Wonderfully talented Michele Varian is debuting several new items at The Architectural Digest Home Show in NY this week (March 20-23, 2014) and we both went mad for her linen cushions. They've all been designed by Michele herself and are made right in New York City. Cool, huh?
Stephanie Odegard
what is your idea of perfect design happiness? RICH COLOR COMBINATIONS THAT ARE SO DELICIOUS I COULD EAT THEM.
what is your greatest fear in design? HAVING LEARNED FROM EXPERIENCE, THAT IT WOULD BE TOO FAR AHEAD OF ITS TIME.
which historical design figure do you most identify with? MARIO FORTUNY. HE WAS INFLUENCED BY MANY OF THE SAME CULTURES THAT I WAS INFLUENCED BY, INCLUDING THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND EVERYTHING INDIAN.
which living designer do you most admire? THIERRY DESPONT. I LIKE THE WAY HE BLENDS ARCHITECTURE, INTERIOR DESIGN, NATURAL FLORA AND FAUNA WITH ART.
what profession other than design would you like to attempt? TO BE A MUSICIAN OR A PAINTER.
what is your greatest design extravagance? HAND-WOVEN TEXTILES.
when and where were you happiest with your design? IN NEPAL, WHEN I SEE THE CARPET DESIGNS CREATED ON THE LOOMS.
what do you consider your greatest achievement in design? MINIMALLY DESIGNED, HAND KNOTTED VEGETAL DYED CARPETS.
if you died and came back as another designer or design object, who or what do you think it would be? A CANDLE HOLDER.
what specific design related talent are you lacking that you would you most like to have? DRAWING SKILLS.
what is your most treasured design related possession? TRESSERA JEWELRY CHEST.
what do you regard as the lowest depths of misery in design? KNOWING THERE ARE BAD KNOCK-OFFS, USING CHILD LABOR.
what curse word do you most frequently use? I DON’T CURSE.
what is your favorite design related word? CURATED.
what is your least favorite design related word? FABULOUS.
what turns you on in design? ECLECTICISM USING DIFFERENT BEAUTIFUL HAND WOVEN TEXTILES IN THE MIX.
what turns you off in design? THE OFF GASSING FROM MACHINE MADE CARPETS IN NEW HOTEL ROOMS.
what is your motto in design? DYNAMIC DESIGN IS NOT LIMITED BY TRADITIONAL CRAFTS AND FAIR LABOR PRACTICES.
//IMAGE CREDITS | Images provided by Stephanie Odegard, Theirry Despont & Architectural Digest.
ABOUT PROUST ON DESIGN | Answered by our design icons, these must-ask questions come from a 19th century parlor game made popular by Marcel Proust, the French novelist, essayist & critic. Proust believed the direct questions and honest responses that they elicited revealed the true nature of the individual. For this column, we have put a design related spin on the traditional questions. While this method has been used by many journalists throughout the years, we were primarily inspired by The Proust Questionnaire, which appears monthly on the back page of one of our all time favorite magazines, Vanity Fair (also Krista’s alma mater). Read all of the previous Proust on Design questionnaires here.
No. 30
Have a fabulous weekend, guys!
Ciao Bella
We are packing our bags to head to Italy with Modenus' BlogTour Milan next month! As you can imagine, we are nothing short of embarrassingly giddy with excitement about this trip and would like to invite you all to follow along with every minute of delicious Italian interior design, textiles, antiques, food and fashion that we spy along the way. The tour will kick off with Salone del Mobile, Milan’s annual design week, and then we'll be taking a little jaunt over to Venice with drool-worthy stops along the way. Of course, we'll be sharing it across all of our various social media platforms, so be sure to follow along if you're not already...
Facebook Google+ Twitter | Krista & Tami Instagram | Krista & Tami Pinterest | Krista & Tami
Please also check out this Meet the Bloggers page to see all of the talented people we'll be joining on our travels, and this link to get a glimpse at the BlogTour LA goodness we shared late last year when we were a part of our maiden BlogTour voyage with team Modenus. A tremendous thank you to Veronika and all of the incredible BlogTour Milan sponsors for including us in this trip. We are SO ready. Ciao bella!
Lynn Byrne
ABOUT | Lynn Byrne is an interior designer and blogger at Decor Arts Now. We had the immense pleasure of spending time with her at BlogTourLA last fall, and consider her one of the kindest and most talented people in our design circles.
When Krista and Tami invited me to choose my single most favorite textile in my home, I couldn’t do it. That’s because I love this pair. Of course they are pretty, but my fondness has more to do with my home's checkered past than the fabrics themselves. You see, I always wanted to live in an old house with character. We bought a circa 1900 Victorian but 10 days after the closing, the house suffered a devastating fire. We decided to rebuild and completed the project in 2003.
At first all of my decor choices where driven by a desire to make the house feel “old.” Period lighting, period wallpaper and period fabrics made their way inside. Finally, about 5 years after I lived in the home, I was over the trauma of the fire. Everything didn’t have to read period. It was time to bust out and these geometric fabrics where among my first choices in the “new era." The fabric on the upholstered chair is a re-issue by Ashley Hicks of one of his father, David Hick’s, designs.
The dining chair fabric is by Ashley’s ex-wife Allegra Hicks. Both were sourced at Lee Jofa. The fabrics make wonderful playmates together, which is perfect because we often shrink down that dining table to 30 inches and combine the two spaces for entertaining.
My guess is that my pair of fabrics might be together longer than the Hick’s marriage!
