RubyRead Designer Issue

Photo credit: Russ Harrington

Interior designers wear many hats.

They are decorators, trendsetters, artists, architects, shoppers, teachers, curators, antiquarians and often, psychologists.

Over the past year, Ruby Read design luminaries ranging from the iconic “Prince of Chintz” Mario Buatta and the celebrated tastemaker Bunny Williams to renowned Manhattan decorator Alexa Hampton and design sisters 2Michaels have graced our pages. They have opened their portfolios, showcased their talents and shared design secrets on collecting and designing with vintage – a topic near and dear to our hearts at Ruby Lane.

Representing the marriage of contemporary and vintage design, it’s only fitting that California interior designer Jeffrey Alan Marks is featured on our cover. His penchant for timeless design and discovering unique objects and treasures from around the world coupled with his keen eye for combining “subdued traditional elegance with contemporary edgy accents” are mainstays in his work. His California casual aesthetic infused with sophisticated European accents has placed him on the map as one of the most interesting designers working today.

Thomas Johnson Publisher and Founder

Cathy Whitlock Editor-in-Chief cathy@rubylane.com

Marcia Sherrill Creative Director

Jeff Shotwell

Imagine It! Media, Inc Art Director

Art Escobedo

Imagine It! Media, Inc Graphic Design/Layout

Palmer Pekarek

Advertising Sales palmer@rubylane.com

Elizabeth Betts Hickman Candace Ord Manroe Courtney Sconza Contributing Writers

Ruby Lane is the premier online community of over 2,500 individually-owned shops from around the world offering antiques & art, vintage collectibles and jewelry. © Ruby Lane 2014 | © Ruby Read 2014

There is something for everyone in our first ever print Designer Issue and hope you enjoy!

Happy Collecting!

Copyright Notice All written content and photo images are the property of Ruby Lane unless otherwise noted and credited. Kindly do not copy or reuse in print form unless you have written consent.

On the Cover

Cathy Whitlock Editor-in-Chief cathy@rubylane.com

Jeffrey Alan Marks Photo by

Douglas Friedman

CONTENTS DESIGNER FEATURES

6 12 18

Mario Buatta

Revisiting the Prince of Chintz

Mary Randolph Carter A Place for Your Collections

Barry Dixon

The New Traditionalist

24 30 36

Tricia Foley

A White Christmas

Jeffrey Alan Marks California Dreaming

Jayne and Joan Michaels Taps Twin Energy

44 50 56

Thomas O’Brien American Modern

Christopher Radko

All Occasion Celebration

Joe Ruggiero Dean of Design

64 70 76

Alexa Hampton Holiday Decorating

Bunny Williams In the Garden

Carleton Varney Mr. Color

86

90

History Lesson

Collecting

Christian Dior

Mid-Century

Designer | Mario Buatta

MARIO BUATTA REVISITING THE PRINCE OF CHINTZ

BY CANDACE MANROE

A

After 50 years in the business, interior designer Mario Buatta has earned his stripes—and his florals. Famously crowned the “Prince of Chintz” in 1984 for his English country interiors abloom in those shiny, flower-festooned fabrics, Buatta continues to proudly wear the mantle today, and with more aplomb than ever.

“I certainly hope I’m still the prince!

I wouldn’t want to be known as the queen,” quips the prankish designer whose wit is as singular (and loved) as his style.

With Rizzoli’s recent release of his first book—Mario Buatta: 50 Years of American Decoration—his reign as design royalty, short of being etched in stone, is preserved for posterity on paper. Finally.

That comes as especially good news to those with a penchant for buying vintage.

Buatta has been known to affectionately call the book his first-born and only child (his other pet name for it is Buattapedia).

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“I certainly hope I’m still the prince!

I wouldn’t want to be known as the queen” Its 400-plus pages sport lavish images of his elegant, often opulent, and ever-joyful English country interiors designed for clients over the last halfcentury. Each visual is packed with vintage collections of the highest caliber, making the book a go-to for any seasoned collector wanting to up their game with masterful ideas for tabletop displays or wall arrangements.

