FINALLY! Bunny Mellon Style is here.

I am pleased to announce the book so many of us have been waiting on has arrived: Bunny Mellon Style by Linda Jane Holden, Thomas Lloyd, and Bryan Huffman with forward by Tory Burch. Just in time for gift season with a drop date of December 7, 2021 from publisher Gibbs Smith,  this book finally shares with us the personal homes of style icon, Bunny Mellon.  

While books released in the past few years have been great, they left me wanting more, even the stunning Sothebys auction catalogs. This book answers that need. I remember thinking "Wait, what about their Paris apartment?" -now there is a chapter and personal photos devoted to the spaces.  

The book is an intimate look at Bunny told by those who knew her best. Through interviews and letters you get a look inside her family homes as well as her closet.  Above, Bunny is in her Sunday kitchen at Oak Spring in a photo by her grandson, Thomas Lloyd.  The perfect painted floor and white kitchen!

We all have become acquainted with Bunny's gardens through previous books and while briefly discussed in this book, it focuses more on the houses and collections themselves. 

I love this shot from Thomas Lloyd of Bunny giving a tour of her Basket House (now part of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation). 

A close up shot of the sink in her famous garden room by designer Bryan Huffman gives a close up look of the trompe l'oeil work of artist Fernand Renard. 

One of the many personal photographs from Thomas Lloyd of Bunny at home at Oak Spring Farm above. Tory Burch, now a style-setter herself,  writes a fascinating foreword about what she's learned about style from Bunny as the now owner and steward of the Mellon's Antiqua estate.  See more about that from Vogue in 2018 HERE. 

I cannot stress how much I enjoyed this book, I nickname it the Bunny Bible!  With everything you could possibly want to know about her secrets on home and entertaining, Bunny Mellon Style is truly the gift of the season and a must for any design library. Pre-order your copy today!

Cover image courtesy Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.  Used with permission of Isabelle Rey.  All other images from the book by Thomas Lloyd with the exception of  the image of the garden room by Bryan Huffman, and the Antiqua garden structure by Daniel Sutherland.  

Thomas Proctor: Classical Houses book signing this week!

 

Live events are back! This Thursday, 9/23/2021, the WMA_ICAA is hosting Thomas Proctor from Los Angeles for the release of his new book: Thomas Proctor, Classical Houses from Rizzoli.  

Copies of the book will be available for sale from Politics and Prose.   Proctor will be signing them following a brief presentation and refreshments will be served. Given the central location stop by for a drink and a copy of Proctor's excellent new book prior to dinner out on the town! 

Tickets for this FREE event are available HERE -hope to see you there! 

Many thanks to Compass Realty for hosting this event!

The Villa Kerylos and the 'Villa of Delirium' by Adrien Goetz

The Cote D'Azur conjures up all sorts of romantic images, and one of the most romantic (and intellectual) houses dotting the coast is the Villa Kerylos. 

By christophe recoura - http://www.villa-kerylos.com/, CC BY-SA 3.0

Kerylos was the brainchild of wealthy archaeologist Theodore Reinach and designed for him in 1902 by architect Emmanuel Pontremoli, a prominent professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.  Designed as an updated ancient Greek palace, the house was complete with ancient looking frescoes and modern conveniences disguised behind antique forms. As most readers of this blog know all about the Villa Kerylos already I'll leave it at that.

 By Christophe Recoura - http://www.villa-kerylos.com/, CC BY-SA 3.0
A wonderful new book, 'Villa of Delirium',  has just been translated into English from the original French by award winning author (and member of the prestigious Institut de France)  Adrien Goetz,  and is soon to be released by New Vessel Press.  Historical fiction, the book traces the building and history of the villa through the eyes of a favored servant.  The novel really brings the house and early 20th century history alive with a few salacious details.

 By culturespaces/christophe Recoura - http://www.villa-kerylos.com/, CC BY-SA 3.0
The New Vessel Press offers a lot of translated European fiction and is a publisher to check out for sure.  This book will be released May 5, 2020 and information about it on their website HERE.

