Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2018 i ELLE DECOR

LAST FALL, ON A BALMY night in Los Angeles, I sat on a panel in Thomas Lavin’s seductive showroom at the Pacific Design Center. The theme was bachelor-pad style. Not just any bachelor pads, mind you, but the kind of fantasy Bond lairs that are a specialty of a particular breed of West Coast designer, including my fellow panelists Kirk Nix, James Magni, Ron Woodson, and fashion designer David Meister. (The fact that my real-life partner, Marc Karimzadeh, moderated the discussion made the evening even more exceptional.) What is the essence of bachelor-pad style? The answers that night varied, but on a theme: “Sexy,” said Nix. “A great bed,” suggested Woodson (preferably covered in fur). “Exotic stone,” said Magni, accompanied by photos of a house he designed for a young music…

It’s no secret that Marrakech has long been a source of creative inspiration. The colors! The architecture! The energy! One can see why the city served as a refuge for, and muse to, the great, late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, whose home there—maintained in perfect condition to this day—is aptly called Villa Oasis. Saint Laurent’s ashes are even scattered around the house’s gardens, and his strong ties to Morocco are further solidified by the adjoining Museum Yves Saint Laurent, a veritable shrine to his brilliance. He has always been my favorite designer, the epitome of glamour and chic. His aesthetic was more than just fashion: It was about true style, and that lives on forever. Speaking of style, I recently had the pleasure of staying at La Mamounia, the…

Carte blanche can be a daunting proposition, as Christine Nagel, the perfumer at Hermès (hermes.com), learned when the French house offered her exactly that in creating five new additions to its Hermessence range of scents, available this month. “It was a bit overwhelming!” says Nagel, who drew inspiration from the raw materials of North Africa and the Middle East. Hermessences focus on one or two main notes only. As such, Nagel dreamed up three eaux de toilette: myrrh with wild rose, cedar with jasmine sambac, and fir balsam with agar wood. She also introduced two silky oils: the cardamom-infused Cardamusc (shown) and the iris-injected Musc Padilla. “I’m half Italian, half Swiss, so tactility is very important to me,” she says.…

Statement Fabric Like any home occupants, presidents and first ladies were expected to make the White House their own, decoratively, and raise the funds to do so. Of course, this involved more than picking new tiles. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy had the White House deemed a museum and formed a White House restoration committee. Service for 12 Never underestimate the importance of a statement-making chandelier, live music, and a great meal for a party to remember. But make sure you avoid crashers. Moments in Red You would be hard-pressed to find a more declarative statement than scarlet walls or crimson china trimmed with gold. First Lady Nancy Reagan’s red ensembles became an emblem of White House fashion, but her color choice was preceded by the Red Room. The message is…

The world of physical amusement can be divided into two camps—those who Disney and those who don’t. I have a confession: I didn’t grow up going to Disney World (and as an East Coaster, Disneyland wasn’t really an option). The park was not on my parents’ radar (my father, who wrote a number-one country single in Australia called “Single Again,” preferred the Grand Ole Opry, while my mother preferred Boca Raton). The only time I visited Orlando was for a youthchoir event in my preteens called Magic Music Days. We sang all day and slept in Disney’s All-Star Music Resort at night. The hotel’s rooms (it still exists) are decorated in a palette of green and beige and the balcony railings resemble bars of sheet music. A neon jukebox forms…

POTATO BLINI Boil 1 lb. peeled, chopped Yukon Gold potatoes until tender, drain, and continue cooking 1 minute to dry out. Transfer to a bowl and add 3 T whole milk, 3 T flour, 3 whole eggs, 2 T crème fraîche, and 1 tsp. salt, whisking until smooth. Pass through a sieve if clumpy. Fold in 4 whipped egg whites. Spoon 1 tablespoon rounds onto a greased nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook for 15 to 20 seconds, flipping toward the end. PLAIN BLINI Warm 1 cup whole milk with a pinch of sugar, add 1⁄4 oz. dry active yeast, and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk in 1 cup flour, 1 T crème fraîche, and 1 tsp. salt, then fold in 4 whipped egg whites. Spoon 1 tablespoon rounds…

Items pictured but not listed are from private collections. MOOD BOARD PAGES 42–44: Necklace and earrings: Amrapali, net-a-porter.com. Fabric: Vervain, vervain.com. Pouf, stool, ikat pillow, and metal table: Sheherazade Home, sheherazadehome.com. La Mamounia: mamounia.com. Ceramics: Chabi Chic, chabi-chic.com. Mustapha Blaoui: mustaphablaoui.com. Slide: Figue, figue.com. Fashion: Etro, etro.com. Ceramic tile: Mosaic House, mosaichse.com. Jardin Majorelle: jardinmajorelle.com. Vintage carpet: Madeline Weinrib, madelineweinrib.com. Musee Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech: museeyslmarrakech.com. Geo table: Aelfie, aelfie.com. Lantern: Charles Edwards, charlesedwards.com. SHOWCASE PAGES 58–60: Thomas O'Brien for Century Furniture, centuryfurniture.com. TALENT PAGES 62–64: Kerry Joyce, kerryjoyce.com. SHORTLIST PAGE 74: Ashley Hicks, ashleyhicks.com. Totem sculptures: R & Company, r-and-company.com. Tablet: ReMarkable, remarkable.com. Side table: Simon Orrell Designs, simonorrelldesigns.com. Suit: Huntsman, huntsmansavilerow.com. Matches: Buly 1803, buly1803.com. Rogan Gregory lamp: R& Company. Evening slippers: Gucci, gucci.com. Collage: Ed Kluz, edkluz.co.uk.…