It’s equally inspirational for newbies just learning to flex their collecting muscle, as it exposes the vastness of the world of vintage.

In fact, in the right hands the book may even recruit a new generation of collectors drawn to the warm beauty of Buatta’s timeless spaces and the vintage pieces that are its source.

Mario Buatta | Designer

“Collecting is completely personal, and it can’t follow trends,” says Buatta. Whether the vintage quest is for oil portraits or tortoiseshell boxes, for Staffordshire or majolica, “it’s getting harder and harder to find pretty pieces,” he warns. “It demands a constant search.”

His words carry weight. Even those who don’t give a dustmote about home decorating or who dismiss the design world as rarified and self-impressed are likely to know Buatta’s name. More impressive, they’re also apt to know his work. And that has much to do with his princely title. At a recent dinner party with friends, Buatta’s name came up.

“The Prince of Chintz!” cheered the least likely companion, a straight male with subzero design sensibilities on a 1-to-10 scale.

So to know Buatta’s sobriquet is to know— at least marginally—the essence of his work.

Painting of Mario’s 1984 Kips Bay show-house room. © 1984 Jeremiah Goodman

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But who can say how Buatta became a household name? Maybe it has to do with his famous clients. People like Jackie Onassis, Henry Kissinger, Barbara Walters, Malcomb Forbes, Henry Ford II, Billy Joel, and Mariah Carey all turned to him for help.

Or maybe it’s the publication of his designs. Design magazines love exposing the private digs of especially rich and famous members of that eponymous club, and readers love voyeurism that won’t result in jail time. And when the rich and famous demand anonymity, well, the designer must stand alone in the spotlight.

Buatta’s had his share of solos.

In addition to all the private homes that built his reputation, it would be unfair to give short shrift to D.C.’s Blair House, which prompted all kinds of hoopla when Buatta decorated it. And let’s not even get started with his decades of participating in—and sometimes putting on the map— designer show houses.

So what’s the master’s secret to displaying the antique collections that are such an essential part of his work? “I like organized clutter,” he says humbly. (This man is humble. He answered his own phone when interviewed back in the ‘80s. And he still does so today.) “Design is just like geometry. You play with the shapes. Scale and placement are the biggest mistakes people make.”

He’s also a firm believer in the odd number.

“One, three, five, seven. I like using an odd number of pieces, whether on a table or a wall. Mark Hampton, on the other hand, always did everything in pairs,” he adds, validating that approach, too.

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Photo Credit: Ted Harden

Buatta places great stock in intuition and a good eye. “I watched Mrs. Parish for years. [He counts Sister Parish, Albert Hadley and Nancy Lancaster among his most important design influences]. She would just start putting things on tables, moving them around. She could walk into a room and know exactly when things looked good.”

Buatta shares that talent “Yes, I mentally rearrange what’s on people’s tabletops when I’m in their homes,” he laughs.

He credits studying art for honing his eye. “I learned a great deal from studying the painters like Matisse and Bonnard,” he says. He laments his alma mater, Parson’s School of Design, dropping its coursework in 18th and 19th century art history back in 1971.

“As a result we’re turning out these young people who are really just stylists. I call them desecrators, not decorators.

We’re living in a time with no sense or appreciation of history. Beautiful old paintings and antique collections add instant heritage to a room. I’m a prime example of someone who decorates with family pieces they just happen not to belong to my family or my client’s.”

But wink-wink, nod-nod, he acquires and presents them as though they do.

“It’s the idea of continuity, of history, of what each family left behind for the next, that characterizes these English country houses I love.”

Now 78, Buatta plans to change direction when he turns 80. “Then I hope to retire in rooms I decorate for me. I’ve always been looking out of other people’s windows. I hope to look through my own.” rubylane.com | 9

Neoclassical House, Houston, TX—living room. © Gordon Beall / Architectural Digest © Conde Nast Publications

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Designer | Mary Randolf Carter

A PLACE FOR YOUR

COLLECTIONS Mary Randolph Carter

By Candace Ord Manroe

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Photography By Carter Berg

Mary Randolf Carter | Designer

M

Mary Randolph Carter’s latest book, Never Stop to Think…Do I Have a Place for This (Rizzoli, 2014), is one part inspiration, the remainder validation. For those of us with a compulsion to roam Ruby Lane’s richly stocked one-ofa-kind shops for our favorite vintage pieces, it’s permission. At last: a pass to indulge our passion to collect, guilt-free. “If there’s a place for it in your heart, there’s a place for it in your home,” the author contends.

