Style remains

Little else appeals more than a room with a view, unless it's a room where the rustle of silk whispers across the floor of said room.

The magical paintings of Fanny Nushka Moreaux satisfy both. Her stylish work is reminiscent  of the latest in haute couture, & the bygone era of lithe models like Lisa Fonssagrives draped across a sofa. That Fossagrives era converges on Moreaux's canvas with a modern, yet delicate brushstroke.

Beyond what is just in fashion, Fanny Nushka Moreaux's work offers the indelible.

With the onslaught of weeks of fashion shows rehashing old themes, here is a respite, remaining long after the runway is empty.

"Les modes passent, le style est éternel" - Yves Saint Laurent

Fanny Nushka Moreaux's work can be seem and purchased here

something about DURO

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It's always exciting to see what designer DURO OLOWU creates each fashion season. Ever since I started following his work-I've not been disappointed. There's always exuberance in the prints, along with a Classic sense of line and proportion. Pattern mixing-of course, but it always comes off harmoniously. These same qualities are ideal to an interior-and there is a fine balance in this sort of Beauty.

This season Duro intrigued me by photographing his collection alongside a Neoclassic-Swedish sofa. The presentation serves to remind that Olowu's work is steeped in a Classic shape-however, juxtaposed often with his lavish handling of pattern.

One of my very favorite rooms in the last ten years is Nicky Haslam's Salon in New Orleans. In his book-The Finest Rooms in America, Thomas Jayne included this Haslam room and lists some of the pieces Haslam indulged in when decorating it: South American Wood Floor, Handpainted chinoiserie wallpaper and two verre eglomise mirror panels, elaborate curtains and exotic textiles. Obviously mixed- but done so masterfully that it's a epic whispered in one's ear.

There were surprises in Duro's collection too-

Simplicity-with color, line and drape, much in the mode of another favorite of both Duro-and me- Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. Besides all that-there's great Style.
Now I'm thinking another room in Jayne's book...
 The Classic room of Carolyne Roehm's in New York.

In a January blog post Carolyne writes "Loving Red a Constant in my design palate." In the essay she explores Red and the way it adds a "spark" to rooms. Her grand living room's walls are steeped in chocolate, while Red asserts itself in paintings-the patina on chairs-book spines-and in the ever changing bouquets in Roehm's repertoire. Duro's Red is much like Roehm's Red-that cape set against a city landscape or in a room filled with  women wearing black- is a "Spark." 

Roehm relies on a sumptuous red wool to warm the winter months in her studio-and uses red -more "sparks" on her desk.

The pattern play in Duro's collection is always exciting. 

 Yves Saint Laurent's legendary muse Loulou de la Falaise and her Rive Gauche style capture Duro's intent.

  

Whether she was wearing it-or living in it-de la Falaise embodied freedom from the constraints of fad and trend-epitomizing the unconventional Left Bank  in Paris.

de la Falaise's salon was perfection. A blend of  exotic textiles, Classical elements, a massive crystal chandelier-and a casual-lived in-well lived Life.

All of these rooms play with Color-something necessary in every room that aspires to greatness...
just like Fashion-without It-Life would Pale.

Duro's Collection reinforces the influence that Color and Pattern play in my Design Life-along with a penchant for Classic forms and Beauty, always Beauty.





Olowu's Fall 2014 Collection can be seen at style.com.
Carolyne Roehm at carolyneroehm.com
Nicholas Haslam at nhdesign.com
photographs of Loulou de la Falaise by Gianna Turlazzi
Duro Olowu's photographs by Luis Monteiro.
DURO OLOWU here.

Heavenly Horst

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Portrait of a Lady in Paris

photograph by HORST

Contessa Brandolini wearing pink in her bedroom, standing alongside a 17th century wooden figure in Dutch costume, fresh dahlias, and a canine companion.
A Victor Hugo sepia drawing hangs over a French boiserie mirror and panelling.

 In the Brandolini Salon on the Left Bank

photograph by HORST

Louis XIV Boulle armoires, a 17th century Giovanni Ghisolfi painting, 

and 17th century Italian stools fill the room reflecting the 17th century period of the Paris building.

the Contessa and the Venetian gondoliers, c. 1795.

photograph by HORST

a Contessa's Bedroom

photograph by HORST

Drawings of Piranesi and Ruskin hang on embroidered silk covered screens
at either side of a Venetian mirror and a Louis XV bed.

a Conte's Sitting Room

photograph by HORST

In a private alcove with velvet seating & masses of pillows-
a mirror frames the space with bookcases fitted into the alcove's sides. 

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Passages

photograph by HORST

A hallway in the Brandolini Paris apartment is covered with a fresco,
and a 17th century Italian camel stands amidst its field of flowers.

I always cite Horst as a great influence on my taste in design. These photographs-once again-are proof of his great genius, especially his portraits of the owners in their rooms.

(from the pages of my 1967 November Vogue )



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the British are Coming

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Three of the most exciting books this Fall that I've added to my library are An Exuberant Catalogue of Dreams, An English Room, and The English Country House. It assuages some of the wanderlust I have for an extended trip to England.

The Great Staircase at Badminton

"For hundreds of years generation after generation of the families that built these rarely seen houses, has added to the delights seen within and without" -Min Hogg

from The English Country House- Milton in Cambridgeshire-above the flower room full of hunting gear, and below the hounds in the Milton kennel.

