Incredible Sconces!

I've been running across so many incredible sconces during my shopping trips lately, I wanted to share.  Enjoy!

Look at these incredible Italian sconces.  So chic!  I'd love more than a pair lining a hall...

Gorgeous plaster shells, from one of my favorite antique shops in the city, Bermingham and Co.

Okay, these Pietro Chiesa designed lanterns at Todd Merrill are so exquisite in person!  Firstly, they are enormous.  Secondly, each white enamel bowl serves as a diffuser for the one below and also has a light inside providing soft, reflected light.  Gorgeous.

These wall lamps create a circular glow on the wall around the outside of the mesh disc.  So sexy.

Dazzling.

These extraordinary Apollo's Head sconces, by Andre Cazenave, glow from within!

A pair of bronze beauties, yes?

Have you noticed yet how much I love Stilnovo?

Dutch, 80's.  Yes, please.

Absolutely beautiful.  I wish there were more than two!

Lets Talk...Purple

Purple...why do our clients dismiss this color?  It's labeled too juvenal, too unspecific, too bright or too dark, and always seems to conjure confusion. Take a moment to think about this diverse color. For instance, purple can span the seasons, it can be warm or cold in tone--sounds amazing, yes? We think so!  Here are some beautiful room designs that know just how to treat this tricky little color...

Thanks to Madeline Stewart, Jamie Drake, and Thad Hayes.

Jet-Set: Parisian Modernist Style

There is never too little time to take in an architectural wonder. . . even on a quick jet-set to Paris: 

Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris

photos by Richard Ishida, Adrian Welch

Shiny happy people...

...like shiny, happy floors!  Bring on the sheen Gene!

image from Veranda

Perfection.

Does anyone know whose work this is?  Exotic and familiar, classic and edgy...perfect.

A Day at the Movies...

Matt Owen of Little Rock, AR is making these amazing minimalist movie posters.  Smart, funny, clean,

beautiful.  My God, I love them!

Seasonal Urban Expression. . .

(Barney's)

It is that time of year again. . .in the country friends and family pile into the "good' ole' minivan" or some sort of hay-filled, semi-attached truck to witness the splendor of holiday lights. Here in New York City we still gather together, but instead of hay-induced, holiday-light extravaganzas we witness holiday-inspired storefront windows. The storefront windows are so impeccable and creatively conceived that even the Ginchiest New Yorker will pause for a moment and take in the visual inspiration.

Department Store windows are a blank canvas and provide visual stimuli year-around, but during the Holidays the shop windows explode with narrative and holiday splendor. The sheer level of creativity cannot be matched, as each window acts as a portal into a fantastical world unique to each retailer.

(Simon Doonan-Barney's Creative Director)

(my favorite this year)

(Tiffany & Co. paper cut outs)

(Tiffany & Co.)

The big 6 must see displays are:
Bloomingdales
Barney's
Bergorf Goodman
Saks
Lord and Taylor
Macy's

(Henri Bendel, candy and cakes)

Other this year:
Henri Bendel
Dylan's Candy Bar
Anthropologie
Tiffany & Co.
Cartier
Fendi
Louis Vuitton

(Lord and Taylor, Christmas Past)

(Lord and Taylor)

(Bergdorf Goodman)

Which window is your favorite this year?

Give My Regards to Hollywood: Tony Duquette

Duquette and Wilkinson

Tony Duquette was said to have been discovered by Lady Elsie de Wolfe Mendl, the international arbiter of taste--what a stirring way to begin ones career! Throughout his life, Duquette lived and designed in the most lavish of fashion, and exoticism and excess best describe the foundation of his work. The more the better: more adornment, more color, more texture, more money. You could say Duquette was the designer of more.

Duquette's office at Drawbridge

Duquette's famed studio

Entrance to Sortilegium

Duquette began his luxist career as a designer for Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions under the watchful eyes of the great Arthur Freed and Vincent Minnelli.  He created costumes and set designs for the studio's pictures.  As Duquette's studio career began to take off, so did his work with interiors. . . then he went to War, can you imagine the flamboyant Duquette at war--did he bring his satin cape? Anyway...When he returned in 1948, Duquette got back into business with his wife (Yes, wife.  Affectionately nicknamed "Beegle") and worked with clients such as: Vincente Minnelli, Elizabeth Arden, Doris Duke, Mary Pickford, J. Paul Getty, David O. Selznick and the Duchess of Windsor.

Set for the opera "The Magic Flute"

Dolores Grey-costume by Duquette*

*notice the cape

Tony Award Winning costumes for "Camelot"

During the late 1970's Duquette formed the Anthony and Elizabeth Duquette Foundation for the Living Arts, a non-profit public foundation whose purpose was to present museum quality exhibitions of artistic, scientific and educational value to the public. Duquette's foundation is yet another example of the many hats a contemporary designer can wear--he was a designer, businessman, and philanthropist all wrapped up in a neat, velvety, and sparkly cape.

Tony and Beegle

Duquette's legacy lives on through his design studio, now managed solely by his business partner Hutton Wilkinson. Duquette's style is also furthered today by retailers who sell his furnishings and design/art objects, not to mention his two books: "More is More" and "Tony Duquette".

1980's, Wilkinson and Duquette

Tony Duquette's website

Hutton Wilkinson's website