Known to friends, fans, and her colleagues at Ralph Lauren, where she’s a creative director, simply as “Carter,” she lives the collecting lifestyle she advocates so eloquently and boldly in her books. (Her previous book’s title expresses an equally strong point of view she lives by: A Perfectly Kept House Is the Sign of a Misspent Life: How to live creatively with collections, clutter, work, kids, pets, art, etc. and stop worrying about everything being perfectly in its place.) Proof that Carter “walks the talk” is visible in the first chapter of her new book, which showcases the collections in her country house.

“What can I say? I’m just happy in clutter.

I love to surround myself with the things I love,” says Carter. Thrift-shop paintings climb her walls, vintage white tuxedo shirts decorate her armoires, and old family photographs personalize her tabletops. There’s no end to the oddities that appeal to Carter, like the cluster of swizzel sticks massed in a piece of pottery. “I confess I bought them all at once, for $10,” she says.

Though Carter embraces her inner antiquer—“it is an addiction of sorts; my heart starts beating faster when I’m headed for a flea market”— she draws a line at hoarding. “I’m not a totally undisciplined person. I don’t go off and gobble up everything!

Hoarding and collecting are two different things.

Hoarding is a disease,” she distinguishes.

Nor does she live in disarray. Her collections are organized. A large collection of Infants of Prague, for example, “are corralled behind glass in an old green cupboard,” she notes. “I also use my bookshelves to display a wide array of objects I love, and I may even hang some pictures in between them.”

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In addition to her own home, Never Stop to Think allows a glimpse inside the homes of 19 other avid collectors. The color photographs snapped by Carter’s son, Sam Berg, whose own home is featured in the book’s final chapter, capture the energy and soulfulness of each collector. The vibrant orange kitchen walls of Janet West, “the poetess of pickers,” come alive with happy faces—six rows of potholder faces splashed across the range wall.

“Janet does some of the most creative displays,” says Carter. “She had all of these old photos, postcards, and keychains stored in drawers in her Westchester home. She took them out and started displaying small collections on the backs of her doors, not inside closets.”

One photograph in the book shows six sock monkeys hanging out across the width of a beautiful old wooden door.

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“You can make a collection of anything,” notes Carter. “One rusty key is just a key. But three rusty keys is a collection.”

For Carter’s brand of collecting, money is beside the point. “I don’t go to Sotheby’s and bid on Picassos,” she says. “I have a whole wall of ‘Picassos’ I spent $10 to $15 on. I also love collecting old chairs. Money is not an issue if you don’t indulge in buying Shaker furniture,” she notes.

Carter’s commitment to collecting is her birthright. “My parents’ fondness for old things is in my blood.” Born and raised in Virginia, Carter and her family survived their first two homes burning to the ground. “When my parents bought another home built in 1680, our immediate family were shocked. My mother said, ‘What did you think we would do? Move into a concrete box?’ All the pictures of our ancestors were destroyed in the fires, so we began filling in with the pictures of other people’s ancestors.

I was definitely influenced by that.

You cherish what you have, what’s old, though in the end, you realize that having each other is what matters most.” rubylane.com | 17

Designer | Barry Dixon

THE NEW

Traditionalists Writer Candace Manroe sits down with Washington D.C.-area interior designer Barry Dixon who shares his insights on the “new traditional” style of which he is an exponent.

Photos © Erik Kvalsvik

What does the term “new traditional” mean to you?

To me, this means pulling the best from history—the ‘creme” that rises to the top of any/every aesthetic period/era—and reemploying these otherwise disparate elements into a cohesive pastiche for 21st century living.

Why is new traditional so important as a design style? What visual, functional and emotional value does it offer that other styles don’t?

