A fashion-savvy home decorating magazine for the new generation of design professionals and consumers who know exactly what they want, ELLE DECOR covers fashionable and inspirational products that bring couture chic to every room of your home.
Is the industry that excites and entices us— or at the very least helps us to get dressed every day—beginning to experience that most dreaded of D words: disruption? The media has certainly had to deal with disruption. And it hasn’t been easy, as the number of late, lamented magazines and newspapers attests. Now it’s fashion that seems to be on a collision course with change. Many houses— Dior, Lanvin, Oscar de la Renta, Calvin Klein, and Balenciaga among them—have recently undergone major shake-ups. So relentless are the forces, both commercial and creative, that top fashion designers labor under that many no longer seem willing or able to keep it up. The number of collections has grown from two a year to eight or 10. Add to that the importance…
GEORGE SMITH HOSTS ELLE DECOR DURING LEGENDS OF LA CIENEGA The Los Angeles showroom of British furniture brand George Smith hosted a panel discussion moderated by ELLE DECOR Editor in Chief Michael Boodro during this year’s Legends event, an annual three–day celebration of design held in the city’s La Cienega Design District. The panelists included L.A.– based dealers and designers Bianca Chen, Nancy Kintisch, Sabin Ousey, Suzanne Rheinstein, and Richard Shapiro who discussed the topic “Big Personality: Creating Distinctive Rooms in a Standard–Issue World.” MODERN FORMS Magically create a sense of drama and elegance in any room with the new Elessar LED wall sconce by Modern Forms. The luminaire is spectacularly crowned with solid crystal containing frozen bubbles that project thousands of sparkles upward. Call 800.526.2588 or visit modernforms.com A&D…
MUTUAL APPRECIATION “From the first time we worked together, it was love at first sight,” says editor Cynthia Frank of her friendship with photographer Douglas Friedman. “We walk into a shoot, and we both know exactly where to start. We see things the same way.” Friedman agrees: “We’re definitely an odd couple. When we walk onto a set, the pairing is a little unexpected, at least in terms of appearance—Cynthia is meticulously put together. But we both love what we do, and we feed off of each other’s creative energy.” The duo worked on this month’s feature on the Long Island home of fashion designer Veronica Swanson Beard, whose sister, Claiborne, is married to Frank’s son James, page 154. “Veronica called us the Dream Team,” says Frank. FALL IN LINE…
ELECTRIC YOUTH Few artists rose to stardom as swiftly as Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was 20 when his graffitiinspired paintings were included in a gallery show alongside work by luminaries Jenny Holzer and Kiki Smith. Merging Afro-Caribbean style with a punk, street-art sensibility, the Brooklyn-born Basquiat blazed a trail across the downtown New York art scene of the 1980s before his untimely death at age 27. Now Alice + Olivia—the ultracool womenswear label beloved by Michelle Obama, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé—is partnering with the Basquiat estate to create an array of clothing and accessories featuring the flamboyant artist’s instantly recognizable motifs. A clutch and a knit top bear his signature gold crown, a leather jacket is embellished with his characteristic paint daubs and a lightning bolt, and jeans, skirts, and bags…
1 / FLYING COLORS The British design studio Wallace Sewell, known for geometrically patterned textiles in vivacious colors, has created a collection for West Elm that includes eye-catching cotton pillow covers with textured crewelwork fronts. From top: Kente, 20• sq., $39; Blocks + Stripes, 12• w. x 21• l., $29.westelm.com 2 / LATERAL THINKING Ryden Rizzo’s brass-and-wood Aperture table lamp for Allied Maker bounces and diffuses the light from a 40-watt LED bulb through an adjustable opaque-glass dome. Shown in Satin Brass with a Walnut handle, the lamp comes in a range of metal and wood finishes. 20• w. x 11.5• d. x 27.5• h., $3,350. alliedmaker.com 3 / SLIM FIT Nika Zupanc brings her cutting-edge elegance to a line of powder-coated steel furniture for Sé. The Stay bench comes…
The phantasmic, politically charged murals of Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, the visionary self-portraits of Frida Kahlo—north of the border, these frequently reproduced works have come to stand in for 20th-century Mexican art, overshadowing the contributions of many lesser-known contemporaries. “Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950”—a wide-ranging exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, organized with Mexico City’s Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, to which it will travel next year—sheds light on dozens of forgotten artists, who looked to their country’s indigenous traditions and crafts while engaging with the European avant-garde. The show’s nearly 300 works include Dr. Atl’s fiery-hued paintings of Mexico’s mountains and volcanoes; Manuel Álvarez Bravo’s affectionately off-kilter photographs of everyday life; Mardonio Magaña’s sensitive carved-wood sculptures of Mexican peasants; and painter José Chávez Morado’s…
