Design Miami Paris Turns Three

The Patrick Seguin display at Design Miami in Paris. Image credit Ivan Erofeev.

The formal interiors of the iconic L’hôtel de Maisons where the fair is held owes its sumptuous envelope to the 18^th-century. The hôtel particulier in Saint-Germain-des-Prés began to rise in 1706 and was almost completed in 1707 when it was sold to Claude de Longueil, the Marquis de Maisons, from whom it gets its name. François Duret then acquired the property and undertook major renovations over the tenure of his ownership. The interiors were transformed from 1749 to 1751 by Pierre Mouret for Louis-Armand de Seiglières de Belleforière, the Marquis de Soyecourt. The woodwork in the grand salon, shown above, was sculpted by Jacques Verberckt, perhaps with the assistance of Jean Liottier.

Galerie Gastou at Design Miami in Paris. Image credit Ari Touboul.

Organizers note that across the Gallery and Design at Large programming, there are a number of prominent thematic threads that include a distinct focus on zoomorphic forms, offering a menagerie of animalistic influences. These unfold in the presentations of the Galerie Gastou and Galerie Desprez-Bréhéret—a joint-presentation dedicated to Early Birds; and in Galerie Mitterrand’s display of iconic animal-inspired designs by Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, including a set of tortoises, Tortue topiaire III 2000 & 2003 placed in the garden as part of the Design at Large program. The Future Perfect’s outdoor presentation of Vikram Goyal Studio’s immersive installation, The Soul Garden, was created in collaboration with Sissel Tolaas and reimagines India’s ancient animal fables as a contemporary dialogue between art, design, and ecology.

Galerie Mitterrand at Design Miami in Paris. Image courtesy of Galerie Mitterrand.

Given we are nearing the end of the 100^th anniversary year of Art Deco, the style has a hefty presence. One of the galleries highlighting its influences is Galerie Chastel-Maréchal, who brough Forêt (1929) by Jean Dunand to the fair. The four-leaf screen in lacquer and silver leaf on wood has a light relief decoration of birds and deer in an enchanted forest landscape. The piece comes from the prestigious collection of Princess Marie Bonaparte. Galerie Maxime Flatry’s presentation also gives a nod to Art Deco with historical ceramic works by Jean Besnard, Ernest Chaplet, and Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat that span the years 1890 to 1930. The gallery invited Thierry Boutemy to create bespoke floral installations for its showcase in order to spark a dialogue with the historical ceramics.

Patrick Parrish at Design Miami in Paris. Image credit Ivan Erofeev.

Another focus at this year’s fair requires viewers to look more closely because there is a noticeable emphasis on smaller scale collectibles. For the first time in France, debut exhibitor Patrick Parrish Studio, based in New York, presents a solo exhibition of works by Carl Auböck in a lyrical display. The designs that are typically considered as everyday small objects—bells, dishes, baskets, and bookends—become unique objets d’art arranged as they are. Yves Macaux Gallery from Brussels is showing cutlery by Josef Hoffmann, the display of miniature treasures not unlike jewelry. For its second appearance, Galerie MiniMasterpiece from Paris reveals creations inspired by artists and designers Lee Ufan, Pierre Charpin, Andres Serrano, and Pablo Reinoso.

Yves Macaux at Design Miami in Paris. Image credit/ Ivan Erofeev.

The organizers of the fair have also announced this year’s Best of Show Award Winners, which were selected by a committee of design experts including Design Miami’s Senior Vice President of Fairs Grela Orihuela, architect Lee Mindel, design expert Al Eiber, and advisors Simon Andrews and Jeremy Morrison. The Best Gallery Presentation was awarded to debut exhibitor Yves Macaux Gallery with its focus on Viennese masterpieces spanning the ornamental exuberance of the Wiener Werkstätte to the restrained elegance of early modernist design. Highlights from their installation include a Josef Hoffmann brass vessel and a longcase clock by Adolf Loos.

James de Wulf at Design Miami in Paris. Image credit Nicky Roding.

Los Angeles-based designer James de Wulf was awarded Best Design at Large Presentation with the debut work Resonating Ping Pong Table, Song no. 1 (2025). The multisensory piece incorporates sound within its function: the table’s surface, which is formed from layers of aluminum plates that are tuned to an A Minor Pentatonic scale, emits a dreamy, healing sound-bath as the motion of ping pong balls bounce across its surface. Versatile in form, the table may be used indoors or outside, and the net is easily removable to convert the table for dining. The Best Contemporary Work went to Extended Form Three (2025), a white onyx table by Adam Pendleton being shown at Friedman Benda.

Laffanour at Design Miami in Paris. Image credit Ivan Erofeev.

The Best Historic Work was awarded to two highly significant pieces at Galerie Downtown Francois Laffanour. The Parisian-based gallery presented works by Jean Prouvé, an emblematic figure of twentieth-century modernism whose practice spanned architecture, engineering, and design. The Bureau Présidence (c. 1951) is a desk that was commissioned by René Coulon, an architect and member of the Union des Artistes Modernes. It is made of green lacquered bent-sheet steel that supports a bean-shaped wooden top. Another piece is Table à Plans (1951), a rectangular table with an ash veneer top resting on a base with four tapered legs made of green lacquered bent-steel tubing. The deep and pastel greens used for both pieces were striking for their time because he was breaking away from Art Deco conventions and using hues that were originally reserved for industrial use. He employed them for the first time in furniture design intended for everyday use. These award winners each received a trophy designed by Maison Daum that was designed by French artist and designer Victoria Wilmotte, who is known for her sculptural and architectural approach to form.

Designers of Tomorrow

The final installation of works by the Designers of Tomorrow. Image credit Elodie Croquet.

A new initiative by Design Miami and Apple, dubbed Designers of Tomorrow spotlights four emerging design talents and their creative practices, which were powered by iPad. The works chosen were by Atelier Duyi Han from Shanghai, Jolie Ngo from California, Marie & Alexandre from Paris, and Marco Campardo from London. The presentation at the fair showcases the seamless integration of iPad into the designers’ processes to demonstrate how technology empowers and enriches creativity and innovation—from new approaches in research and development to crafting their final works. We at Design Diary salute the organizers of the fair for continuing to push the envelope into new design territory.

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The Winter Decorative Fair

A vignette from “The Architect’s Study,” the foyer presentations during the Winter Decorative Fair in London.