IMAGE CREDIT | Dining room shot by Ellen McDermott
No. 29
Wishing you a wonderful & warm weekend.
The Atlantan // Material Girl
Take a look at who is gracing the pages of The Atlantan this month! We were gobsmacked (to quote Tami in all her southern charm) when they approached Tami about being featured in the Best of the City issue - what a tremendous honor. With opportunity knocking, we set out to make it totally killer, including tapping into our dear and talented friends at Katharine Kidd and Bradley USA.
Katharine Kidd is an LA and Atlanta based fashion designer who is deservedly basking in her growing reputation as one of the hottest clothing designers around and who is, hands down, a genius at blending feminine details with edge and luscious materials. She is our go-to for unique and showstopping fashion - but don't take our word for it, check out the celebrities donning her frocks. Katharine was kind enough to outfit Ms. Ramsay head to toe for the shoot - and let me tell you, finding digs in her Atlanta store was as easy as pie. Here's Tami making her selections and trying stuff on. And can we please talk about that light fixture while we're at it?
This dress below was my personal favorite - I mean, what's not to love about dripping gold embroidery? However, the outfit Tami ended up wearing included a beloved, and therefore, mainstay fits-like-a-glove Charlotte Printed Blouse that Katherine brings back every season and mixes it up with new colors and patterns, along with Kimberly Pant, a sexy black slack with a revealing peek-a-boo leg slit.
Michelle Bradley, the sassy and wickedly talented founder and creative genius behind Bradley, ever so graciously welcomed The Atlantan to shoot Tami in her drop dead gorgeous showroom at ADAC.
I swear, we both want like one of everything in her showroom and appreciate the fully customizable nature of her product lines. Tami is mad for the large scale art featuring works by paper-cut-project, which you can get a glimpse of in the shot of her above. I personally have my eye on this concrete side table in a major way... but I digress.
Anyway, besides all the fun leading up to and on the day of the photo shoot, we just adored being able to share Tami's local Atlanta favorites including Hugh Acheson's Empire State South restaurant, Susan Hable Smith's Hable Construction textiles for Hickory Chair, Bungalow Classic, Sally King Benedict's art, Gogo Ferguson's jewelry and Clay McLaurin's fabrics. Many of these talented folks we've already written about extensively on our blog so be sure to check out these links for deep dive looks at Susan Hable Smith, Sally King Benedict, Clay McLaurin and paper-cut-project. We've always loved sharing our favorite sources... it's our firm belief that sharing the news about others doing great things in the design world is the best way to help get them recognized and to spread the design love. In fact, if you haven't already, check out our Little Black Book for a complete list of the companies we routinely turn to over and over again in our own design practice.
A most sincere thanks to The Atlantan and Kate Abney for a piece that we are exceptionally proud to be a part of.
PS - and just because I'm so proud of my girl, I have to mention that Tami was also featured on the Contents page in addition to the piece on her on p. 48. Eeek!
Happy Holidays!
What a whirlwind this year had been! So many amazing things have happened, virtually all of them positive, and for that we are exceptionally grateful. But we're also just plain old tired and realized that it's time for a much needed break. We need to chill out and rejuvenate ourselves for 2014 because we have big plans, including a relaunch of our website and lots more fun stuff. So before we sign off for the year, we just wanted to say thank you - most sincerely - for your love and support. We wish you and your families the most wonderful of holiday seasons... and are hoping you'll find some of that precious chill out time for yourself as well.
IMAGE CREDIT | Background image via Eskayel
Fortuny Interior
Faithfully antique but markedly original were Marcel Proust's words to describe Mariano Fortuny's fabrics in the early 1900s and how very true that sentiment remains today.
Before we even received the copy of this book we were charmed by its elegant cover, and as longstanding lovers of the luxurious Fortuny brand, we expected nothing short of a truly Good Read. But when we opened the book to find the first line on the very first page was the above quote by Marcel Proust we were even more enchanted. Proust, after all, is at the epicenter of our most popular column on CLOTH & KIND titled Proust on Design. Yes, we already loved this book and we were only on page one.
In Fortuny Interiors, author Brian D. Coleman educates us not only about the beginnings of this fascinating company including how Mariano breathed life into his fabrics by creating new techniques like hand stamping of velvets, silks and cottons and how his true passion for art and painting fueled his textile designs, but photographer Erik Kvalsvik also gives us glimpse after glimpse into the homes in which some of these stunningly beautiful fabrics have been used.
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Oh, and we got all excited over the Fabric Appendix at the back of the book. What a cool and highly useful way to see all of the Fortuny patterns available in simple, black & white form. Our imaginations were going wild looking at these and envisioning all of the amazing custom colorways we could create.
If only Mariano were alive today... how we'd adore having him answer our Proust on Design questionnaire. His answers would undoubtedly be as fascinating and brilliant as his textiles are.
If, like us, you can't get enough then check out our recent post on Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo's Show & Tell featuring her personal favorite Fortuny fabric, then make haste and get yourself to the nearest local bookstore or Amazon to snag a copy of Fortuny Interiors. Your creative self and your coffee table will be all the happier for it.
IMAGE CREDITS | Original photography by Erik Kvalsvik. All images taken of Fortuny Interiors for this blog post by Krista Nye Schwartz of CLOTH & KIND.
Happy Thanksgiving
We are immensely thankful for so many people & things in our lives, and count you - our readers - amongst them. Wishing you a beautiful and bountiful Thanksgiving.
IMAGE CREDIT | Vintage textile from ofANTIQUE's Instagram feed