ELLE DECOR December 2014

WHY DO WE AT ELLE DECOR DO WHAT WE DO? Why do you read this magazine? What is it about looking at photographs of rooms, mostly empty rooms, that we find so compelling? For centuries, artists from Vermeer to Chardin to Matisse have lovingly depicted interiors, but almost always with people in them. The empty room as a subject only came into its own in the 19th century, as the exhibition "Portraits of Interiors" reminded me. This small show at the Redwood Library & Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island—on view through January 31, 2015—features charming drawings and paintings of grand interiors in Rome, Venice, New York, Paris, and, yes, the gilded "cottages" of Newport. Mostly they are by minor masters, but that doesn't make them any less appealing, and there…

GEOFFREY SOKOL Photographer Geoffrey Sokol, who captured this issue's What's Hot column (page 35), shoots for a range of magazines and advertisements, but his personal work takes a different tack. "It tends to be about finding something calm and graceful in the world, whether it's abstract or real." Orange #2, left, from his "The Movement" series, is, he explains, "an image of fabric. I throw or toss or wave it, so the process as well as the result becomes one of physical involvement, change, time. It's highly exhilarating to jump and move as part of the creative process." For inspiration he looks to the work of photographers Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Duane Michals, and Minor White. "They imagine the world in the moment, with gentle, lyrical results." AXEL MUNTHE The…

MAIL The October issue was a favorite of mine, especially "Fashion Forward," featuring the homes of young designers and memories of the same from seasoned pros. These are places where, says Michael Boodro, "you can rely on little more than your eye and ingenuity to create a haven that fits your personality and inspires your creativity." This is what we amateurs always rely on and hope to achieve in our homes—thank you for validating our efforts! Pam Oman, Hudson, Wisconsin Your October story on the New York apartments of a new generation of fashion designers was adorable. So much color and style! It brought back recollections of my first Manhattan apartment in the mid-1990s. It was no bigger than a shoe box, but it was big enough to hold frequent…

Among the well-heeled and well-traveled, winter has long meant not parkas and mittens but bikinis, capri pants, and other poolside-appropriate apparel. International café society—from the denizens of the French Riviera in the 1920s, to the golden-skinned celebutantes photographed by Slim Aarons in the 1950s and '60s, to the libertine resort-goers of the Reagan years—have proved a source of never-ending fascination. A fantasia of cerulean water and pink stucco, Escape: The Heyday of Caribbean Glamour by Hermes Mallea (Rizzoli) brings to vivid life the rarefied tropical worlds frequented by the affluent: the Mediterranean-style estates of early-20th-century Miami; Jamaica, the getaway for Paul Newman, Marilyn Monroe, and other Hollywood A-listers; the cosmopolitan Havana of the 1950s, home of the dazzling Tropicana nightclub; and 1970s Haiti, where pleasure-seekers reveled at resorts and clubs.…

SHELL COMPANY New York designer David Weeks is best known for his sleek lighting, featuring forms that evoke bird crests, horns, and globes. Now he's conquering the table with elegant brass nesting bowls. With a shape borrowed from his classic shell sconce, the bowls have a matte glass-bead interior and a shining polished exterior. A set of three costs $550; the largest measures 7" l. × 5" w. × 3" h. 212-966-3433; davidweeksstudio.com 1 / OVER THE MOON With its elemental shapes and luxurious materials, West Elm's Half Moon desk lamp is reminiscent of midcentury industrial design. A bronze shade and solid marble base are augmented by brass accents; the adjustable knob allows the light to be maneuvered in an arc. The lamp measures 14" dia. ×…

Santas, snowmen, red-nosed reindeer—while Christmas-card aisles at the local drugstore are glutted with the predictable and mass-produced, a new exhibition at New York's Morgan Library & Museum is a vivid and witty reminder that the most memorable seasonal greetings always have a personal touch. "Handmade: Artists' Holiday Cards from the Archives of American Art" features nearly 60 creations by such midcentury masters as Helen Frankenthaler, Claes Oldenburg, Ad Reinhardt, Philip Guston, and Alexander Calder. Some play with traditional imagery: For a 1959 card, mosaicist Elsa Schmid laid out tiles in the form of an elegant Yule tree, while in 1945 Saul Steinberg doodled an ice-skater as a gift for Museum of Modern Art curator Dorothy Miller. Other artists opted for the far-out and freaky, such as Robert Smithson's 1964 riff…