On the ground floor of the Winter Decorative Fair will be 130 exhibitors offering fine and formal antiques alongside 20th century design, and decorative and unusual pieces dating from the 1700s to the 1970s.  Art and sculpture of all periods, collectable ceramics and glassware, silver, architectural and garden antiques, textiles, curios, and jewelry will also be arrayed in abundance. This year, the Decorative Fair welcomes The London Antique Rug & Textile Art Fair with 15 specialist textile and carpet dealers showing upstairs on the mezzanine.

A second vignette from “The Architect’s Study.”

The Foyer Display is The Architect’s Study, inspired by the drawings of classical architect George Saumarez Smith, the three images illustrating this post representative of the vignettes. Here is a survey of the top nine eyecatchers the promoters list:

1. In Jay Arenski’s stand: Waiting for Master, a beautiful oil on canvas by Benno Rafael Adam. Adam has been described as ‘the German Landseer.’ Born into an artistic family, he was son of the horse painter Albrecht Friedrich Christopher Adam (1786-1862) and his brothers included the artists Franz Adam, Eugen Adam, and Julius Adam. Benno’s son, Emil Adam (1843-1924) was also an accomplished sporting artist; patronized across the continent, his English patrons including the Prince of Wales (Edward VII) and the Dukes of Westminster and Portland.

2. In Nick Jones’s stand at the Winter Decorative Fair: A rare four-door enfilade by Biosca, c. 1950. Constructed in solid beech wood this cabinet has a profuse arrangement of deep molded panels with reticulated panels that create its geometric, brutalist design theme. Biosco furniture design is based on historical Spanish vernacular design, reimagined with a 20th Century design approach. The result is an incredibly successful combination of proportional geometric design with soulful approach culminating in a future collectable classic.

3. In Gary MCA’s stand: An original fashion illustration by Bill Donovan, who is America’s leading contemporary fashion illustrator with an international following. For the past twelve years, Donovan has held the esteemed title of Artist-in-Residence for Christian Dior, a position that underlines his standing as a master of fashion illustration with a flowing style that perfectly reflects the elegance and history of the House of Dior.

4. In Galerie Arabesque’s stand at the Winter Decorative Fair: A set of Delft tiles, circa 1625, which promoters describe as “rare survivors at 400 years old.

5. New exhibitor John Bly Antiques is showing a Foo Dog and Tortoise Table from the early 19^thcentury. It is described as “A rare and captivating carved ebony center table with a base formed as a tortoise supporting four Foo Dogs. From the mouths of these spray a stylized foliate branch rising to hold the circular Verde Marinace marble top. Given the combination of these traditional and narrative elements, present in the mythology of both Ceylon and Burma since the 4th century and more particularly to the West in the later days of the Empire of The Great Moghal (1526 – 1857), we date this table to the early part of the 19th century prior to the Empire’s demise and give it Myanmar-Sri Lankan provenance.”

6. Also a new exhibitor, J C Gallery will have Thomas Hart Benton’s Discussion, 1969, on view. The lithograph, in an edition of 250, is an example of this gallery’s specialty: works by American Modernist artists.

7. Joshua Lumley will unfurl an Ushak carpet from Anatolia within his stand at the Winter Decorative Fair. “Ushak rugs have become highly desirable over the past four or five years,” the gallerist notes; “their unusual colors and glossy sheen from smooth sleek fibers make them a very attractive starting point for many interior schemes.”

8. In Holly Johnson’s stand, an Art Deco cabinet on a stand in the George I style, circa 1910, will be for sale. With an English provenance, it has shagreen veneer and sits atop a silver gilded oak base. The top with its ivory banding has two hinged doors set with engraved silver-plated fittings and escutcheons. They open to reveal a drinks cabinet with fitted maple interior. Raised on a burnished silver gilded oak stand with profuse carving—including bands of acanthus and foliage—there are swags and scrolling foliage on cabriole legs down to the paw feet.

9. With a commanding presence in the stand of William Cook Antiques will be a 13-Star US Naval Flag, New York, January 1911, from the USS New York. The antiquarian says about the treasure: “This flag is made from wool bunting and pieced together. The stars are arranged in a 3-2-3-2-3 pattern, which is known as a Francis Hopkins pattern and stitched using a zig-zag pattern, as was typical of this era. The zig-zag stitch was patented in 1892 and became the most common stitching pattern thereafter. Its advantage is that the stars can be rough cut, and then the rough cut is hidden by the stitches. The linen hoist has 5 brass grommets.”

If You Plan to Visit

A third vignette from “The Architect’s Study.”

The hours for the Winter Decorative Fair will be open are Tuesday, January 21, from noon until 8 p.m.; on Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.; on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.; and on Sunday from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. The coaches run approximately every 15 minutes and will begin 30 minutes prior to the opening times daily. You can purchase tickets on Eventbrite. There is a visitor information page on the fair’s website.

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The Arizona Science Center by Antoine Predock. Image credit Timothy Hursley.

Architecture can be intimidating. So was the size of the tome (a word we rarely use but it is seriously apropos for this title) that celebrates the built environments of Antoine Predock. Surveying 65 years of his visionary work, the 690-page retrospective, RIDE, can serve as a lesson for all firms: document your work and archive it continuously. Published by Rizzoli, the book is both a visual and an emotional feast for the senses; and Predock’s voice was as muscular as his buildings.

Predock described his time riding motorcycles as “a kind of poetic isolation.”

The architect opened the book with, “The beginning is an opening, an unexpected recognition that has worked its way through layers of habit—habits of thinking, habits of behavior and cultural expectation. That point of light is the beginning. And the most difficult thing for many is to recognize it and jump on it, take a ride on it. Subsequent development sometimes leads to the elaboration of a narrative, but half the time I simply make something I like. The narrative doesn’t rule. I don’t test every move against it. If it is there, it is open-ended, it is malleable, like the clay of the models that I make. I can change it or scrap it or reverse it. At the end you wonder what it was that started it all—what was the beginning, the so-called inspiration. It just seems to show up, as in Garcia Lorca’s notion of ‘duende.’”

RIDE by Antoine Predock: 65 Years of Architecture published by Rizzoli.

The depth to Antoine Predock’s thinking shines through time after time. “When I’m at the Louvre, I beeline to the Mona Lisa; rather than look at it, I watch the behaviors associated with it,” he wrote. “And of course, the Mona Lisa is moving me, mystically and unconsciously, as I watch the performance. This aspect of performance has much to do with architecture. The cat’s nine lives that accrue around the process of making and experiencing a particular architecture are fundamental to it. But where is its deepest reality?” And, he so wisely said, “Architects are double agents in an ongoing balancing act, balancing inner and outer worlds. Much of the discussions that surround the making of a building are about ephemera. To ignore the ephemera is an abnegation of responsibility. But to ignore the inner world, to brush over content, and give ephemera priority leaves the essential power of architecture unexplored.”

