le SARI

 A current article in September's Harper's Bazaar India-peeked my interest. I am fortunate my readers keep me informed! It's one of the very best things about this venture. In the article, Peter D'Ascoli discusses the continued reworking of traditional Indian textiles to make modern clothes-using the richness of the embroideries-the mirrors and the metal threads. The designers of India are immersed in this at the moment-their heritage is a constant lure.

 "Western designers have been inspired by the Orient and have used Indian themes and craft techniques for many years. We are now seeing a more literal use of fabric and silhouette which reflects India's growing importance as a creative force in Fashion and as a consuming market." Peter D'Ascoli

As I was reading Peter's article-aptly titled Haute Heritage, I couldn't help but notice India is everywhere in on the Spring 2013 fashion runways.

Marchesa's approach is subtle by comparison to some of the traditional Indian styling- but equally compelling.

Designers have been embracing India's traditional Sari and interpreting it for couture many years. I'm always drawn to these personally and have dropped clippings and photographs into files for years.

 Mainbocher, 1939.

Callaghan advert, 1980's

No-I haven't taken the borders I've collected and plaited them in my hair-but Oh I've been sorely tempted.

All of these trimmings and textiles spill right over into interiors.

 I've stashed away sarees for years-there is something irresistible about a silk fabric with yards and yards-about 8 in fact - that can wrap about the body to make a beautiful dress. Marchesa has taken that principle and given it form.

from Balmain

Last year Karl Lagerfeld trotted out scores of Maharajas and Maharanis wrapped,draped and bejeweled.

For Spring 2013,Manish Arora is turning this current idea on its ear- & goes one -or three beyond Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel. Modern-and maybe even a little sci fi- but still  his clothes are grounded in the idea of traditional Indian fashion. Borrowing from the men's wardrobe-a nehru jacket tops tunic and pants. Manish Arora is based in New Delhi and shows in Paris. Along with his own label he is creatived director for Paco Rabanne.

from the Manish Arora Collection, Spring 2013

and one of my favorite designers, Isabel Marant makes it all wearable for me- This jacket from her Spring 2013 Collection.

always there will be this renewing-and resourcing of a culture and a place like India. See how Peter is challenging it all-tradition and innovation at his website here.

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TWO, talking with Monica Patel

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Monica Patel of TWO NEW YORK has devised the perfect SUMMER uniform-

One that I thoroughly embrace.

 

Combining the comfort of a caftan and the elegance of her hand picked textiles Monica's TWO designs are a pure Joy!

Monica is a perfect model for her own designs-she's beautiful, So it's a natural fit.
I had a chance to put some questions to Monica recently-

 Do you live near your studio?


I do live about a mile away from my studio and I bike through the park everyday to work when weather permits.
It is one of my most cherished moments. I used to be a mad biker as a kid and I love that I can still do it in NY. It's refreshing.

How do you balance two and motherhood?

Balancing the kids. Not an easy thing - I break from work to take my son to school and I just have to know my limits.
I can't promise more than I can achieve in one day. Sometimes I have to wash all the fabric and iron.
Not a good thing to do with toddlers around...so it's massive scheduling around the kids..
But it's a labor of love so it gets done.

How did your working for Prada and at Barneys influence two?


In so many ways, but mostly I learned I still love the same types of things even twenty years later..and have to be true to myself (or my style)

What influences you most in creating your two collections?

Wearability, comfort, ease ..just reality. being able to actually wear it and have a kid slobber on it and wash it and wear it again fifty times more.
I try to make pieces that will last with good cottons and workmanship.

Tell me a bit about what you look for when selecting fabrics?


I have always loved sarees but felt the colors you generally find easily in India are very different than what I would want to wear..

I wanted to have a fresh approach to the textiles and it really starts with the colors and textures.

Some I fall in love with and others sometimes surprise me on how wearable they are. 

Somehow I find there's a person that is made for each one..

Besides the obvious---comfort- why do you think women today are so drawn to the caftan style?

I love the way it drapes and I think if you use the right materials that feel good on, it's luxurious. 

combine that with comfort and you have a perfect combo.

What piece do You wear the most?

I wear my ekani top and my v dress everyday.

I just came up with a short tunic that I also love.

Whose Style do you admire most at the moment?
 

This question has taken me weeks to answer. I am not sure I can say one specific person. 

I love to stare at everyone and just observe how they put things together.

What current Lady in the press would you love to see in a two caftan?

There are so many people young and old ! 

I saw Padma Laksmi the other day and felt she would look great in one.

How right you are-perfect for her! 

