Architectural Digest March 2014 Highlights

This is purely a sharing post as there are so many pictures and stories in this issue.

I was going to do a proper chit chat about it but then the Vogue cover took over and I am super busy at the moment and haven't had any time to do one.

But it is the March issue so please browse through.

Always been meaning to go to Beirut and each and every time some stupid government turbulence happens and then I get nervous.  

One day...

I am a sucker for desk accessories.

When I was younger it was Hello Kitty and now it's stuff like this.

Mr Corrigan knows his stuff so I will go back to Schumacher and look at samples.

Isn't Schumacher busy with all their new designer collections?

Retail standards are getting higher.

Bright lights don't cut it anymore.

Harpers Bazaar April 2014 Poetry in Motion - Royal Ballet Models Fashion

Fear not folks.

US Vogue may be going downhill but there is a stunning 

fashion editorial in the UK April edition of Harper's Bazaar featuring the dancers of the Royal Ballet modeling fashion.

Yasmine wears cady dress, £6,500, Ralph Lauren Collection

As the name states, it truly is poetry in motion.

I needed to counterbalance the Vogue aesthetic 

so am doing this post just to feast your eyes on this fashion spread that I wanted to make sure you don't miss.

Edward wears his own clothes throughout. Christina wears silk dress, £5,507, Nina Ricci. Zenaida wears silk dress, £845, Isabel Marant.

Each image could be sold as an individual art piece.
I could get used to them in every issue.
So beautiful that I will just be quiet now to let you enjoy in peace.

Hope you enjoy it and let's keep the faith! 

Lauren wears silk and polyamide jumper, £950, Balmain. Ballet shoes (worn throughout), all dancers’ own.

Always joked about it but Anna Wintour just made Kim Kardashian and Kayne West the April Cover

I always joked about it.  

But it was a joke.

Kim Kardashian and Kayne West made the cover of Vogue. 

 I know they have their place in society.

I know they have their niche.

Some of us look up to her.

Obligatory private jet photo.

Some of us look down at her.

Or as in the case of Kayne, he just looks right past her.

London Design Week Part 3 - Talks at Pierre Frey and Upholstery Talk at Lelievre

This is the final installment about the talks I attended last week.

I went to a talk at Pierre Frey where they also screened a little movie about the fact that most fabrics are Made in France. click for link 

For those who many not be familiar, Pierre Frey is a family run textile and wallpaper Paris based firm now being partly managed by the third generation of the Frey family.  

I of course walked in as the head of the company was in the middle of doing a video take in a chair upholstered in one of the fabrics from their latest collection.

The second thing that caught my eye were these curtains.

I admired the seamstress who did the work to really showcase the fabric and stitching.

They also had champagne flowing and the prettiest canapes.

They were one of the friendliest showrooms that had a ready smile and was welcoming to everyone.

This is the some of the team - I will be honest and say I forgot the names of the two people on the left as I don't have a journo notebook.  But the person on the right is Patrick Frey the present head of the company. Pierre Frey, same namesake as his grandfather is the person second to right.

Mr Frey introduced us the movie and afterwards did what he is an expert at.  He showed us the new collection.

But he showed us the fabrics in a way that I thought was genius.

Any carpet or fabric seller should take notes.

In fact, he was so good that I dare say that I would suggest someone who doesn't or can't afford to use an interior decorator to just go to Pierre Frey.

This was the first magnificent piece.

This is the seed as I like to refer to it.

Now please bear with me and I will try to convey what it was like to see the collection so I shall edit in a way that you somehow get the same effect.

He introduced different colored fabrics in different materials.

Silks, velvets, cottons, linens etc.

But there was always a link.

There was a color story for each room.

He pitched the central fabric as a bed throw or chair.

The pink silks as curtains, the stripes as cushions etc.

Any design student would have learned so much from this and 

he made it look so easy.

He would also scrunch the fabric and fluff it up to show the fall or lightness of a fabric.  He said it was important to actually really let it breathe and handle it.

March 2014 Instagramy Post Part 1

Time is going so fast I couldn't even remember what has been happening of late.
I have been spending a lot of energy which doesn't equate with results on the refurbishments and other chores.
Post soon to come re renovations...

Last year was the year of the never ending winter but this year 
Mother Nature threw us Londoners a bone.

It is spring and a few days have been like summer.
You have never seen a city come alive in the sun like London.

I love all sorts of tree blossoms but magnolias are a favorite.

My brother was away on holiday so I was dog-sitting Millie a lot.

