The nickname cougar, signifying women who have “a thing” for younger men, hasn’t been around for as long as they’ve been cropping up in popular culture. Before she had an epithet, she was a moody manipulator whose wardrobe was as chic as it was sexy, her story the perfect narrative for a midcentury cougar. Her interiors…Continue reading A Midcentury Cougar on the Prowl
Category: Cultural Explorations
I have a penchant for cultural explorations that combine history, literature, design, architecture and myriad angles relating to travel. These subjects inspire me as a writer. My sweep of historical cultural references is wide. One week may find me exploring Peggy Guggenheim’s romantic frustrations and my visit to her chosen home town of Venice while another week will find me on a literary adventure in Paris, one of my favorite cities.
I am fascinated with court cultures, such as lifestyles during the Tudor Era, especially relating to Henry VII, and any time-period relating to the Bourbon kings of France. I often combine these cultural explorations with design because I have been a design and architecture journalist for over two decades. Since it’s my beat, I often mine the industry for ways to combine these subjects with literature, which I call my literary design adventures. I hope you enjoy my worldly ramblings and my fascinations here on The Diary of an Improvateur.
The Seat of Scottish Power
As the opening credits roll during the film Her Majesty, Mrs Brown, a Markino marble bust, which has been tossed over a castle’s ramparts, tumbles through the air toward the ground. When the work of art lands, it shatters into an eruption of shards, the sound exploding like a gunshot. The bust paid homage to…Continue reading The Seat of Scottish Power
Celebrating Shakespeare
Celebrating Shakespeare The 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death is April 23rd, the date he passed in 1616 at the age of 52 believed to be his birthday. It’s a milestone for which the UK in particular has been prepping for quite some time so celebrating Shakespeare in England has never been easier. But opportunities…Continue reading Celebrating Shakespeare
The Built Legacy of Henry VIII
The 2016 Academy Awards are handed out this coming Sunday so I’m celebrating a film that showcases the built legacy of Henry VIII to delve back into the subject I began here on February 2nd. The movie that showcases Henry VIII’s architectural heritage so beautifully is A Man for All Seasons, which swept the Oscars in 1967…Continue reading The Built Legacy of Henry VIII
I Met Virginia Woolf in This Room
Who else is relieved that Lady Edith Crawley, played by Laura Carmichael, is finally finding happiness on Downton Abbey? Having binged on all of the episodes of the sixth and final season as I was flying to and from Paris last month, I was thrilled to see that Julian Fellowes showed her some good will…Continue reading I Met Virginia Woolf in This Room
Renovating During the Tudor Era
Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Looking back to the Tudor Era from this great distance, it’s easy to see how barbaric a sport jousting was. But before you feel all modern and lofty, consider America’s devotion to football, even after the discovery of its deadly occurrence of brain trauma. If you can’t imagine our country…Continue reading Renovating During the Tudor Era
Timothy Oulton Design Adventurer
“As the momentous words ‘England is now, therefore, in a state of war with Germany’ came somberly over the radio, Major James Bigglesworth, D.S.O., better known as Biggles, switched off the instrument and turned to face his friends, Captain the Honourable Algernon Lacey, M.C., and ‘Ginger’ Hebblethwaite. There was a peculiar smile on his face.”…Continue reading Timothy Oulton Design Adventurer
We’ll Never Be Royals
Nest Nest Nest features the Alliage pattern.As I write this, I can feel the design energy draining from the Americas as the movers-and-shakers in our industry trek across the Atlantic to Paris for Maison & Objet. During the last iteration of the French fair, I followed the savvy coverage by Tamara Matthews Stephenson, and was…Continue reading We’ll Never Be Royals
Furnishing Pastimes of Henry VIII
As I mentioned in my last Improvateur article presenting a brief history of Hampton Court Palace, I launched into a furnishings fantasy when I heard the narrators and experts interviewed in the PBS documentary Secrets of Henry VIII’s Palace reveal anecdotes illustrating life within the palace walls during the Tudor king’s reign, which included the…Continue reading Furnishing Pastimes of Henry VIII
Decorating Hampton Court Palace
The premise of this article and the next one I’ll post here on The Diary of an Improvateur (next week) began with a rather capricious question: how would it feel to decorate Hampton Court Palace, a jewel in the Tudor King’s built crown, in a way that if the luminaries in Henry VIII’s court were alive…Continue reading Decorating Hampton Court Palace