The nuanced layers of “new traditional” design blend familiar elements in fresh ways to a bespoke conclusion...visually individual yet universally understood, functionally advanced for modern living, and emotionally connected to an elevated aesthetic history.

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Barry Dixon | Designer

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What are a few of the essentials of the style (neoclassical references, 18th-century pieces gently adapted, etc.)?

The essentials are to the taste of the individualwhat suits them best. Me, I’m an Edwardian, Arts & Crafts, mid-century modern kind of guy, with a splash of 17th-century French and Italian seasoning. For each client’s home, there’s a new formula.

Your designs always have a richness that seems to emanate, in part, from carefully curated antiques. Do you buy for a particular job or because you love the object and know eventually you will find it a home?

Like art, it’s always, always for the love of the object. Things and people we adore will always find their place in our homes and in our lives, and elevate our existence to a higher plane.

Can you name the five vintage or antique pieces you consider most important to a “new trad” style?

1 - The recovered, ever-comfortable period lounge chair that evokes an era or a way of life.

2 - A dramatic lantern or chandelier that brings attention to the vortex of a space.

3 - A good round tea table—often better than a cocktail table when pulled up to a sofa.

4 - A pair of antique sconces—at the mantle, flanking a painting over a sofa or at either side of a doorway or bookcase. We need lights on walls.

5 - A quirky, unusual accessory...something “one of a kind” that captures the imagination.

Barry, what is the advantage of shopping for vintage pieces for the home on Internet sites like Ruby Lane?

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Sites like Ruby Lane are so valuable because they save so much time! They’re especially valuable to an educated consumer, who has done their homework and honed their buyers’ skills through years of shopping antique stores and markets on foot.

Do you have any tips or cautionary advice for collectors on buying vintage online?

Check the size and scale of offerings carefully. A small lusterware creamer and a large lusterware pitcher look the same in a photograph.

What are some of the methods/devices you personally employ to get a fresh take on traditional design?

It’s mainly in the mix for me. I eschew period pairings to avoid a period “set,” which should be reserved for a Merchant-Ivory film! Mix it up!

Okay. So is the mix that of old, unadulterated pieces with modern ones? Or is it more about mixing antiques with traditional pieces that have been tweaked for an updated look?

Yes and yes. Do it your way!

Do you have any advice to offer on the importance of collecting and how to get started? Also, any types of collections immediately come to mind as fun, and relatively affordable and available?

Personal collections put “us” in the picture. They make our homes our own. They can be anything.

I often advise beginners with limited finds to collect a “color” - citrine, for instance. This could be inexpensive glass, or a mid-century abstract painting in yellows or 18th century Wedgewood plates with acid yellow rims. You’re just collecting “citrine.”

Practicing in the Virginia countryside near Washington D.C., Barry Dixon brings his hospitable new traditional style to projects all over the globe. In addition to designing interiors, he has developed a furniture line with Tomlinson/ Erwin-Lambeth; a fabric collection for Vervain/S. Harris; and a rug collection with Megerian.Â

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Designer | Tricia Foley

A WHITE CHRISTMAS

T

WITH TRICIA FOLEY Photos Courtesy of Tricia Foley

Tricia Foley owns the color white, whatever the season. All year long, the interior designer’s circa-1800 home on Long Island sports this cleanest of colors, from her collections of vintage ironware and creamware to crisp white textiles, old and new. White, no surprise, also is her steadfast signature on projects for clients.

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But it’s over the winter holidays that her proprietorship of this color immortalized

by Greco-Roman classicism shines its brightest: Tricia didn’t invent a white Christmas, but she did write the book— White Christmas: Decorating and Entertaining for the Holiday Season (Clarkson Potter, 1997).

Tricia Foley | Designer

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“A white Christmas is a romantic notion in decorating,” says the author. “On the darkest days of the year is really lightens up a room. It’s also part of our American tradition. For the holidays, people either decorate in red and green, or white.

The idea of a white Christmas became even more entrenched with the popularity of the White Christmas song and the movie.”

The secret to a beautiful home decorated in white for the holidays is layering, according to the expert. “When you’re decorating with things that are tonal—white and silver—you just keep layering on the elements.” Depth enriches the visual pleasure, and it also “gives cohesion,” says Tricia.