 Courtesy Abxbay - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

I've never been to the Villa Kerylos (or even to the French Riviera for that matter) but this book transported me there in a way beyond any pictures I've ever seen of the house.  I found myself constantly googling to see if items in the book were true or fiction (most were true!). Check out this book (and author!) for yourself is my highest recommendation. 

Courtesy  Hélène Grenier - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

All images from Wikipedia article on the Villa Kerylos

The Parisians: Tastemakers at Home

As I prepare for my trip to Paris next week, I'm salivating over the houses featured in Catherine Synave's new book: The Parisians: Tastemakers at Home .  Parisians are known the world over for their incredible style and this book steps into the homes of leading French tastemakers to inspire us. 

While the weather next week may be closer to winter, the summer scene above in dealer Alain Demarchy's garden is enchanting. Demarchy was the well known owner of the Camoin Demachy Gallery on the Quai Voltaire and lived above the shop until retiring and selling off the contents of the shop in a sale at Christies (seen here).  He relocated to a charming new apartment which houses all of the treasures he could not bear to part with at auction. 

Dealer Patrick Perrin suffers from the same affliction as me; compulsive art purchasing. His envy-enducing gallery walls display his collection which I'm sure are heavily padded from his shopping at the antique fairs he plans: the Salon du Dessin.  This apartment is actually the family home above his grandfather's shop along the boulevard Saint-Germain which was purchased by his family generations ago. What a charmed life to live in one amazing place your entire life, surrounded by the things you love.

Fashion designer Gilles Dufour's varied collections all find a home in his apartment. This is one not to miss; dial chic hoarders anonymous!

Designer Pierre Yovanovitch is on the opposite side of the spectrum and his work is all about restraint: but not boredom!  His work always includes a few decorative focal points against a quiet background.

Conductor Marc Minkowski refers to his apartment as a 'chic junk shop' with treasures he has picked up around the world on his travels. Emphasis on Chic as I don't see the junk!

Check out The Parisians, Tastemakers at Home for more on these and much more inspiration!

'The Parisians: Tastemakers at Home' by Catherine Synave, Flammarion, 2019.  Images by Guillaume de Laubier

MGM Style - Cedric Gibbons and the art of the golden age of Hollywood

 As long time readers of this blog may remember, I'm a huge fan of movies, particularly classics. A large part of that fascination may be for the sets and the most famous set designer is, of course, Cedric Gibbons. Of the many exciting books out this fall, one looks into his life and work, MGM Style, by Howard Gutner.

Filled with beautiful photography, a lot are of movies I've never heard of.  Not only was Gibbon's career prolific it was long-lived.  Even movies where he isn't listed as designer he was still the head creative director of all MGM pictures.  While he's primarily known for movies from the 30s & 40s, he was working until shortly before his death in 1960.

While MGM promoted him as a son of architects and a trained architect himself, this glossy version was far from the truth. Despite a lack of education he went on to have one of the most influential design careers of the 20th century. Gibbons even designed the Academy Award's Oscar statuette in 1928 (as well as his own notorious house)!

When one thinks of art deco, one immediately thinks of the movies and sets such as these; a look defined by Gibbons.

Remember Crystal's bathtub in 1939's 'The Women'? Gibbons!

Above is the aforementioned house Gibbons designed for his glamorous wife, Dolores Del Rio. You may remember the house from Architectural Digest where it was recently featured after an extensive renovation. Read the story HERE.

I was very excited to receive my copy of this book, a must for any design library of both film buffs and early 20th century design!
All images courtesy Lyons Press

Dior and his Decorators - a must have for any design library!

To this day Christian Dior's name is associated with all that is elegant despite his passing 61 years ago. The post-war period in which he was most active is personally one of my favorite times to study as the output of the western world's artists was at a creative peak (similarly the same could be said of the inter-war period).