The English Country House explores ten of Britain's grand houses-still owned by descendants of the original owners. Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes writes the forward  (who better?) "A house that has never been sold tells a complete and unbroken story in a way that is virtually impossible to replicate in a house that has changed hands. The lives of the owners' forebears are present on every side, not only in their portraits hanging on the walls but also in the more mundane everyday items."

detail of the Chinese Room at Milton

The Great Drawing Room at Badminton

Always captivating-the photographs of Derry Moore are the subject of An English Room. The book opens up the homes & retreats of some of Britain's most distinguished subjects, and offers a glimpse of that ultimate quest we all seek-A Room of One's Own. Paul Smith, P.D. James, Benedict Cumberbatch (eye catching on the cover) Tim Knox, Stephen Fry-and a number of others-talk about what makes them- and their rooms tick-and what makes their rooms are so very British.

 The duality of the book-with both interior design, and Moore's portraits-make it a necessary addition to your "O to Be in England" book shelf.

Actor Cumberbatch is photographed in the Library of The Garrick Club in London.

The last book on the list-and another must have- is An Exuberant Catalogue of Dreams-The Americans Who Revived the Country House in Britain. The cast of eighteen in this Dream book, created the "country house look." Prominent are Nancy Astor and her niece Nancy Lancaster, Chips Channon, Willie James and Lady Baillie.

One can never have too many books-especially if they take us England!

O to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!

-Robert Browning

the Prince's Book

of Perfect.

A book-A treasure-make that treasury of Mr Buatta's Wonderful World of Rooms.

It's biblical in proportions and oh so wise in words. Thanks to a perfect pairing of Mario Buatta and the incomparable Emily Evans Eerdmans, the book called MARIO BUATTA, Fifty Years of American Decoration- should be placed atop your book stack-never another to be placed above it... you get the picture. What a divine book to have right now-when many of the rooms I see in magazines seem to be published in black and white- and not the Good black and white. I long to toss a comfortable pillow made in a print-or two or three of them-even better! The warmth of rooms is missing in most-but Let Us Pray for the return of some Joy in rooms-like the rooms of Mr. Buatta.
Of course-my true motto is Live and Let Live-but Come On- Live A Little!

The decorator Mario Buatta agrees. You must remember- I -as a college graduate novice designer (the current preferential title) grew up revering the Prince's rooms, but for me and Mario-we prefer to be called decorator. It is what I love to do best- make rooms beautiful. "Designers" have created some mighty chilly rooms-sterile even. If it must be chilly -make it a room full of chintz, books, magazines, dogs (always), sweaters, a fire and a hot toddy.
Sweet Dreams!

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Altschul Residence, Centre Island, NY—living room. 

© Gordon Beall / Architectural Digest © Conde Nast Publications

It would be so easy to tuck in to a Buatta sofa with a good book, how about MARIO BUATTA... and doze off with visions of the English countryside dancing in our heads. Better yet-I'd love to sleep for days, years, I'm thinking Fairy Tale Princesses-the Princess and the Pea, Snow White, in a Mario Buatta bed...Once Upon a Time, there was A Prince who Loved Chintz... so that song has already been written, really and truly- there is a song-(lyrics in the book).

Former Residence of Mario Buatta, New York, NY—bedroom. © Richard Champion

Mr. Buatta's Bedrooms: dressed beds-as in days of yore, for a feeling of warmth-even if the heat is on, saturated color, bamboo shades, 

period appropriate curtains, English antiques-Chinoiserie please and something warm underfoot to step out on in the morning.

Painting of Mario’s 1984 Kips Bay show-house room. © 1984 Jeremiah Goodman

The venerated Nancy Lancaster, from Virginia, brought the English country house style to England and Mr. Buatta brought it back to the States...and they lived happily ever after. I love a story that credits history, one that revers the greats. Mr. Buatta's story-along with Nancy Lancaster (a fairy godmother perhaps?) includes the characters, John Fowler (the Sage), Sister Parish (no relation), and Rose Cumming (La Folle de Chaillot) - all contributed to the Prince's Fifty Years of Interior Decoration.
The story is told with beautiful narration in over 490 pages of Buatta's work. It's Big-its Bold-its Beautiful.

Mario Buatta in front of  painting. © Jason Schmidt and Nest magazine/ Background painting. © Sander Witlin

Born into the jazzy interiors of Art Deco-his father was a bandleader-Mario heard a different drum-something like Strass's 1896 Also sprach Zarathustra opening "Sunrise, (that's Kubrich's 2001 A Space Odyssey's opening theme to your modern ears). His aunt Mary was a chic Auntie Mame type and supportive of his elegant dreaming scheming ways- taking him on her decorating trips and encouraging his aesthetic. He started collecting in earnest at the wise old age of 11.

Today-it might be said he is forever young and seeing his work in this full bodied book it looks fresh and Joyous! Not a Mario Buatta Revival-heavens no-but an  Ah Ha Moment, & Of the Moment. Yes- that's it and that's Right- because Mr. Buatta never left the building.

Thank you to Rizzoli for an advance copy of this fantastic book-you can find it everywhere this fall!

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