A white-themed holiday is an opportunity to pull out all the stops for displaying favorite vintage collections and an excuse to begin collecting vintage pieces anew. “Vintage ironstone, creamware, silver candlesticks and napkin rings, old sterling cups, and beautiful vintage glassware are perfect for Christmas decorating,” Tricia recommends. rubylane.com | 27

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The more inventive the use of the collectible, the better. Here are some of Tricia’s creative ideas for a white Christmas:

“Most parties are about grazing,” insists Tricia.

“This means we have a much more flexible, modular approach to how we serve.”

Mass vintage silver candlesticks on a silver or glass tray and enjoy the magic.

Plant paperwhites and tulips in white ironstone tureens.

Bring on the bling with vintage jewelry repurposed for holiday decorating. Vintage brooches tied with old ribbon make gorgeous ornaments for the tree; a vintage etched glass bowl full of sparkling vintage jewelry is eye candy for any holiday tabletop. “You can mix, or use all silver or all glass or all pearl,” suggests Tricia.

Glass jugs are ideal white Christmas vases for cut flowers.

Stock up on vintage fabrics in all shades and tone-on-tone patterns of white to make your own one-of-a-kind Christmas stockings.

Decorate each place setting at a holiday table with individual flower vases using old silver cigarette cups.

Arrange mint julep cups outfitted with a sprig or two of cut greens as a holiday decoration for the powder room or mantel.

Line windowsills with vintage glass in all sizes and shapes and watch the sun or outdoor Christmas lights shine through.

Tie white grosgrain or lace ribbon on napkin rings for an extra holiday touch to the buffet table. Or, hang silver napkin rings from the ribbons for an interesting visual at a kitchen or dining room window.

Enjoy a character-laden holiday with a collection of mismatched patterns of old white bread and butter plates stacked high for a holiday noshing party.

Plant little trees in vintage creamware tea cups and arrange en masse for a holiday party, then share one with each guest as a party favor.

Fill a favorite ironstone tray with an eclectic group of vintage crystal glasses for a party.

“I don’t get tied down to having matching stemware,” Tricia says.

Christmas is the time to pour over old family photographs. “Put them in beautiful silver frames for a mantel display,” suggests Tricia.

Photocopy your old black and white photos for the most personalized gift-wrapping paper ever.

Browse online vintage shopping sites and antiques stores for spools of old white ribbon for fashioning decorative bows for your presents (like Ruby Lane!).

Tricia’s most important tip for creating a white Christmas is to “personalize it. Use your favorite collections. For me, that means bringing out a collection of milk glass I got in England and the Paris flea market. Or repurpose meaningful family pieces in some new way. I saved my younger family members’ old Christmas lists, and then gave them back to them in beautiful old silver frames. It’s about creating tradition.” rubylane.com | 29

Designer | Jeffrey Alan Marks

JEFFREY

ALAN MARKS Writer Elizabeth B. Hickman talks with interior designer and reality star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Decorators on his work and book, The Meaning of Home.

By Elizabeth B. Hickman | Photos by Douglas Friedman

A

As the founder of noted Santa Monica, California-based interior design firm Jeffrey Alan Marks Inc. (JAM) and a cast member on Bravo TV’s Million Dollar Decorators, Jeffrey Alan Marks embraces luxury projects, but also thinks about why people love their homes.

“I strive to create rooms that are beautiful, of course – but far more important to me is that I create spaces that show the personal and unique meaning of home for each person, couple, and family that I work with,” writes Marks in the Introduction to The Meaning of Home (Rizzoli, 2013). “As a native Californian, there’s a certain amount of lightness cruising through my DNA, and a laid-back point of view is an intrinsic component of my work.”

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Jeffrey Alan Marks | Designer

THE MEANING OF HOME

Specializing in residential and commercial interior design and architecture and inspired by his Southern California outdoor lifestyle, Marks’s trademark look is a synthesis of a fresh informality infused with sophisticated English and European accents. His joyous, comfortable spaces are known for their playful charm, vivid colors, and patterns.