A sketch of “Turtle Creek House” in Dallas, Texas, by Antoine Predock.

In a section he called “Inner Life,” Antoine Predock described the initial spark he felt for the built world: “In the late 1950s, as an engineering student at the University of New Mexico, I was playing out my studies, successfully, albeit aimlessly—the only exciting part was summer jobs in the aircraft industry and becoming enamored of its technology and the exotica of jet aircraft materials. Then, by chance, or I should say, by destiny, I landed in an engineering drawing course taught by a young architect. Meeting him turned out to be a pivotal point in my life. Without any architectural proselytizing, he ignited some latent flame within me. He projected an enthusiasm that showed me that it was possible for work to be life, not merely a job. I switched to architecture, understanding through him that I had a previously unimagined mission. That encounter was with Don Schlegel. It reinforced my reliance on, and trust in, an inner truth—to be always true to an inner life. This has made all the difference in understanding the necessity even to walk away from uninspiring projects and to always choose the option of adventure. Architecture is a ride—an intellectual and physical ride—with the adrenalin of a roller coaster and the thrill of a motorcycle on the open road.”

The American Heritage Center and Art Museum at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Image credit Timothy Hursley.

Moving forward into his first decades, he wrote, “Twenty years into my practice, the Rome Prize allowed me to study as a Fellow at the American Academy, extracted from my everyday life and immersed in a new (old) world, amid the strata, where the man-made dissolves through time into a geological blur, where natural landscapes have had order imposed upon them that is subtle and extraordinary, and an ancient presence is always haunting. The deepest, most lasting thing I brought away was a vision of a kind of time travel. In Rome I found myself exposed, physically and conceptually, to the process of excavation. Ushered into the basement of an apartment building, I discovered the subterranean water of the Tiber flowing over gigantic stones with Latin inscriptions on them. It was the great Sundial Field of Augustus of which the gnomon, the sundial pointer, was an Egyptian obelisk, now in the Piazza Montecitorio. Shuffling through the accretions, I experienced the collapse of time and timelessness so vividly—like a sci-fi movie.

The Nelson Fire Arts Center at Arizona State University in Tempe. Image credit Timothy Hursley.

“This Roman blurring of geology, landscape, and building has had a profound effect on my approach to architecture and has propelled me to seek the spirit of those layers, to delve into and explore the accreted deep time of every site—even where not so obviously present as in Rome. This curiosity and desire to be immersed in the essence of site continues to be at the heart of my process. With a primitive video camera, I made a piece on Rome—nonstop, Andy Warhol/Blair Witchesque footage. Anywhere I’d go, I’d take my camera, pastels, and brush pen. I had a mixed-media, complete immersion experience. With daily practice drawing, I learned to trust in the innocence of an encounter and the translation of that encounter into an innocent mark. Capturing essences of this surreal landscape through pastel on paper and through time slices on video, I was able to grasp, within two dimensions, the truth of four dimensions.” We are barely scraping the surface of this fascinating look into the creative world of this incredible artist and we highly recommend the Antoine Predock book to anyone who reveres the built world.

Predock’s website points out he is already “on to his next ride…”

The banner image is of the Gateway Arrival Building/Arts Center in Chengdu, China, by Antoine Predock. The editors of Design Diary received a free copy of this book, though this in no way influenced our opinions expressed here. You can buy the book on bookshop.org or on Amazon.

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Amy Flurry, author of the Recipe for Press books and co-founder of Aloka Home.

We’ve known Amy Flurry for a number of years, and we’ve always been impressed with her vision and her ability to strategize. We’re now celebrating her entrée into the world of textiles with the launch of a new business Aloka Home—an endeavor she says she owes to her business partners Ashu and Monik Ladha. Before we share how this effort crystalized, we’ll give a bit of a backgrounder on this dynamic businesswoman and artisan. The twenty-teens was a busy decade for Amy, as she co-founded Paper-Cut-Project with Nikki Nye in 2010, the effort a collaboration based on the transformation of simple sheets of paper into dramatic silhouettes that fascinated us when we saw them. The duo garnered commissions from several of the world’s top fashion houses, which included Hermès, Cartier, Kate Spade, and Valentino. They created a series for the famed Victoria & Albert Museum, and their artistry was featured in The New York Times, Selvedge, Numéro, and Italian Vogue.

Amy Flurry and Ashu Ladha, two of the co-founders of Aloka Home.

At this point, Amy had already been producing features and writing for top print and online publications for two decades. The editorial experience she had gleaned as a content creator propelled her to write Recipe for Press: Pitch Your Story and Create a Buzz, which she published in 2011. The interactivity this book provided her as she spoke to interested individuals about how to enhance their brands through publicity resulted in a second book, Recipe for Press: Designer Edition, which made a splash when it debuted. “For over a decade, I assisted interior design firms, designer showrooms, and manufacturers in positioning their companies through strategic communications planning and implementation,” Amy told us. “In 2018, I published the second book geared toward designers, which gave them the tools they needed to take advantage of press opportunities. In working so closely with mid-sized companies and putting together teams to articulate the vision, I gained exposure and deep learning about many aspects of these businesses.”

The Launch of Aloka Home

You can feel the suppleness of this quilt just by looking at it draped around the human form.

This understanding prepared her for her role in directing certain aspects of a company in the home furnishings field. “It was clear that communications and commerce were becoming more closely intertwined and so it was natural to be in the development stages of range-building,” she said. “I particularly loved product development and, increasingly, where this connected to branding.” Fast forward a decade and Aloka Home debuted in 2020 during High Point Market. “I have my current partner Ashu Ladha to thank for inviting me to be a part of this project,” Amy said of her participation in co-founding the brand that is committed to creating arrestingly beautiful, well-designed products for the home. The quilts the company sells are made from layers of saris that were originally hand-stitched some sixty-to-eighty years ago in India. These are hand-picked, one at a time, for their material integrity and design. The Aloka team then shampoos, softens, and dies the vintage pieces in India before they are turned into quilts or sent to the Aloka Home studio in Atlanta to be turned into pillows and custom cushions. The artists and textile aficionados who create the products embrace the beauty of the quilts “as-is,” and feel passionate about reenergizing them with custom and natural overdyes.

Pillows created by rescued vintage textiles, which are given new life by the Aloka Home team.