Historian Maureen Footer has just released the book I have always wanted to read and it does not disappoint, Dior and his Decorators: Victor Grandpierre, Georges Geffroy, and the New Look.  While Dior may be a household name the artists working behind him, inspiring him, and sometimes providing him with his eponymous look aren't as well known.

 As a reader of this blog you are probably already familiar with Ms Footer's previous book, George Stacey and the Creation of American Chic (also a must have!), and this book picks up where that left off by delving into the most chic interiors of the 20th century.

On a side note, have you seen Ms. Footer's apartment recently published in Veranda Magazine September / October 2018 issue?  One of my favorite spaces to see published lately, Veranda is killing it; resubscribe one and all!

The book explores Dior's relationship with Victor Grandpierre and Georges Geffroy.  These two designers created a sophisticated Parisian style for the mid-century which was not modern but rather an updated neoclassical French style based on the 18th century. Roots in this work can be seen in the most sought-after designers today such as Michael Smith.

Dior had these gentleman design not only his own homes but also his shops, advertising, packaging, and even his logo!  We can credit Grandpierre with developing 'Dior grey' used with pale pink accents, white mouldings, and Louis XVI style furniture.

The book also explores the work of these designers elsewhere and in their own Paris apartments - not to be missed!

One will recognize the bold-faced names that float through the book and leave you wanting more- Yves Saint Laurent, Gloria Guinness, Daisy Fellowes, the Baron de Rede and even Maria Callas - perhaps a 2nd volume? I'm anxiously awaiting Footer's next work.

While this fascinating book is chock full of information it reads conversationally and not like a boring textbook. You'll definitely want to spend time pouring through this book and not just look at the pictures unlike some recent 'design books'. This one is a keeper, bravo Maureen Footer and the Vendome Press!

Images in this post are courtesy of Vendome Press, not my own, and are not to be used without permission.

Making LA Modern: Craig Ellwood architect

While I rarely feature modern design here at ArchitectDesign that does not mean I don't have an appreciation for the style. Rather I think as in anything, quality matters, and so much of what you see that passes as 'modern' is just poor and lazy design.

However there are modern architects whose work makes my heart swoon: one of these is mid-century LA architect Craig Ellwood.  Ellwood took the formal modernism of Mies van der Rohe (another architect I greatly admire) and added some California casualness.

Next month (April 2018) Rizzoli is releasing a new book on this modern master entitled Making L.A. Modern: Craig Ellwood - Myth - Man - Designer by Michael Boyd with stunning photography by Richard Powers seen here in this post.

Modernism is rooted in details and that is what so often breaks a design for me.  These houses built by Ellwood in the 50s and 60s have all of the warmth of more traditional architecture and all of the detailing of grand classical architecture; you want to spend time in these spaces.

Ellwood was a great self-promoter; had he been practicing today I'm sure he would be an instagram darling.  He was larger than life and no book about him would be complete without the juicy details!

I think we all have a few things to learn from this purist perfectionist and luckily this book can help!

All photography by Richard Powers - Making L.A. Modern: Craig Ellwood was edited by Michael Boyd, Rizzoli New Yori, 2018. Images may not be reproduced in any way, published, or transmitted digitally, without written permission from the publisher. 

Architecture Inside-Out: Understanding how buildings work

Rizzoli is releasing a book later this month perfect for any serious architecture lover, Architecture Inside-Out: Understanding how building work.  The author John Zukowsky and illustrator Rob Polley take a look at 50 famous structures in detail including amazing axonometric drawings showing how they were constructed.

Both ancient and modern buildings are included which gets really interesting when you contrast construction techniques.

Did you know most of your favorite domed buildings are actually double domes? The dome you see inside is generally not the same shape as the dome seen on the exterior, like seen here at the Taj Mahal.

As I said modern structures are included as well such as German's rebuilt Reichstag with its modern dome.

I think the drawings convey so much more than the photographs.

Architecture Inside-Out: Understanding how building work is perfect for readers of any age: aspiring architects, history buffs, and even professionals will all gain something from this book I promise!