I love the freshness of TWO's pieces. Are they for the "young" only? How can older women wear your designs?


not at all.
I do a variety of fabric from colorful to neutrals. Usually the neutrals and whites are just so elegant on and I can see that lasting forever for any age.

SHOP TWO

Monica is heading to the West Coast with caftans & children for work and play, She invites you to join her if you are nearby!

so sorry, Schumacher

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I' m working on a Sun Room right now-and after it is complete-complete, I will share some Before, and After photographs. The room is to serve as the lady's private getaway-a place to read, correspond, relax and act as a second living room.  The new room is off the foyer and the Living Room-it's long and narrow- with  four openings to those rooms mentioned.

The "After", happily after, is harder in coming than expected. I've selected all the fabrics for recovering- the trims along with new the tables, chairs.

Most everything is in the works, except- Schumacher has dropped the sofa fabric. This is the dreaded piercing stab of any designer, especially when the project is already moving along. To my mind-Schumacher is discontinuing one of their most attractive-distinctive fabrics. I placed the order-which I often do on their website-a great way to do business after 5. After waiting to see if they would consider my order-as a backorder-running the pattern when a certain amount of yardage was ordered, or running it for my order and having stock available to other designers- it was a No. What?

The fabric is still on their website-Did anybody tell them the thing has been dropped!

Here is the fabric- SAREE STRIPE IN JAVA Pattern 62662. It has a wide patterned stripe running through it and my plan was to center it on the cushions and turn it to make a wide border all along the skirt. Wouldn't that be beautiful?  The central stripe reminds me of the palluv portion of a sari. It is usually at the end of the long yards and yards of length of the sari-some think- most elegant part of a sari. The palluv usually has the most intricate design-runs across the width of the fabric- and is very wide. After the sari is wrapped around the body the palluv is the portion that will show and go across the shoulder.

I have a viable replacement. Sometimes-those work even better- but such a distinctive pattern like SAREE STRIPE is not easy to replace.Both client and I are satisfied- so we will proceed-but...
It is very disappointing this time.
Here- the other fabrics selected for the room.

On my last post I featured some Pierre Frey fabrics and this is another of theirs called PARADE OTTOMANE in MICA. I love it!  It is a large scale cotton and has all the details expected from Pierre Frey. Authentic is another word for the fabrics of Pierre Frey. PARADE OTTOMANE will go on a pair of  French settees in the room.

Of course-the room will be beautiful when it is complete- I'm only sorry( and I'm sorry for that woeful paronomasia-pun)- Saree Stripe will not be a part of it.

A MIN!

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 "some old HOGG-I don't know who."

along with other paper treasures, pear shaped objects

and African lacquer boxes.

don't we all have our heroes? mine tend to be less caped and masked- and more well draped, swagged or spoken. One, greatly admired, is MIN HOGG. Her WORLD OF INTERIORS  magazine is coveted by designers and design aficionados. Though she is no longer editor-WOI will always be hers. Imagine, when I went through The English Woman's Bedroom by Elizabeth Dickson, with beautiful photographs by Lucinda Lambton, and found MIN's 1985 flat. Yes, it was 25 years ago- and no doubt things have changed,( WOI published her London flat in 1996-i think, but have yet to get my hands on a copy), but still, it is MIN & the chapter on her flat is a treasure. She airs her original ideas about home, House Freaks (her words) and her craft.

What did MIN have to say? Amusingly ,MIN, as she writes about her flat- admits the cozy decorations Lambton photographed are now under major renovations. Sadly she sat in a rented one-pinning  away for home, longing for the beautiful bedroom-that was being sacrificed- in hopes of building improvements. Since the inception of WORLD OF INTERIORS in 1981, travel was mandatory for MIN HOGG. She, like many, found herself longing for the comforts of home-"pictures, sheets and above all bed-springs."

 MIN - a quick change artist with the headboard fabric,

switching it out often. Collecting textiles-an addiction-

Not to mention talking on the phone (2 phones sit to the right

of the bed) Dinner, staying at home nights find MIN
tucked IN &  command central is bed.

She goes on to "confess a chronic capacity to clutter things up," a habit starting in art school. She carried her clutter with her to "a secluded garden square within spitting distance of Harrods." Here she indulged in making her bedroom the centre of her living space. One potential inspiration for her digs was F.W. Elwell's The First Born- a painting she considers the definitive cottage bedroom.

for your own inspiration-
The First Born

(image from here), Elwell's painting is tucked into

bottom right(center) of some old HOGG"S frame in the
1st picture of this post

MIN also confesses to being a procrastinator-(we are sounding more and more alike ), but lacking a "half tester bed, no rose chintz, no suitable ottoman or rush seated chair-let alone a fresh faced young father by my side," the lady moved on!  