She had a few run ins with swans that I now have to put her on a lead because swans get all karate kid with puppies. 
They misunderstand friendliness as an attack - 
they are London swans after all...

London Design Week March 2014 Part 2 - Meeting Martyn Lawrence Bullard

I attended the London Design Week at Chelsea Harbour on Tuesday with the aim of hearing two talks - one which was with 
Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen.

The other person I went to hear was the talk with
one of the Millionaire Decorators Martyn Lawrence Bullard.

That is me cropped out  - we took a pic at the showroom

London Design Week March 2014 Part 1 - Talks at Nicholas Haslam with Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen and Neisha Crosland

 The London Design Week is taking place this week at Chelsea Harbour so this is all very much hot off the press! For those of you who aren't as interested in decor hopefully won't mind if the rest of us design geeks discuss the events I attended today?

I went to the festival to specifically attend two talks - one by 
Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen who run the interior design firm Nicholas Haslam and the other was Martyn Bullard Lawrence.

The first talk was at Paolo Moschino for Nicholas Haslam.
I first remember noting Paolo's work more than a decade ago when he was featured in House and Garden.  In the article he mentioned how pine is an underrated wood, eco-friendly, and fashionable when used right. 

Via AD
Can't find the original image but this is his present London apartment with pine paneling
For more pictures of his London home that featured on Archictectural Digest - click here

 I looked at his way of using pine which was panelled in a period London living room and I was convinced.  So much so that I used it in a cafe that I used to run.


The talk was held at his showroom in Chelsea Harbour.

One's Real Fashion Influences - The Mother/Father Figure?

I love fashion. 

I sometimes forget how much I adore it.

But it can also infuriate me. 
The rigmarole that surrounds it can sometimes be unsavoury as it tends to not only attract beauty, artistic nuances and aesthetic subtleties but also superficiality and harsh judgement.

I always find it interesting to see what many consider their fashion and style influences.  In interviews whenever someone mentions Diane Vreeland or Balenciaga I will admit to raising my eyebrows and wondering if they ever knew them or even met them.  
Unless you are a proper fashion designer or curator,
 I believe most influences are much closer to home.

It doesn't always have to be an active role model, 

it could be an anti role model.

Maybe you had a parent, step-parent, aunt, or grandmother who had no fashion interest and you perhaps rebel still?

While I admire the usual array of fashion heavy hitters, 

my personal influences are my mother and my grandmothers whether I like it or not. 

I think most of us have a complicated relationship with respective female/male role models. 
 Not my opinion, Freud concurs.

You may have a fantastic relationship with her or him but 
it is still going to be a layered one.
I used to be very into fashion and being presentable but 
I turned into a schlumpadinka about 7 years ago.
I only look respectable when I have to.
I dare say that I am going against the grain of my mother.

Les Trois Garcons Auction at Christie's

There are a few times when I wish
I could organize a little field trip with all of you.

The Christie's auction sale catalogue of Les Trois Garcons made me think it would have been so much fun for all of us to go to the preview and possibly even bid on a few items together.

Via

Les Trois Garcons is a London institution - it is a restaurant started and still run by three men in Shoreditch.  Before Shoreditch became the trendy neighbourhood it is today, that restaurant was one of the few reasons to go to the area. 

 Les Trois Garcons is an expanding empire as I saw when I went to visit Shoreditch that is my brother's new neighborhood.  They have the main restaurant, a cafe, a drinks lounge and an interior decoration service.

Via

The sale was from the various objects in their homes but mostly from a French chateau they own but now rent out.

Martha Living Magazine March 2014

I am surprised this issue hasn't made the rounds of all the bloggers as the cover was macarons! 

This is the equivalent of a red flag to a bull for bloggers no?

There must be something in the subconscious that hits a note in a massive wave and quilting is one of those at present.

I don't sew.  Never even been on a sewing machine.

Yet I look at this quilt and imagine my own fabrics and special stitch to make it my own.

But Martha has that effect on us all.

Brass - A Current Design Fling

This won't be news to those who are my Pinterest colleagues as they have already noticed that I love brass.

I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to it.

No, not the cockney sort - real metallic brass thank you very much.

I think most of us have a meme that overtakes 

our design, sartorial, or literary psyche.

Please tell me you have this affliction!

A few years ago, it was chevrons among many others.

Mary Macdonald made it so chic! Via

But its place has been cemented by having had a whole feature dedicated to it in the 

February issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

A look that goes surprisingly well is gray with brass accessories.