They are so serious about preservation, they treasure the smallest remnant they find, a point-of-view they see as expressing their care for handicrafts and the planet. We asked Amy what steered her toward creating a bespoke brand. “The opportunity came about sweetly,” she told us. “Ashu and his son, Monik, were visiting family in their cultural home of India. On one of these visits, they came upon a particular sort of hand-stitched vintage quilt, weighted blankets made of layers of saris with gorgeous, time-worn patinas. Ashu shared the pieces with me and asked if I would like to join them in creating something new for the home, made from these beautiful old pieces! He saw these quilts as a unique material, one we could organize and apply our own creative techniques to. That absolutely appealed to me, and the three of us started Aloka in mid-2019.”  We asked if she had always been interested in/passionate about textiles. “I have!” she exclaimed. “In my travels and time spent living abroad, I always sought out antique textiles. These were the souvenirs I chose to bring home and then I would refashion them in some way.”

The warmth of the products created by Aloka Home is evident in this image.

Amy added, “There was also a time when my children were little—they’re in their early 20’s now—when I made soft accessories for kids out of vintage fabrics, and I even sold these at a few markets.” The effort Amy is undertaking with Aloka Home is a much heavier lift, as the company’s team has already sorted through thousands of quilts. “We only buy a few hundred out of that many,” she said; “and that’s just the first step of ten or more that we undertake as we refresh them to make them an Aloka product.” We asked her how the endeavor has enhanced her life beyond being her new business model. “Aloka requires that I apply my understanding of creative storytelling to sales, and that is key because it keeps us focused on creating a sustainable business,” she answered. “And this has expanded my community—our buyers in the business are amazing, interesting people, as is our team in India.”

The vintage aspects of the fabrics Aloka Home sources make the company’s textiles unique.

The aesthetics of the brand is a bonus for Amy, who noted, “It is also a business that fills every day with beauty, like heart-stopping beauty. And then that beauty extends to the home where I set my table with Aloka Home placemats or curl up under an Aloka quilt and watch a movie. There are few things that are not made better when they are covered in Aloka.” We asked Amy if there was anything she would like Design Diary readers to know about her or about this new venture. She said, “Our customers often become collectors. They fall in love with the feel (our signature is the softness) and the evidence of the hand in these pieces. I simply want more people to fall in love with Aloka!” We are betting this will be happening in spades as these visionaries continue to infuse this brand with passion. You can follow Aloka Home on Instagram and can shop online for their products.

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Exposition Coloniale Internationale, 1931. Aerial perspective, with identification of the pavilions. Published by Blondel La Rougery.

Portraying historical landmarks and areas of artistic invention over a period of 31 years, and placing them within the context of political and cultural life as it evolved in Paris is no small feat. Cataloging the transformations that occurred during the period by way of their visionary creators is also a monumental task. Jean-Louis Cohen and Guillemette Morel Journel carried this labyrinthine cartography to an exemplary end in their book Paris Moderne, 1914-1945, recently published by Flammarion. Shown above is an aerial perspective of the 1931 Exposition Coloniale Internationale, which was staged in Paris for six months to display the creative output of the cultures that coalesced into the French Colonial Empire.

Paris Moderne

Cover of the book Paris Moderne, 1914-1945, published in 2023 by Flammarion.

About their book, the authors say, “It would be overly ambitions for a single volume to address the infinite complexity of so many transformations in Parisian society. This mosaic attempts to sketch the outlines of a vast human adventure. We hope it will inspired readers to embark on their own exploration of the panoramic creative landscape that Paris formed between the years of 1914 and 1945.” The book was originally planned as a resource guide to accompany the exhibition of the same name held in the summer of 2023 at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai. The mix of names presented alphabetically were giants in nearly every discipline—Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Arp, Josephine Baker, Brassaï, André Breton, Chanel, Marcel Duchamp, Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, Charlotte Perriand, Pablo Picasso, Jean Prouvé, Man Ray, and Gertrude Stein are but a few of the nearly 100 cultural behemoths featured. Before the ideals these figures espoused are presented, historical black-and-white images are intermingled with graphically rich posters of the 1930s.

A Jean Chassaing poster featuring a portrait of Josephine Baker from 1931, ©BNF.

Early on in the 352-page book, Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and other architects usher in modern buildings, the section dubbed the “Contemporary Promenade.” Then the alphabetical profiles take the readers on a romp through time. Describing Josephine Baker, the authors say, “With close ties to writers of the Harlem Renaissance, who were met with a cordial welcome in Paris, she was the darling of artists such as Fernand Léger and a favorite of the audiences of musical reviews at the Folies-Bergère and Casino de Paris.” Two modern architects designed homes for Baker—Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier. The latter met her in 1929 aboard the ocean liner Giulio Cesare as it carried them from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro.

The cover of Brassaï’s biography of Henry Miller with his portrait of the novelist on it.

Still only in the B’s, readers will find Gyula Halász, who adopted the pseudonym Brassaï after he arrived on the Paris scene. He made a name for himself in journalism until he turned to silver-print photography. The twin talents coalesced for me when I plumbed the life of Henry Miller for an essay and found Brassaï’s biography and portrait of the novelist, the cover of which—with Brassaï’s portrait on it, is shown above. When Brassaï first turned to photography, he concentrated on Paris at night when the moon and gas lamps gleamed on the surfaces of wet pavement. Later on, he turned to fashion photography, shooting portraits of some of the cult figures of the era, such as Miller, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jean Genet, and Henri Michaux.

A model wearing a Chanel gown on the staircase in her haute couture salon in 1927. Photo by François Kollar, © Ministère de la Culture, Médiathèque de I’Évangile.

The above image of a model on the staircase of Chanel’s haute couture salon on rue Cambon in 1927 is as iconic as the address. Before Chanel set up shop on the avenue, Henry James lived there during a year he spent in Paris when it was known as rue de Luxembourg. The street welcomed Coco, as Chanel was known, in 1910. “Chanel was her own muse, flaunting her liberated creativity,” the authors of the Paris Moderne say. “A tireless designer, she always preferred to eliminate rather than to add; this principle of austerity contrasted with her love of a profusion of flamboyant costume jewelry.” Citing her “little black dress” that appeared in American Vogue in 1926, they write, “Chanel expressed her brilliance as a couturier through extreme sophistication and simplified lines.”

The French socialite Yola Letellier, photographed by the Séeberger Brothers at the Auteuil racecourse in a Chanel suit. Image ©BNF.

Also in 1927, the French socialite Yola Letellier was photographed by the Séeberger Brothers at the Auteuil racecourse in a Chanel suit (shown above). Haute couture had been thriving in Paris for seventy years by this point and department stores were revving up to take it to the masses. “While fashion radically altered women’s style, it also changed status in the 1920s,” the book’s authors note. “Couturiers were no longer mere suppliers, as Chanel aptly demonstrated, they were now counted among the sophisticated elite that dictated style to fashionable Paris.”

