Resurrecting pivotal eras in design is irresistible to vanguards who understand that sometimes the best place to begin looking into the future is to take…
View More An Unsung Hero of Modern DesignTag: American furniture manufacturers
As a design and architecture journalist for over two decades, I’ve covered quite a large number of product launches by American furniture manufacturers and I enjoy the fact that I have figured out how to put such a creative spin on them.
In This Side of Paradise, I used Michael Berman’s Califolio Collection for Theodore Alexander as the backdrop for a young F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. I imagined Zelda draped across the chic daybed and F. Scott seated at the desk working on one of his manuscripts.
In The Soul of Great Leaders, I wrote about a vignette in the Norwalk showroom at High Point, which had as its central visual a large-scale photograph of a wizened Native American chief in a feathered headdress, memories of the years I’d spent on the reservations of South Dakota and Alaska were sparked by it. In What is Art? I use the art criticism of Leo Tolstoy as a jumping off point to talking about design as art, the post presenting new products by Currey & Company and its founder, who was up for an arts award. This is but the tip of the iceberg so I hope you’ll stop by The Diary of an Improvateur to see other American furniture manufacturers I’ve featured.
The Tides In Our Veins
The Tides in Our Veins One of the most evocative trips I can remember taking as a young woman was a four-day escapade to Carmel,…
View More The Tides In Our VeinsThe End of an Era
Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again, and interesting, and modern. A voiceover of Don Draper reciting…
View More The End of an EraCourtesan Style Counts
Everyone has a different definition of beauty but I’m betting it’s the rare soul who wouldn’t be enamored with this sexy chair by Alden Parkes, which…
View More Courtesan Style CountsRooms of Their Own
A private place in which to write… As someone whose life is spent working with words for at least a part of every day, I find…
View More Rooms of Their OwnThe Valentino Lair
Before The Beatles turned teenaged girls into a screaming, weeping throng and George Clooney made even the most reserved woman a bit toasty under the…
View More The Valentino LairHarmony and Proportion
Love of beauty is taste…the creation of beauty is art. -Emerson I’ve been a fan of Alexandra Stoddard since I came across the designer’s book Living…
View More Harmony and ProportionAllegorical Accents from Barry Dixon
Certain aspects of being southern seem to seep into the skin through osmosis. It’s as if the summer heat wriggles into our DNA, the perspiration…
View More Allegorical Accents from Barry DixonBeatrix Farrand Gardens
Powerful things happen in a garden. Beyond the miracle of riotous color and the vibrancy of burgeoning life, momentous occurrences have transpired on the garden…
View More Beatrix Farrand GardensA Jet Set Fantasy
When the Bernhardt Jet Set buffet flowed through the raucous column of my Tweetdeck during the #HPMkt Twitter chat on the evening of March 12th, I chased…
View More A Jet Set Fantasy