Emerald green

2013 is coming and the Pantone color of the year will be Emerald green: who does not like the hue of this precious gem!  Sophisticated and intense colors for the above beautiful geometric pattern printed on silk by Dedar Milano.

A faded green for the boiserie and the antique vase, image found on Pinterest.

A fun kitchen for House Beautiful magazine.

An emerald green urn and stool in an interior photographed by Eric d'Hérouville.

Lavish curtains.

Studio Peregalli’s antique sofa upholstered in green silk.

David Flint Wood design includes a vivid green leather chair.

Style at Home magazine

Stunning library found on Pinterest

We should have at least an emerald green dress.

Hutton Wilkinson design on Harper’s Bazaar.

A vignette including textile as art.

I wish I can show you a collection of emerald rings and necklaces…but…my ever growing collection of 1950’s elves includes an emerald green one.

A daring but beautiful mix of intense blue and emerald.

Finally a gorgeous Tony Duquette’s tablescape to celebrate the New Year!

Wishing you all the best for a green and happy 2013!

Reminder: Don’t forget to answer to my previous post, clicking on Can you guess who she is?

©2012 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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Merry Reading

Holidays are coming and what is best than curling up on a sofa with a good book in your hands, a tray of just baked cookies nearby and a fireplace on.

 

If you have many books in your home these are some ideas to steal to create

a “smart”  Christmas tree with little effort.

 

 

 

No matter what you’ll be reading I wish you all Happy Holidays!

Reminder: Don’t forget to answer to my previous post, clicking on Can you guess who she is?

 

©2012 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".
If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.  I love to hear from you!

Can you guess who she is?

She would have turned 100 years old this month. In this picture she wears a simple skirt, a simple sweater, but a big smile! A friend said: “ For her to dress up for big events means to wear a clean shirt”. An issue of Vogue in 1959 describes her as a feminine, petite lady with pink lipstick, a small nose, not beautiful but attractive, mostly because “she is passionate, enthusiastic, warm…a woman definetely happy with only a hint of rage in her eyes”.

A simple lady…and yet…she became an icon in the world of design.

Please don’t comment on Facebook or other social media, but only on this post, so nobody could see the answers before they are published by me. The first correct answer will have “an honorable mention” and a link to their website or blog.

The answers will be published all together in the New Year.

©2012 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".
If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.

I love to hear from you!

Brillante choice

Variations

Let’s celebrate the holidays and the end of 2012 with the sophisticated approach by the brilliant Spanish-Milanese designer Patricia Urquiola, who created for Baccarat these unique cut crystal  stemwares with vivid colored base.

Past and present beautifully combined.  

 

©2012 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send me an email. It will be an investment in happiness at home, a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in!

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.

Timeless Interiors

I just received a copy of Timeless Interiors by Kathryn Ireland, one of the A-List Designers of Elle Decor and TV personality of 2011 Million Dollar Decorator.
Timeless Interiors is a delightful book with beautiful, inspiring images of rooms never boring, often with unexpected twists.
From the front cover with a colorful array of textile, pottery, accessories, art, you are transported into a journey through several countries and Kathryn Ireland was able to distill the essence of their cultures, being it a carefully handmade Moroccan tiles, a hand embroidered and vividly colored textile from Mexico, an intricate carved wood piece of furniture from India or a splendid antique Sicilian mirror bought for herself when she was a young bride.

Special attention is paid by Ireland to her clients’ art: Philip-Lorca di Corcia photograph sets the tone in a living room in Beverly Hills, hanging above a vintage wicker sideboard, while Ed Ruscha’ The End # 24 is greeting guests in the foyer.

In a Santa Barbara horse ranch she used custom tiles from Fez, Morocco. In the bathroom a Berber rug found in Marrakesh recalls the subtle colors of the tiles.

Vibrant hues in this kitchen, vintage stools in ruby red, how possibly can’t you avoid smiling at breakfast time?

 

 

Santa Monica farmhouse living room, with 19th-century bergères upholstered in a custom-embroidred sultan’s robe by Martin-Lawrence Bullard. Kashmir and Bali pieces add another exotic touch.

Vintage mid-century chairs bring the outdoor in; on the windows “Moroccan” fabric from Kathryn M. Ireland textiles line creates a neutral backdrop.

 

Timeless Interiors is a visual delight, a book to be added to your collection, to study Ireland’s style. As you can see from these few images above her personality and energy exudes in her interiors, but they are always an expression of her clients’ lives and visions.
As she said: “The client makes the decorator” something so many designers have forgotten.


Photography: first image by Victoria Pearson, all others by Tim Beddow. All images are © and posted here with express permission of the publisher.

©2012 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send me an email. It will be an investment in happiness at home, a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in!

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.

Diana Vreeland, The eye has to travel…

 

In the Spring of this year The Diana Vreeland Estate and The Museo Fortuny put together an extraordinary exhibition: "Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland"  in Venice,  part of Lisa Immordino Vreeland's  project titled Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel. 

Vreeland was the icon of high fashion for fifty years, how not to be still intrigued by her personality?

A film was recently released about this  legendary figure, and it was considered by the critique as “a visually and aurally innovative documentary (…) The filmmakers have used a range of techniques in the service of a central aim: to connect audiences with the essence of this unique woman who reflected her times.”

