Bobsy & Color~ on the Cape

When in Chicago Bobsy Goodspeed lounged about in a sleek apartment, on Cape Cod, she preferred the Victorian, or as Harper's Bazaar referred to it -"Neo-Victorianism."  Regardless, her decoraing tuned changed abruptly when on the Cape. She decorated her country cottage in Osterville called Weeping Willows just as she pleased-and without help from any decorators.

Mildred

BOBSY with a sailing ship's figure called MILDRED in the garden.

Bobsy Colors

It helps that Bobsy's rooms in Weeping Willows are described in the piece as a "riot of color-shades of Dufy, of petunias, and phlox." Things are becoming clearer now.

BOBSY & BOWS

Glamorous Bobsy in Repose. Lace curtains at the windows in the Goodspeed Living Room are part of the laying on of Victoriana, finished off with magenta bows over roller shades with homey scenes-a la Courier and Ives. No ordinary lace, Bobsy acquired the lace from her Paris dressmaker-and made the curtains herself. Blackamoor pedestals served as end tables flanking a curvaceous sofa that I suspect matched the bows-both covered in a lustrous satin.

I do hope so.

Her papier-mache cocktail table was decorated with a shell "crammed with flowers from her picking garden." She selected the flowers in her garden to perfectly match her rooms.

The wallpaper was printed in a repetition of chairs, consoles, candelabra, etc. that reminds me of the smart petite patterns created by British company Osborne & Little. Bobsy added a decorative fillet molding around the room's walls that I bet was gold-something she just could not resist. At her feet, a needlepoint rug in Bobsy colors.

Sister Parish's Island House

Her penchant for the Victorian wasn't too out of step with the Cape Cod style of Sister Parish.  

Take away those bows and Bobsy's look begins to become rather appealing. More Victorianisms- domed covered fruit (a Victorian staple), opaline crystal compotes filled with fresh flowers (the opaline pink or maybe jade in color I think), porcelain shoes (surely your grandmother had a pair of these sit-abouts), and an intricate piece of needlework hanging above it all.

How to get Riotous Color...

I imagine Jeffrey Bilhuber would feel right at home in Bobsy's living room (Bilhuber below).

More Victorianisms: cornucopia wallpaper with flowers, Serves or perhaps Meissen porcelain vases and other bibelots, and a crocheted canopy on a tester.

more Bilhuber

In another bedroom at Weeping Willows Bobsy concocted a gathered canopy from "cheap lace," added a floral wallpaper, and what I'm sure was a hand-crocheted bedspread on the poster bed.



The Harper's Bazaar article appeared in 1940, one year before the States entered World War II, but the magazine's cover in September included the American flag.
This photograph appeared in a feature called The Call to Color with a royal purple Germaine Monteil dinner dress and a magenta satin ottoman-and riotous needlepoint carpet so reminiscent of the colors of Bobsy.

photo by Hoyningen-Huene

Raoul Dufy paintings, Henderson’s Superb Double Fringe Petunias, 1898. H. Mellen Co. Spring catalogue 1907,

LALIE Textiles folie jolie

Folie Jolie

To see original, fresh HEAVENLY fabrics in today's fabric world is not an everyday thing. Alas - Not even on occasion. To say the LALIE RICHE COLLECTION is Original, Fresh- IS , Well- Understatement. When I saw them I knew I had to find out a bit more.

DESIGNER- MARIE RICHE, is just 27 years old and for me that makes her collection even more exciting. She brings an energy, dynamism-a joie de vivre to her textiles! Marie Riche is Brittany -born -a place where she draws inspiration for her textiles from. "I love The Farm, The Town, The Sea." Her designs range from dancing Poppies to leaf forms that take on the appearance of fish, guinea hens, eyes- in other words Fantasy. Fauvist, Dufy's dynamic color palette is an influence, along with whispers of his textiles designs for fashion designer Paul Poiret. She says,"It's like me, the color, and the line, I'm intuitive, and a painter at heart."

Dufy & Poiret

from the Met collection

all Fabrics shown are a part of the LALIE Collection

Concerto

Marie graciously answered some of my Questions-

MARIE

Where did you study?
ESAA DUPERRE SCHOOL in Paris during 5 years in Textile and Print

How long have you been designing textiles?

5 years of school and 4 years of work after.

Is this Your 1^st Collection for your own company LALIE?

YES, it 's the first collection for LALIE PARIS!

Fudji

What inspires you ?

Nature, Green places, the Garden, the Sea, and the city of Paris.

Deltas
&

Sous le gui

Exuberance

Who are your favorite Artists? Designers?

Chagall, Rothko, Fauvist-Raoul Dufy, Modigliani and favorite fashion Designer Stylist- Dries Van Noten.

You are a bold colorist, What are your color inspirations?

La nouvelle Caledonie and all flowers

Elixir

What are Your Favorite Colors?

Red, Pink Fuchsia, Black

What style is your own home decorated in?

I love the object which has a Past , wood in the rough , with some touch of contemporary objects & I love HOT color.

Comme en Provence

What places,things & people as a Child - have influenced your work?

My life in New Caledonia when I was child, my holidays in Bretagne in the countryside and near the Breton coast.

Ondine

I love Marie's fabrics- So much exuberance and bold color! Something new under the fabric sun- Refreshing indeed.

Be sure to go to her website Here to explore her textiles in more detail.


all photographs graciously provided by Marie Riche

more in Vogue here
more Raoul Dufy here
more Paul Poiret here