Illuminated signs and decorations on the Moulin-Rouge, Boulevard de Clichy, c. 1930. Autochrome plate. Photograph by Léon Gimpel.

A survey of the development of graphic design includes this summation by the authors: “The Moulin-Rouge and other Montmartre cabarets were not alone in benefiting from the expansion of advertising signs. In 1928, the fourth issue of the magazine Arts et Métiers graphiques printed an article arguing that advertising’s use of light was the only real change to the face of Paris, despite all the destruction, construction, and other profound urban upheavals it had undergone over the course of the preceding years.” The above image of the Moulin-Rouge exemplifies how dramatically lit façades changed the cityscape of Paris.

Design for a “robe à succès” (success dress). Page from Vogue, 1924. Image ©BNF.

As they look at the career of Jacques Doucet, a scion of a long line of lingerie makers first established in Paris in 1816, the authors of Paris Moderne point out, “International high-society socialites and actresses alike admired his airy tea gowns, negligees, and diaphanous mousseline dresses.” Doucet made a fortune in fashion and then turned to collecting. “Doucet was one of the instigators of the art deco style,” the authors note. “His apartment was decorated by Paul Iribe, Pierre Legrain, Rose Adler, and Eileen Gray.”

Buy the Book

If you’re a culture vulture, we highly recommend this colorful survey of all things Parisian. If you buy the book on bookshop.org, you will be helping independent bookstores around the country. The editors of Design Diary received a free copy of this book, though this in no way influenced our opinions expressed here.

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Light plays off the walls and upholstery of this ethereal space featured in “Creative Interior Solutions.” Image courtesy the designer.

In an effusive foreword to the new Vicente Wolf book Creative Interior Solutions, published by Rizzoli, Marianne Williamson takes readers on an odyssey that began when she was smitten by a bed the author spotted. “And there I saw it,” she wrote. “‘That’s the most beautiful bed I’ve ever seen,’ I said to my friend. It was a tufted sleigh bed with lines that were so stunning I felt I was looking at a piece of art.” Her friend, who was also an interior designer, said, “That’s a Vicente Wolf,” and Williamson knew she had to have the beautiful piece of furniture by the interior designer. “I loved that bed so much that I had a habit of looking at it, stroking the headboard, and saying, ‘Ah, my Vicente Wolf!’”

Vicente Wolf on Creative Interior Solutions

The cover of “Creative Interior Solutions,” published by Rizzoli USA.

Williamson had just had the exquisite experience of having Oprah Winfrey rave about her book A Return to Love, which enabled her to afford such a luxurious bed. Flash forward a number of years later and Williamson was seated next to Wolf at a book fair, in disbelief that she was actually face-to-face with her bed’s creator. Several years later, she tapped the interior designer to transform her apartment and when she returned from exile while the installation was being put in place, she couldn’t believe her eyes: “The new space was one of beauty and uplift—beyond anything I could have imagined or created myself.” That pretty much says it all for the effect Wolf’s spaces have on his clients!

Vicente Wolf, an AD100 interior designer and author of “Creative Interior Solutions.” Image by Julien Capmeil.

Margaret Russell, former editor-in-chief extraordinaire, wrote the text that illuminates the stories told through the photographs of each of the spaces. She captures Wolf’s point of view eloquently. In the introduction, he shares, “The past that led to my life as an interior designer started in Havana, where I was born and lived with my family until 1961, when my parents and I left Cuba for America; I was 15 years old.” His design genes came to him honestly, as his parents, who ran a construction-related business, introduced him to building sites and architectural meetings when he was young. As a dyslexic boy, he describes himself as “extremely visual,” and fascinated by the color and composition and light and shadow that surrounded him.

Soft contemporary seating is combined with vintage furniture and artifacts in this eclectic space. Image courtesy the designer.

This certainly shows when flipping through the visuals of his interiors in the book. In the chapter “Design Evolutions,” he illustrates how essential design is to those who live in a home—it “is more than a superficial art—it’s a necessity.” Sections of the chapter include “Space to Breathe,” “A Fresh Start,” and “Bright Outlook,” each preview of a client’s home interspersed with “Design Lessons.” The list of these includes, “When you start a project, make a list of the positive and negative aspects of the space—sometimes, just correcting the negatives can produce the most satisfying result.” Another says, “Transform a long hallway into a vista, with a sightline that ends at a striking artwork displayed on the far wall.”

Vintage pieces pop up frequently in spaces designed by Vicente Wolf, who is fearless at combining periods and styles. Image courtesy the designer.

In the chapter “Design Challenges,” Vicente Wolf declares, “Maybe it’s my strong survival instinct, but I love a good challenge.” The spaces bringing this segment to life illustrate the concepts of “The Dreaming Room,” “Friendly Persuasion,” “Sunshine State,” and “From Basic to Bespoke.” In the “Design Integrations” chapter, Wolf speaks to the differences in working with art-collector clients, which he says presents both a delightful opportunity and a challenge, the latter finding the right balance between supporting a collection without creating a distraction. One of our favorite spaces is included in this chapter of the book—a gallery space in which gorgeous black-and-white photography hangs on warm expanses of raw brick walls.

A number of the interiors featured in “Creative Interior Solutions” were created around collections of fine art. Image courtesy the designer.

The “Design Reinventions” chapter illustrates his passion for renovations and how fearless he is when he has the opportunity to transform interiors: “Never one to linger on the depressing specifics of a total gut job,” he notes, “I prefer the brilliant promise that a floor plan, a pencil, and a piece of tracing paper can provide, as the possibilities are endless.” Among the “Design Lessons” in this chapter are, “Hanging an overscale chandelier over a round table that floats in a room will give it presence and create a sense of space even without walls”; and “Unify disparate spaces with curtains and shades in the same fabric, and floors and carpets in a similar hue.”

Vicente Wolf is masterful at taking a finite number of colors and making them sing. Image courtesy the designer.

The final chapter in the book is titled “Design Freedom,” which features Wolf’s own apartment. In the intro, he declares, “I don’t believe in the adage, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Nearly anything found in my Manhattan loft would fit into one of my design jobs and vice versa, though there are certainly more layers of objects in place here.” He says his apartment reflects an instinctual approach to design. “I have no fear of mixing style, color, period, or provenance,” he adds. “There are pieces that are cutting-edge, and others that are vintage or even ancient, but in this industrial-loft environment, they all look like they belong.”