Lisa Immordino Vreeland authored a large format book about the legend of her grandmother-in-law and Vogue Italia has a great interview of the author, if you like to listen just click HERE (no fear…it is in English)

Vreeland at work

Harper Collins  published not long ago “D.V.”  a (as seen on their website) “mesmerizing autobiography of one of the 20th century’s greatest fashion icons, Diana Vreeland, the one-time fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue, whose incomparable style-sense, genius, and flair helped define the world of haute couture for fifty years. The incomparable D.V. proves herself a brilliant raconteur as she carries the reader along on her whirlwind life—from English palaces to the nightclubs of Paris in the 1930s to the heart of New York high society, hobnobbing with everyone who was anyone, from Queen Mary to Clark Gable to Coco Chanel”.

One of many famous quotes by Vreeland was: “You’re not supposed to give people what they want; you’re supposed to give people what they don’t know they want yet.” Another quote was: “Exaggeration is the only reality” and she certainly lived by it!
To see more images and read more go to Diana Vreeland’s website clicking HERE
Portraits of D.V. by George Hoyningen-Huene,  Jonathan Becker, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Rowland Scherman

©2012 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".
If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send me an email. It will be an investment in happiness at home, a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in!

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.

A charming loft house

An industrial building in Paris, transformed into a family home of an Interior designer, where the patio, with the ivy creating a decoration that changes with the seasons, is the center and the heart of daily life. Heirloom furniture, Baccarat chandeliers, contemporary pieces, extravagant accessories, chinoiserie collections create an eclectic atmosphere inside.

 

Warm colors for the pieces of furniture and pale colors for the walls make the industrial style building more attractive and liveable.

 

In the living room the main piece of furniture is “Proust” armchair by Alessandro Mendini for Cappellini, against a 1930’s cabinet. A reproduction of Canova’s Three Graces and a unicorne create another focal point.

 

Simple lines for the dining chairs and table.

 

In the dining room, 1940 style, a collection of animated lights, reminiscent of the owner’s childhood, glows against a trompe-l'oeil wall. The light comes from an ornate Baccarat chandelier.

 

The master bedroom, on the top floor, is all white, but punctuated by touches of ruby red and it opens to the elegant and functional marble bathroom.

 

A 1940 mirrored console with family images and objects plus a precious Murano sconce create a great vignette.

 

Outdoor chairs are designed by Philippe Starck for Kartell.

 

The charming patio with the terracotta colored wall.

Photography by Nicolas Millet for Côté Maison.

©2012 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send me an email. It will be an investment in happiness at home, a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in!

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.

The scent of luxury in the Sixties

                    
                                Donna Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto

The latest issue of Elle Decor (November 2012) is titled “The Luxury Issue” and tries to define the term luxury and its relevance today. As Robert Couturier says in the article,  luxury can be expensive but being expensive does not make something luxurious and I can add that luxury sometimes has nothing to do with money and affluence.


                  
                          Donna Selvaggia Barbara Borromeo d’Adda

One of the luxuries of life is perfume, being the fragrance of a rose in a garden or the scent in a bottle. In parallel to the hippy movement of the 60’s with its message of freedom,  High fashion in the same years created the luxe prêt-à-porter and a new trend in perfumes ...   Eau Sauvage from Dior was born,  at the same time discreet but persistent and it started a trend of masculine perfumes used by women and a new series of “eaux frâiches” used by both sexes, Paco Rabanne, Cacharel, Courrèges, Emilio Pucci, Capucci and many others will follow.

In the Sixties pants in Italy were  not used much but they became suddenly fashionable and evenings one were launched  in Rome by fashion designer Princess Irene Galitzine and called Pigiama Palazzo …a pijama certainly not to sleep in but to wear to the best parties.

                    
                      Beautiful Irene Galitzine wearing one of her creations.


                     
                                   Baronessa Fiona Thyssen Bornemisza 


                     
                                             Ira von Furstenberg

Aristocrats became fashion models, and at times models married aristocrats, timeless story.
As many other things, material or not, perfume is luxury and I am sure that some of these fragrances were gently put behind the ears or on the wrists (the only allowed places to use a drop of perfume back then) of these iconic beauties.
Perhaps…

                                 

                              
                               Joy, named the most expensive perfume in the world.

                             

                              

                              


Just for fun, how luxury brands advertisement was made fifty years ago, an era without Internet, when television was not owned by millions (billions?).
Back then representation of fashion and luxury belonged only to printed magazines and  it was often a modest fashion, meaning no nudes, no scandals, no models with angry faces, but a simple message of elegance and luxury like the one below. 

                             
Chanel N.5 is the world’s most popular fragrance and here it is presented in a printed ad from the Sixties by a timeless beauty.

A drop of perfume? Affordable luxury! but also an immediate remembrance of the past if you open a bottle that you have not used for long time, my favorite fragrance for  many years was:

                          
and if today I could smell Eau de Rochas I am sure many memories of my youth will become vivid, popping out of the bottle unexpectedly.

Have you ever experienced that Proustian moment with perfumes?

©2012 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

If you need help to enjoy your home more, please send me an email.  It will be an investment in happiness at home, a well designed house is always a good part of a great life and a beautiful room will make you happy every time you walk in!

If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.