"The walls were painted one shade, the ceiling another, woodwork and doors a combination of all three. Although in no time the subtleties of my three toned room had merged into what looked like a single colour, I have never regretted that pink. Good by day and, with shiny pink card lampshades, good by night."


The dressing table is a long wallpaperer's trestle with shortened legs a gathered skirt in red and white striped sari cotton, made by MIN's Mom.

Clever, simple beautifully laid out bordered dressing table

MIN holds court, as it were, in her robe- television, telephones, a drink, newspapers, magazines and books are right at her fingertips- her writing of articles is done in bed too. She entertains here too-there are complaints-"but on the whole it is rather a lark. When the present building work is finished  and I can return home, far from branching out into a spanking new kind of decoration, I expect I shall put it all back exactly as it was."

  

today's MIN HOGG
image from here

From th Independent uk (1997)

With the exception of Min Hogg, grande dame of Conde Naste's The World of Interiors, I known of no confirmed cases where editors have put their own homes on display to their readers. The writer commissioned to do the job (he was "honoured", he said, "but wary") fawned his way through the piece - describing Min as "kind and crusty in almost equal measure" and her "dec" home as a "riot of high-class clutter" - while trotting out a disclaimer of sorts. "This is a desperate measure to get more colour into the April issue."

Ms Hogg was quoted as saying that, "it's bloody hard to find exciting new houses in Britain." Yes, but magazine editors, all of them bloody fussy, are not easily turned on. "Oh dear, what a pity about those dreadful lampshades," they might say, when presented with snapshots of a proud home owner's sterling efforts in the interior design department. "Mmm, we might just get away with it with a bit of styling .
from a 2007 Telegraph uk story: "Given her reputation and noted expertise, it came as a shock to the interior design world when Hogg announced last November that she was resigning as editor of the magazine that she launched from these very rooms in 1981. Although the upmarket publication sells a modest 65,000 each month, its influence is enormous and its ideas and concepts are much copied."..."A visionary editor of the old school, Hogg always refused to have anything to do with focus groups or marketing ideas and her abrupt voluntary departure seemed as unlikely as the Queen Mother suddenly announcing she didn't want to be royal any more. Despite protestations from her Conde Nast bosses Si Newhouse and Nicholas Coleridge, Hogg - who says that she is in excellent health - was still determined to leave."
& just a note on World of Interiors, 2001 here
I find wonderful articles in CORNUCOPIA written by MIN HOGG, one of her favourite magazines
her Canary Islands house was published in WOI as well as that elusive flat-

India by way of High Point

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blanket I, face and reverse

No-it's not glamorous sounding-India by way of High Point, but we seize our opportunities where we can.
And so it is with these vintage blankets-each one unique- No ordering-No repros. Vagabond Vintage is a whimsical company where I can always find something I like. I confess to doing some personal shopping while at the Market. I indulged that hankering at Vagabond.

Last year I found some pewter Milagro hearts there-Gave some and kept some. This market, I found a perfect overnite sort of tote bag made from a heave cotton stripe rug. It's good looking. I can't wait to get it.

The little treasure trove at Vagabond was in a corner of the showroom-piles of vintage saris, cut, patched, finely stitched all over, making a cozy blanket. My friend & business partner honed in on the stacks & stacks- pulling possibles- Possibly for Me, Possibly for Her. Right now we have similar ideas of what we are looking.
Stacks became piles. Piles became our picks-& then it is down to who gets what! Both sides of the blanket are cotton prints from the sari, some have the palluv portion of the sari intact & there are some pieces with small patchwork mendings.

We had a great time sitting in the floor-claiming our lot.

Here are my blankets, along with some of my inspirations- Vuillard, Liotard, de la Falaise.

Blanket II, face

I've written about my desire to some day live in one glorious room- Here is one vision, from Loulou de la Falaise.

Blanket II, reverse

Vuillard

Liotard

Blanket III

Blanket IV, face & reverse-shown just along edge of pic

Liotard

en masse

Vuillard

de la Falaise

Blanket V, face

Vuillard

Blanket V, reverse

Liotard

Vuillard

Blanket IV, face and reverse

Blanket IV belongs to the cozy (now cozier) sitting room/den. Zetta already loves it.
Blanket I has landed on top of the french daybed in the upstairs hall.
Blanket III adds another layer to my bed- They are very, very warm.

oh, & I got pillows too.

No, I haven't been to India, But I plan to some day.


de la Falaise images from HG June 2004, photographs Alexandre Bailhache
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