Collection-BABE CHIC style

the Rooms-the Houses

the Grace- the Gesture

the NEW New Look

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Last week Sarah Burton unveiled her Pre-Fall Collection for ALEXANDER MCQUEEN. The details are pure Couture. As in the startling New Look from Christian Dior's first ever collection. Dior cinched the waist, softened shoulders and gave the ladies full skirts-very full skirts. Feminine. Romantic. Pretty.

Remember this was a war weary sartorial world.

Along with this New Look, women were ready to embrace the same femininity and softness in their interiors. Dior's New Look would hold sway through the decade and some of the most beautifully photographed women like Babe Paley became Swans. She would dress so well she was inducted into the Fashion Hall of Fame in 1958.  The patrician Marella Agnelli was Truman Capote's youngest & only European swan. Agnelli was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1963.These two Swans were referred to by Capote as "Numero Uno"-Babe Paley and "European Numero Uno"- Marella Agnelli.

“a gathering of swans, an aloof armada . . . their feathers floating away over the water like the trailing hems of snowy ball-gowns”  from the 19th century journal of Patrick Conway- that prompted Capote's naming of the Swans.

Capote would elaborate in detail on his swans in photographer Richard Avedon’s book Observations.
The most elegant and memorable interiors of the decade were not Of the decade- No, No-but of another era defined by elegance and romance- the Watteau painting,  the curves of a Louis XV fauteuil. When they did up their rooms however they looked for comfort and light-in this they differed from these more formal Versailles interiors.

Today- Lifestyles don't adapt nearly so well to Dior's New Look. What can we take away from Its idea?  Certainly how we live as much as how we dress is important.
Suggestion-Pare down some of the wacky 50's decor in rooms-add the comfortable fauteuil in an oversize check, a Indiennes print. Take cues from Billy Baldwin's decoration of the Paley apartments at the St. Regis. Refine.

Enter Bill Gaytten with his Spring Couture Collection for CHRISTIAN DIOR that is pure DIOR, & isn't that Appropriate? The beauty of the workroom as seem in The Day Before Dior- by Stephanie LaCava with photographs by Greg Kessler from T Magazine here

Voilà

Beautiful. Feminine. Is there something in the air besides Spring? Women are ready for the breezy prettiness of full skirts. Sheer sleeves and gloves- Yes please to gloves. No collection exhibits that femininity more than Christian Dior's Couture Collection for Spring & Summer in 1957 & no photograph captures that collection more than Cecil Beaton's ladder of  preening mannequins in an elegant ballroom of gilded chairs- and Yes, the uber- sophisticated freshness of a lacquered Louis XV settee in Soigné  grey.

& the SWANS- were still gliding over the ice skimmed lake of Narcissism.

Read the Met's Costume Institute Christian Dior Fashion Bio here
more Marella Agnelli here STYLE.com
more Babe Paley here VOGUE.com

photographs: the New Look silhouette 1947, Babe Paley photograph by Erwin Blumenfeld  from Vogue.com (sited above), Dior fashion in the French Room, & from the collection of images- from the pages of Vogue- Dior ads and drawings from Rene Gruau, Alexander McQueen's Pre-Fall Collection from Vogue.com here,  & the interiors of P Gaye Tapp, Vere Grenney, Billy Baldwin and Jansen and Sister Parish, the bedroom of Marella Agnelli, Turin Italy. portraits of Babe Paley and Marella Agnelli by Richard Avedon.
& 1,2-photographs by Greg Kessler. 3 -photograph by Pascal Le Segreta
photographs: The Spring 2012 Colletion of DIOR,  Cecil Beaton's photograph of Christian Dior 1957 Spring Collection, CZ Guest New Year's Eve 1956. image collection 2-Cecil Beaton's photograph of Christian Dior 1957 Spring Collection, Vogue.com Christian Dior Spring  2012 Couture