A nod to his flair for eclectic thinking is this living space with classical furniture punctuated by a mid-century-modern chair. Image courtesy the designer.

About the fact that his spaces are living, breathing creations, he notes, “Furniture, art, and accessories may come and go, but these are pieces I will always treasure, elements that forge the emotional connection that makes this place my home.” In his “Design Lessons” in this chapter, he advises, “Every few months, take a fresh eye to your interiors: if something has been in the same place for too long—whether it’s a piece of furniture or art—you stop seeing it.” He also points out, “An exotic orchid is like poetry—or music—in a quiet interior, and topiaries can add a sense of architecture to a room; with their deep green color, they act as punctuation marks.”

Buy the Book

You can buy the book by Vicente Wolf book through Rizzoli or Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores throughout the U.S. Design Diary was given a review copy of this book but the fact in no way influenced the opinions of the editors.

The post Vicente Wolf Debuts New Book appeared first on adroyt.

The roof-top pool at Casa Yakuna, a project with interiors and furnishings by Susan Jamieson of Bridget Beari Designs.

Mexico seems to be on everyone’s mind at the moment so in this third post about the country where lushness abounds, we travel to Tulum with Susan Jamieson of Bridget Beari Designs, who completed this retreat, Casa Yakuna, for a client in the heart of the Sian K’aan jungle. The home sits on the oceanfront and the property is edged by a lagoon, the nature surrounding it requiring the special skills of designing in Mexico with an indoor/outdoor feel. This was a new-construction project replete with a roof-top pool and spectacular views. Being a traveling designer and working on properties in other countries and cities is one of this design firm’s specialties, and it shows.

The outdoor spaces surrounding the interiors of Casa Yakuna illustrate the rigor demanded by designing in Mexico with its indoor/outdoor lifestyle.

Not only is the home beautiful, it was designed to be eco-friendly with its own septic system and windmill. Jamieson ensured that the design and the selection of the furnishings reflected the aesthetic sensibilities for a client who wanted a green lifestyle. Handmade items like the carved front door, mahogany tub, and concrete sofa base were as important as sourcing green fabrics and indoor/outdoor furniture that would weather an open-air concept. We asked Susan to share with us her insight as she and her team put this rewarding project together.

Susan Jamieson on Designing in Mexico

Richmond, Virginia-based interior designer Susan Jamieson.

DD: When you designed the Tulum project, did you take any particular approach that was specific to Mexico?

SJ: The region that the house is built in is called the Sian K’aan biosphere reserve that sits between the ocean and the lagoon. This is just south of the beach town of Tulum. There were strict environmental regulations on materials that could be used. The house also had to have its own water well, septic system, and windmill for power. In terms of the interior, we used local craftsmen to create light fixtures, cabinetry, a handmade mahogany tub, a carved front door, as well as the palapa roof, which is a typical Mexican thatch-roof technique that is made from dried palm fronds.

The living room of Casa Yakuna designed by Susan Jamieson of Bridget Beari Designs.

DD: Did you visit the home/locale before you began designing the project? If so, what vibe did you pick up on that made it into your designing in Mexico schematic?

SJ: Yes, I worked directly with the architect who was from Cancun. The property was covered with jungle when we started. The client wanted the house to fit into the region so the classic palapa roof was designed for the main living area. All the materials for the construction of the main house were in keeping the local building styles and techniques. The focus of my design direction was to provide a unique indoor/outdoor resort living experience with materials that could withstand the direct ocean air and salt. I think the combination of the Mexican Architect, Italian contractor, Mayan and Mexican workers, and the American designer created a unique combination of ideas and designs.

A spot on the outdoor terrace illustrates how beautiful designing in Mexico can be when the lifestyle is relaxed.

DD: The wood-tones in each space—the dining table on the terrace, daybeds and dining table/chairs on the patio, cocktail table and hewn chairs in the living room, and the incredible bathtub, for example—bring serious warmth to the home. Were these chosen to reflect the lush landscape surrounding the home?

SJ: Wood pieces were chosen to bring a more handcrafted feeling to the home. The outdoor table and the tub were handmade but the chairs and coffee table in the living room were items I brought over from the states from Teracea and Tucker Robbins—still handcrafted but not local. The construction of the house was very eco-friendly so I was determined to create that same vibe in the interior.

The dining room of Casa Yakuna, designed by Susan Jamieson of Bridget Beari Designs.

DD: To contrast these, there are pale elements such as the stucco surfaces on the exterior walls, the dining terrace, the dining room chandelier, the shimmering tile in the powder room niche, and the crisp hues on the walls in the living room. Tell us about why you thought this was important for designing in Mexico.

SJ: The concrete floors, sofa, and the stucco walls were typical of the construction techniques in Mexico. The base of all the rooms was the concrete; then I added color and texture with fabrics, tiles, and unique finds like the coral chandelier from Lepere that skews modern. As well as a retreat for my clients, this house is a luxury vacation rental for celebrities, so I was deliberate in having the interiors feel comfortable but with modern touches. This drove my choice of items like handmade tiles that had a slight silver coating for the powder room. The neutral wall color in the main living area was chosen because when you open all the doors and windows, you see the natural landscape all around. You really feel like you are in the jungle with the sound of the ocean waves in the background.

A guest bedroom at Casa Yakuna, designed by Susan Jamieson, has a textural installation that illustrates how woven materials bring interest to a space.

DD: Texture abounds in this project. Tell me about choices like the pebbly tile and stone in the bathroom with the orange mirrors, the installations behind the bedroom in black yarn, the thin tiles in the kitchen that give the wall a striated effect, and the dining table.

SJ: It was all about texture as this was a way to add interest to the rooms even though the wall colors were neutral. I loved creating focal points for each room behind the beds in different materials. The primary bedroom had bamboo sticks, guest room one has the stucco wave wall, and guest room two has a coconut paneled wall. Using natural materials was the best way to ensure the durability as the ocean air and salt is hard on all metals and fabrics. The tile choices were dictated by the marble selections we found in Cancun. I did ship some mosaic tiles to Mexico to go with the stunning blue Azul Macuba marble in the primary bath. The marble sinks for the powder room and the master bath were made in Mexico. The wave sinks in the guest bath were molded by local concrete craftsman. We really tried to use as many local artisans as possible.

A terrace at Casa Yakuna with furnishings chosen by Susan Jamieson of Bridget Beari Designs.

DD: Tell us about the abundance of blues and orange hues, and why you chose them.

