Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2025 i MILIEU

This Fall issue of MILIEU speaks to my passions—design and storytelling. One of the things I believe that really defines our magazine is the way we tell stories, not only with written words but also with photography. Storytelling evokes emotion, just as design does, which is the visual component. You may notice how in each issue we try to weave through it a common narrative thread—so that the magazine as a whole reads, from cover to cover, like a book. We might, for instance, play to a certain color scheme, or we focus on the season at hand. Sometimes, we feature stories of houses and designers and artists from a certain part of the world, or we might be subtler in the theme and find a quiet thread that unites…

Phoebe Dickinson nearly gave up portraiture altogether. For years, she painted mostly heads of people against plain backgrounds. The work lacked spark. “I wasn’t enjoying the process,” she says. “I was starting to feel like a factory.” But then a powerful dose of affirmation came her way. Her portrait of the Cholmondeley children—which set little Alexander, Oliver, and Iris against the grandeur of the intricately carved Stone Hall at Houghton Hall—was selected for England’s 2018 BP Portrait Award exhibition. Initially commissioned to produce three separate paintings, Dickinson proposed a group portrait with more natural poses after observing the children climbing on the bench and zipping about on skateboards. She took inspiration from William Nicholson’s Plymouth family portrait from the 1920s, with its asymmetrical blocking and enigmatic swaths of black. The…

while furnishing and decorating the rooms of a Wisconsin lake house, interior designer Tommy Clements was grateful not to have to be working with, or for, someone. “I loved not having a client,” he says, referencing the fact that this five bedroom, circa-1900 carriage house situated just a breaking wave away from Lake Geneva, is his own secondary residence, albeit one that he shares with his longtime partner, the designer Waldo Fernandez. “This has been the easiest thing for me to do because everything I’ve chosen for the house is an instinctual, gut reaction. I bought things that I love. I didn’t know where they would go or be placed, but on every trip to Europe, especially the Cotswolds, if I saw something I wanted, I just snatched it up.”…

Mary J. Simms is one of those gregarious souls who always seems to be accompanied by an entourage. (No surprise, given her six children and equal number of grandchildren.) A consummate hostess who studied culinary arts in college and honed her skills in Italy, she’s happiest when she’s in the kitchen, whipping up a feast for family and friends. After the death of her parents, the Illinois native realized there was nothing keeping her in Chicago, so she decided to pull up stakes and forge a new life in Tennessee. “If you’re going to build a house in Nashville,” a designer friend advised, “you have to have Ray Booth.” A partner at the venerable architecture and design firm McAlpine, Booth immediately bonded with his new client—but envisioned something far more…

“The key words for this project would be quality, authenticity, and timelessness.”—KARA CHILDRESS “Integrating landscaping in the design was key; there should never be a line drawn between what’s inside and outside.”—RUSSELL WINDHAM “Verdant Outlook” p. 102 “When we go there, we cook every meal. It’s about going out on the lake, grilling, staying home, and being with family and friends.”—TOMMY CLEMENTS “The Lake Effect” p. 116 “We really worked with the mason to achieve a small, substantial structure that feels like it’s been there for hundreds of years.”—MICHAEL G. IMBER “A Separate Peace” p. 128 “The three of us really designed these rooms—my mother, my brother, and I. And it was totally fun.”—CHARLES D. PEED “Mi Casa” p. 140 “Our houses are a lot about the windows, a lot…

Framed antique prints have a unique appeal that combines historical significance, artistic beauty, and decorative versatility. They work in both traditional and contemporary settings and offer a tangible link to the past—whether pressed botanicals from Victorian expeditions, architectural drawings of grand estates, or maps showing how our ancestors viewed the world. At Julia Boston Antiques in London, Eric Faveri creates replica frames that perfectly complement those prints, completing the illusion of something unchanged since its creation. The traditional craft of picture frame making represents one of the most demanding and time-honored artisan skills, requiring years to master, and the process Faveri uses today follows techniques virtually unchanged since the Renaissance. A French ballet dancer whose career was cut short by an accident, Faveri arrived in the UK in the late…

As a way of preserving—while offering public access to—a collection of exceptionally rare regional artifacts, descendants of Maison Fragonard founder Eugène Fuchsrecently commemorated the latest addition to the legendary perfume company’s constellation of boutique museums: the Musée de la Mode et du Costume in Arles. “Collections-Collection,” the inaugural exhibition (which runs through January 4, 2026), is a celebration of garments worn in Provence from as early as the 18th century, and it marks the opening of the sixth company-affiliated museum owned and operated by the parfumerie in France. The richly woven Fragonard story began nearly 100 years ago, in 1926, when Monsieur Fuchs ventured with his family into the heart of Provence to establish the fledgling enterprise that would become known around the globe as Maison Fragonard. Fuchs, the notary-turned-parfumeur,…

Architect Russell Windham was pleased to hear one of the first directives from his clients, especially the wife. As he recalls, “She liked the idea of permanence, that the house we designed would be here forever.” Indeed, Curtis and his design partner, William Curtis, of Curtis & Windham Architects, a respected Houston-based firm with a reputation built over three decades, have already crafted some of the finest residences in Texas—with many of them in River Oaks, the leafy neighborhood in which his clients were set to build. He and Curtis are well known for taking a fresh and inventive approach to classical design. Many of their finished homes are featured in a new book from Rizzoli, Building on Tradition, including this Mediterranean-style home the firm helped develop for the woman…

It was time for a change in his life. Charles D. Peed, a cofounder with his mother, Cris Briger, and his brother, Pablo Briger, of Casa Gusto, the West Palm Beach antiques and furnishings business, had been living with his family members in a spacious Palm Beach apartment. And while they all enjoyed each other’s company and continue to travel frequently to their other family home in Mexico’s San Miguel de Allende, “I needed to have my first grown-up place, all on my own,” says Peed. Given his talent for design, Peed was not intimidated by “the empty white shell” of an apartment he secured for himself on the fourth floor of a new building in West Palm Beach. “I like having a lot of light where I live and…

WHEN PERFUME MEETS PRESERVATION All images courtesy of Musée de la Mode et du Costume and Magna Presse. Page 12 Photography: François Deladerrière. Page 82 Photography: Fanny Terno. Page 84 Photography: Fanny Terno. Page 85 Photography: Andrane de Barry. Pages 86-87 (Clockwise from top left): Photo by François Deladerrière; (second, third, and fourth images) Photos by Fanny Terno; (fifth, sixth, and seventh images) Photos by François Deladerrière. Page 88 (Top to bottom)Photo by Hervé Hôte; Photo from family collection; Photo by Noel Manalili. FRAMES OF REFERENCE Pages 54-58 Photography: Julia Boston Antiques TALES IN THE DETAILS Page 90 Top photo by Mark Nicholson MILIEU IN HIGH POINT Page 98 Photography: Peter Pekkala, pekksphotography.mypixieset.com VERDANT OUTLOOK Interior design: Kara Childress, Kara Childress Interior Atelier, karachildress.com Architecture: Curtis & Windham, curtisandwindham.com Styled…