FRED NICOLAUS This month, Nicolaus writes “Downtown Premiere” (page 102). Indie-rock fans who know him from the band Department of Eagles might be surprised to learn that Nicolaus moonlights as the editor of the high-end renovation bible The Franklin Report. “I think all creative people, whether you’re a musician or a designer, have the same kind of madness,” he says. ERIC PIASECKI A frequent ED contributor, Piasecki photographed downtown Manhattan apartments designed by Kevin Dumais and Neal Beckstedt (pages 102 and 116) for this month’s issue. “Part of the fun of being invited to photograph interesting homes is seeing the art collections,” he says. “Both Neal and Kevin create something so personal.” NEAL BECKSTEDT Although he’s no stranger to the pages of ED, designer Neal Beckstedt admitted to being a…

During the 18th century, fans weren’t merely a means of ventilation—embedded in their imagery and materials were subtle social indicators. This March, the de Young Museum (deyoung.famsf.org) in San Francisco celebrates this history with “Fans of the Eighteenth Century,” an exhibition drawn from its archives. The objects highlight the diversity of the era’s production and design, with an emphasis on how such choices reflected deeper meanings. A fan with ivory sticks inlaid with mother-of-pearl, for example, might suggest its owner was worldly, while a creation with a hand-painted reproduction of Nicolas Lancret’s Rococo painting La Camargo Dancing (circa 1730) could indicate an appreciation for the arts. “Throughout the 18th century, a variety of several so-called fan languages developed,” says organizing curator Laura Camerlengo. “But even in their materials, fans allowed…

As creative director of the Swiss fashion house Akris (akris.ch) for the past three decades, Albert Kriemler has become recognized for his couture-like approach and obsession with innovative textiles. It is fitting, then, that one of his major points of affinity with the late French-Italian-American polyglot designer Alexander Girard, who inspired Akris’s spring 2018 collection, was their shared love of material. “Girard had a profound understanding of each material he designed with,” says Kriemler, who became familiar with his work through the 2016 retrospective “Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe” at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany. A prolific 20th-century icon known for his textile designs for Herman Miller, his work with Charles and Ray Eames, and his matches-to-walls creation of the New York restaurant La Fonda del Sol in the…

WE’LL BE SPENDING more time on the terrace this month, even if it means shivers and frostbitten fingers. At High Point Market last fall, Century Furniture announced the launch of New York–based designer Thomas O’Brien’s inaugural outdoor collection. For decades O’Brien, the founder of Aero Studios, has built a reputation for understated furniture with a vintage aesthetic, typically working with wood of variegated shades. For his first foray outside, he produced more than 40 pieces, fashioned primarily from metal and synthetic wicker. The collection— though appropriate for inside as well— suggests that maybe we should take a few moments to admire nature and breathe in the crisp March air. After all, self-imposed hibernation, even when it’s beside a roaring fire, is never a good thing.…

In the 1939 film The Women, star Norma Shearer proved that red can be fierce, even in black-and-white. (“I’ve had two years to grow claws, Mother… Jungle Red,” she says before getting her man back from Joan Crawford.) Today, in the Technicolor of the real world, it is the most operatic of the primary colors, and we’re seeing it everywhere. “Red never goes out of style,” says designer Miles Redd (below right). “When a woman wears red lipstick, her features suddenly pop.” The same can be said of a space when decorating it. “Just a spot of it is all you need,” David Kaihoi says. Red can easily be abused: Because its intensity relents only slightly between tints, caution should always be taken in its application. “You have to respect…

I ALWAYS KNEW I WOULD one day live in London Terrace Gardens. When it was built in 1931 in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood—in the middle of the Great Depression—the complex was billed as one of the largest apartment buildings in the world. That is no longer the case, but it’s still pretty massive, taking up an entire city block. Today you could call it the world’s chicest dorm. It’s long been a coveted residence for people in the design world (not to mention Susan Sontag, Annie Leibovitz, John O’Hara, and Debbie Harry). Credit the prewar details, nicely proportioned rooms, in-house cleaning and laundry service, and general sense of old-world civility. For a boy who grew up in rural Ohio, London Terrace epitomizes urban glamour. When I first saw this studio…

Each month, ELLE DECOR asks an artisan to create a unique item for us that literally has no price tag. At the end of the year, we’ll auction off these pieces to benefit the charity of each maker’s choice. The Romans called it tabula. The French call it trictrac. The Persians call it shesh besh—meaning “six” (Farsi) and “five” (Turkish), the best opening roll of the dice a player can achieve. And in the United States it’s backgammon—one of the oldest known board games, often crafted using inlaid woods or stones, a statement piece unto itself that many people leave out simply for decoration. Enter American tile mavens Caitlin and Samuel Dowe-Sandes, Marrakech residents who have created a set using their signature Moroccan tiles. True to its lineage, it’s a…