SJ: Obviously, the blues and blue-greens were chosen for the beautiful ocean reference, but I did not want the house the feel cold. The warm woods, the palapa, the green landscape, and the mahogany decking played off the orange colors in the fabrics and light fixtures. The orange sunsets are gorgeous, so the touch of warm colors just adds to the glow at night. Even the pool tiles were chosen for their blue-green color that matches the ocean so perfectly.

The rooftop pool at Casa Yakuna illustrates how designing in Mexico inspires reflections of nature.

DD: With the doors thrown open, it must be a luscious experience to feel the tropical breezes. How did this play into your choice of materials for designing in Mexico?

SJ: The house is all about open-air living. The outdoor living space and the interior living space are almost one in the main area of the house. The bedrooms are more private and off to the sides of the main area. Everything that was chosen, from plumbing to fabrics, had to withstand the salt air as well as the heat. The pool is on the roof of the house above the kitchen and from there you can see the lagoon and the ocean. That is where the homeowners live and entertain.

The primary bedroom in Casa Yakun designed by Susan Jamieson of Bridget Beari Designs.

DD: What is your favorite thing about how this home turned out?

SJ: This house is so private that you feel you are in your own tropical paradise. It has such a causal and relaxed feel from the layout to the unique places to relax and enjoy the sun. It was a learning experience for me on eco-friendly design choices as well as working abroad. I am lucky enough to have visited the home several times as a guest, and I can say it is a true luxury experience and that I am very proud of the project. The feedback from guests has been amazing, even from some of the celebrities.

The mahogany bathtub in the primary bathroom was handcrafted in Mexico by artisans.

DD: Are you working on any other projects you’ll be designing in Mexico that we can share with Design Diary readers?

SJ: A visitor who stayed at Casa Yakunah is now building a house further down in the Yucatan Peninsula and has asked me to help with the interiors so it looks like we will be working in Mexico again soon.

A Mexico Mood

The indoor/outdoor lifestyle is a major factor when designing in Mexico.

We can’t wait to see the result of this new collaboration and we thank Susan for sharing her process with us, as it always fascinates us to delve into the creative way designers work on different projects. This is the last of our three posts exploring different aspects of Mexico that we see as a trend. We hope you’ve enjoyed them. If you missed the other two, our first post was about a vintage Mexican dress collection and our second was a review of a new monograph published by Mexican designer Gloria Cortina.

The post Designing in Mexico appeared first on adroyt.

A darkly beautiful bedroom designed by Gloria Cortina featured in her new book. Atwork by Edgar Degas. Photo © Thomas Loof

A new monograph on the work of internationally renowned Mexican interior and furniture designer Gloria Cortina has been released by Rizzoli that we find intriguing for two reasons. First, it furthers what we are seeing as a trend—a fascination with all things Mexico—and second, when we made our way through its pages, the thought came, “Something ancient lurks in this book’s pages.” We illustrate this book review with images of her interiors of residences from Cabo San Lucas to New York City and Colorado to her beloved Mexico City.

Gloria Cortina Explores Myth and Modernity

The book cover of Gloria Cortina: Interiors, Modernity & Myth, released by Rizzoli in Spring 2023.

The title of the book is Gloria Cortina: Interiors, Modernity & Myth, and it explores Cortina’s unique approach to design that is shaped by the visions of Mexican masters such as Diego Rivera and Luis Barragán. It also seeks to consolidate European and modernist influences with Mexico’s arts and crafts heritage. Her pieces featured in the book are realized with luxurious materials like tropical wood, stone, textured metal, and rich textiles, each sourced both locally and worldwide.

Mexican interior and furniture designer Gloria Cortina explores myth and modernity in her monograph.

Sean Kelly kicks off his foreword with this quote by Aristotle: “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”  Kelly then says, “The book you are holding in your hands is the first major monograph published on the work of Mexican designer, Gloria Cortina. In many respects it is a mirror, one that contains and reflects an overview of her diverse, culturally rich, and deep oeuvre.” He notes that there are references to Aztec symbols, such as feathers, mirrors, water, and reflections, each of which abound in her work. The supreme Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca has a presence in the book, as does the culture’s belief that mirrors are doorways to other worlds.

Powerful symbolism is a hallmark of Gloria Cortina’s work. Photo © Michael Calderwood

But, Kelly cautions, it is important to pay close attention to the quieter relationships she conjures: “the aura of the object, the conjunction and elision of disparate materials and, importantly, the space between things, the arena of Modernism and Minimalism.” The career of this distinguished designer spans architecture, interior design, sculptural objects, and furniture. Her work employs traditional Mexican techniques and materials, such as metalwork, lacquer, cochinilla, ziricote, and obsidian. Though these are time-honored, she reimagines them in ways those who came before her could not have done.

Texture abounds in the interiors designed by Gloria Cortina. Photo © Michael Calderwood

“In doing so,” writes Kelly, “she creates luxurious and seductive environments.” He adds, “Gloria Cortina’s work is her personal mirror, intuitive, elegant, understated, intelligent, and aesthetically refined. Patience, discipline, and restraint are deployed to create a unique body of work of great sophistication, power, and allure, which emotionally mines the past yet firmly orients us to the future.” In the pages that follow his deserved praise, an image that flows with filigrees of sand along a coastline, which are as delicately formed as layered lace, is enlivened by this excerpt from Popal Vuh, “This is the account of when all is still silent and placid. All is silent and calm. Hushed and empty is the womb of the sky.”

Geometric astuteness brings boldness to this space designed by Gloria Cortina. Photo ©Michael Calderwood

The Popal Vuh is a foundational sacred narrative of the ancient K’iche’ people of Mexico that was highly influential in Mayan mythology. The mottled metal of one of Cortina’s pieces of furniture segues to the stippled surfaces of Mayan ruins. Jay Merrick, who wrote the text for the rest of the book, declares, “Light and shadow are the most primal factors in architecture and interior design. They bring edges and surfaces and spaces to life. They create different kinds of atmosphere.” The great Louis Kahn is quoted as saying, “Silence to Light. Light to Silence, the threshold of their crossing is the Singularity, is Inspiration…is the Sanctuary of Art, is the Treasury of the Shadows.”

Included in this space is Cortina’s Brass Feathers N & S Cabinet, circa 2018. Photo © Michael Calderwood

Intermingled with images of Cortina’s design projects are studies of her products broken into chapters titled Reflection, Matter, Feather, Gesamtkunstwerk, and Constellation. In each, she pushes materials to reflect capricious and emotional personalities they would not have had without a visionary mind to guide them. Many of her products fall into the category of Collectible Design for this reason. Cortina leads a team of around fifty makers to achieve the character she is driven to demonstrate. Metals turn from gritty to gleaming, stone from densely veined to luminous, wood from finely grained to elaborately patterned. The entire book is a feast for the senses and we highly recommend it. The editors of Design Diary received a free copy of this book, though this in no way influenced our opinions expressed here. If you’d like to support Indy bookstores, you can buy the title on bookshop.org.

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Two of the vintage Mexican dresses in the Marjorie Skouras Collection, 24 of which will debut during High Point Market Month.

Our post today highlights a trend we’re seeing crop up lately—a fascination with all things Mexico. We’ll be featuring several posts dedicated to the trend during the next month that we believe will illuminate this. Today, we feature one designer whose passion for the Yucatan is an all-consuming one. As High Point Market gets underway today, her fashion will be in the mix in the Currey & Company showroom. Along with debuting an array of exciting new products by Marjorie Skouras, the manufacturer is featuring a selection of vintage dresses the designer has collected. These will be on view from the moment market opens on April 21^st until it closes on Wednesday, April 26^th. We at Design Diary wanted to give our readers who will be attending Market a heads up in case you weren’t aware of the event.

Marjorie Skouras in one of her bright and beautiful dresses, 24 of which we will be showcasing this market.

The exhibition is called La Vida es Bella: Mexican Modernist Textiles from The Marjorie Skouras Collection. Marjorie has collected over 200 textiles and we will be featuring 24 vintage Mexican dresses from the 1970s that she has handpicked for us. Marjorie’s interest in these fashion statements began when she bought a ruined 19^th-century colonial mansion in Merida, Mexico, in 2015. While the collection began simply as a passion for the pieces themselves, Marjorie became so enthralled, she began researching the dress makers/designers in order to understand their inspirations.

An image of the exhibition of the Marjorie Skouras collection of vintage Mexican dresses at the Museo del Arte Popular de Yucatan in Merida.

Marjorie found that the impetus for many of the designs sprang from Mexican art and culture during the 1960s and 1970s, and that they reflected the surrealist, modern, and pop art movements that were exploding during those decades. “My fascination for these dresses can actually be traced back to 1974 when we lived in Los Angeles,” she notes. “It was de rigueur at that time for those attending the eighth grade at the Westridge School for Girls to wear embroidered wedding dresses from Oaxaca with Sperry Topsiders; that is, if you were a cool girl!” And we all know that Marjorie was/is definitely a cool girl! “Fast forward to 2015, and as the owner of a ruined 19^th-century colonial mansion in Merida, Yucatan, which was my life’s dream (or so I thought…), I decided that I should have a wardrobe to complement my new lifestyle,” she adds.

The invitation for the exhibition of Marjorie Skouras’ vintage Mexican dresses at the Museo del Arte Popular de Yucatan in Merida.

This desire inspired Marjorie to begin looking for the vintage Mexican dresses and her excitement grew as she began finding exquisite specimens. “After buying about 15 of them, I realized there was an element to which I was drawn in the pieces by several designers—this is where the surrealist, modern, and pop art movements come into play because their patterns reflected these dynamic developments made by the artists involved in those movements,” she remembers. “Once I realized this, I narrowed my search in order to concentrate on the dresses with the certain motifs that brought them that particular style.”

Marjorie Skouras posing with a number of her vintage dresses on view at the Museo del Arte Popular de Yucatan.

Something else organic happened as she found more specimens. “As I continued to research the makers, Mexican culture, and the art that was burgeoning during the 1960s and 1970s, the focus of the collection was created,” she says. “I never imagined that it would be of interest to museums, but 50 of the dresses I own have been tapped by the Museo del Arte Popular de Yucatan in Merida to be shown there, and will then travel to Mexico City and other places around the world.” The title of the exhibition is “Transpositions: Popular Art Reinterpreted, Mexican Fashions of the 1960s and 1970s,” and it is Marjorie’s hope that it will capture the attention of book publishers.

Currey & Company will feature Marjorie Skouras’ vintage dresses during High Point Market Month.

“Serendipity, or more likely another manifestation of the magical surrealism of everyday life in Mexico, is at work here,” she adds. “There are many designs in several mediums percolating, which will be based on elements from the collection.” If you’d like to see the exhibition in person, stop by the Currey & Company showroom in the IHFC at M110 on Main Street. You can find Marjorie Skouras online on her website.

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Nothing is more sacred than sleep and the greater the sumptuousness to the bedding, the more rewarding the experience of resting will be. Case in point are the incredible products by Bella Notte Linens, particularly their silk velvet offerings that we are highlighting today. Not only do they live up to the sensual quality everyone’s skin craves, they are strikingly beautiful to the eye.  

Bella Notte Makes Dreams Come True

In case you haven’t heard of this brand, there is an even deeper reason to respect the point of view the company maintains. The message is clear, as they proclaim, “Luxury goes beyond design. We responsibly source the finest quality materials from all over the world, applying low-impact dyes and finishes. By creating consciously made home textiles, we are stewards of the planet, the people who make our products, and the families who sleep in them.”

Bella Notte describes their aesthetic as elegant and bohemian with a dash of modern romanticism thrown in for good measure. Philosophically, they aspire to inspire by producing sartorial offerings just as couture fashion houses do. They can afford to do so because they have such a hands-on approach. They explain, “Since 1996, we have been dedicated to local, small batch manufacturing using the finest globally sourced materials. Each of our pieces is exquisitely crafted by the hands of master sewers, and garment dyed to order in an artisanal dye house with our harmonious, hand-mixed color palette.”

This means that every Bella Notte product is one-of-a-kind due to the tonal variations resulting from their unique dye process. They see their products as “livable, washable luxury,” as even the silks and velvets can skip the dry cleaning and the harsh chemicals that come with it. Their linens become softer as time passes so the experience of sliding into them when the long days are done become more delicious over time. We at Design Diary love how these products become heirlooms due to the strength of the weaves and the meticulous way they are constructed—a waste-less approach we wish more companies could achieve. 

Silk Velvets by Bella Notte

Within the Silk Velvet Collection are Carmen blankets and throw pillows; Loulah blankets and throw pillows, which have wonderful raw edges; Lynette embroidery-on-silk blankets and throw pillows; and Silk-Velvet Quilted blankets and throw pillows. You can see from the images we are featuring in this post that these products are sumptuous and soulful. We hope you’ve enjoyed the dreamy nod to this heartfelt company!

We featured Bella Notte’s products in this other post in case you want to see more of the company’s offerings. We are seriously big fans!

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