In two seasons as the creative director of Calvin Klein, Raf Simons has put his sly, intellectual twist on American fashion tropes. He’s now doing the same for American homes, sourcing one-of-a-kind vintage quilts, some with added embroidery winking at the location of the brand’s New York showroom. Background: Vintage star quilt. Center: Vintage embroidered star quilt. Bottom: Vintage log-cabin quilt. Prices upon request; available at Calvin Klein’s Madison Avenue flagship store in New York. 1 Did you devour the first volume of Jed Perl’s biography of artist Alexander Calder? You can get your mobile fix with this Calder-inspired Gaia pendant lamp from Ochre, which employs elegant engineering to balance an LED-illuminated solid glass drop with a blackened nickel cap. 48″ w.×32″ h.×2.5″ d., $5,250. ochre.net 2 Imagine spring break…

What would it look like if Tomas Maier, the creative director of Bottega Veneta (bottegaveneta.com), designed his dream living quarters in Manhattan? Consider the Italian house’s latest Maison—a space Maier conceived of himself—now open on the Upper East Side. The largest Bottega Veneta store in the world at 15,000 square feet, it consists of three landmark 19th-century townhouses, and its interiors were inspired by classic Manhattan architecture (the brand will have its fall 2018 show in New York). Brushedbrass ceilings, a glass balustrade, and metal display cubes echo materials endemic to the city; its famed skyline is also reflected in a 33-piece capsule collection of leather goods called “Icons of New York.” The Maison’s top floor, dubbed the Apartment, has its home and furniture lines laid out to mimic a…

CHARLES CURKIN: You are one of the only fabric designers I know with an Emmy Award. KERRY JOYCE: It’s a nice paperweight. Oh, come on. It’s an Emmy.. We craftspeople are just craftspeople. It’s not as glamorous as “best actor,” but the award is a good conversation piece. I have the statuette in my office, and I recently had to casually place it behind me for a portrait. We’ll get back to that in a minute. How did you get into art direction for TV? Back in the day, my first job was on the Tony Orlando and Dawn variety series. It was completely by mistake. It was the mid-1970s, and I’d just graduated from NYU with a degree in scenery and theater design. I took the two-week job in…

“It would have been pretty impossible for me not to end up being a designer,” says Ashley Hicks, whose father was the late interiors icon David Hicks—his clients included Helena Rubinstein and the Prince of Wales. “I did try.” Indeed, the young Hicks careened from military hardware design (as a kid) to classical modern architecture (at 14) to studying painting and then architecture before finally succumbing to the inevitable. Hicks worked with his father for a few months, then started his own firm, launched a furniture collection—his first piece was a modern interpretation of a Greek klismos chair—and began designing residential interiors for members of various European royal families. He also has a fabrics line, Ashley Hicks Textures, and, most recently, created a mirror-andcolored-vase design for the pop-up restaurant of…

For some, caviar evokes images of Russian nobles layered in sable, scooping mounds of Caspian beluga roe out of one-kilo tins. For generations, it was something exclusive and rare, the product of Caspian Sea sturgeon, and consumed only by people with titles like “tsar.” But because of a growing international farming industry, the best caviars are no longer cultivated uniquely in Iran and Russia. There are now producers in the United States, the Netherlands, China, and Israel. And it’s not just roe from sturgeon, but also salmon, trout, and hackleback. For a chef, it’s a very versatile ingredient, not merely something to dollop on with a mother-of-pearl spoon. My favorite way to eat it is atop blini with a little crème fraîche, or mixed into scrambled eggs for breakfast. At…

WHEN ASKED ABOUT HIS LOVE of midcentury furniture, Kevin Dumais answers with a crime story. The year was 2002, and he had just moved from his native Massachusetts to Manhattan. To celebrate, the young designer bought a long-coveted vintage Finn Juhl chair online and arranged to collect it from a Greyhound bus that was arriving at Port Authority. Wrestling the bulky piece through a service gate, Dumais overlooked a key detail: swiping his Metrocard. Enter a transit cop, and a hefty ticket. Surely the moral of the story is that the chair was more trouble than it was worth? “No! It’s one of my favorite pieces,” Dumais says. “I’ve reupholstered it three times.” These days, the furniture is delivered by other people, but a sleeves-rolled-up New England practicality endures. Dumais,…

“I WANTED TO TAKE THE LOCAL LANGUAGE AND GIVE IT A NEW DIALECT WITH FLASHES OF COLONIAL WHIMSY, WHICH I EXAGGERATE IN VERY BOLD GESTURES.” The house that interior designer Rela Gleason and her husband, Don, built in the Mexican hill town of San Miguel de Allende began as a bit of an adventure—an opportunity for a designer who “gets high on cement and sawdust,” as she says, to embark on a new project. The couple had always planned on living outside the United States at some point. Rela grew up in Belgium, the daughter of an Israeli father and a Czech mother, before she came to the United States, where she and her husband founded Summer Hill Ltd., a furniture and design business for which she served as creative…