He contrasts natural materials, such as weathered driftwood, with sleek finishes.

This book showcases a series of beautifully photographed residences revealing Marks’s skill at capturing each client’s personality, from a movie star’s London townhouse full of eccentric furnishings to a charming Nantucket cottage with nautical embellishments. A striking surfside vibe energizes his Santa Monica Canyon beach house, where he hung a rowboat from the whitewashed bedroom ceiling. Marks explains how he made each project’s room a sanctuary where all details are synchronized. Through collective imagery and intriguing collages, he demonstrates his creative process.

Marks’s favorite shopping addresses for fabrics, furniture, and antiques complete this inspiring volume. rubylane.com | 31

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Arranged into five chapters: Breezy, Tailored, Steady, Brave and At Ease, the lush book shows Marks’ own home in Santa Monica in addition to projects in London, Nantucket, Malibu, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas among other locales.

“My objective in designing is to create a space that makes the inhabiter happy,” writes Marks in his book. “To me, “breeziness” is more of a state of mind than a geographic condition: it’s openness and a quality that makes spaces feel welcome for both owners and guests. One of my mantras is that every room in your home should be used daily – the days of holding your living room hostage for company are over.”

Here, Jeffrey Alan Marks takes time from his hectic schedule to answer five questions for Ruby Read: RR: Everyone loves the climate of California and the easy, casual elegance of so many California homes. What defines and describes “California style” for you?

JAM: It’s more about the California ‘lifestyle.’ We spend so much of our time outdoors that I look for things that can live indoors as well as outdoors. You can’t go wrong with a palette of rugged dark tans and sea grass.

RR: Your book, The Meaning of Home, shows such a nice breadth of projects and

the judicious use of antiques in many homes. Please share a bit of your philosophy toward using antiques in interiors, and what you look for in general when it comes to antiques, and if you have a personal collecting focus.

JAM: I always mix antiques with modern or even favorite catalogue pieces. I always tend to go more toward rustic English pieces as I collected in my college years in England. I design for comfort first and foremost. So the furniture I design and the antiques I buy are always spacious and inviting. I don’t believe in uptight chairs and stiff sofas that don’t envelop you. This translates aesthetically as a slightly more relaxed and livable look. It’s the only way to live.

RR: Are there any antiques and/or 20thcentury pieces that are particularly popular in California? (I’m thinking about how so many items are regional - for instance, 19th century sugar chests in Tennessee, coin silver in Kentucky, hunt boards in Virginia, etc. - these are iconic “types” that work in a lot of different settings and not always totally traditional settings.)

What says “California”?

JAM: I love Swedish and Gustavian pieces mixed in together with my own upholstered furniture. The lightness in frame and color suit the California light, airy rooms. I always love Danish Kaare Klint mixed with a John Dickinson plaster table circa 1980.

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RR: What are your thoughts regarding brass and other golden-hued metals in interiors?

JAM: I think brass and gold are back and bigger than ever. Although, use either sparingly and with rich, rustic walnuts.

RR: I noticed there is a fun sense of colorful pattern in many of your projects - you are not afraid to use color and pattern and it is so lively!

What advice would you give to those who want to incorporate more of this in their homes? Any favorite colors or color combinations?

JAM: I tend to use blues and more ‘watery’ colors in decorating, if given my way. I have designed a line of fabric coming out this summer with Kravet, which reflects some of my favorite color palettes. I try to make my projects playful. Design can get very serious and boring very quickly and you have to add a smile to your projects so your houses don’t look like everybody else’s houses.

Every house, like every person, needs something that differentiates it. Pillows are a great way to experiment with colors and patterns without making a huge commitment.

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Designer | 2Michaels

2Michaels

Taps Twin Energy

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BY CANDACE MANROE, AUTHOR AND FORMER DESIGN EDITOR OF TRADITIONAL HOME MAGAZINE

Jayne and Joan Michaels remain placid amid the whirl of double-takes and more timid, “who’s who” whispers familiar to all identical twins. For good reason. These look-alikes know any mistaken identity won’t remain so for long. As proprietors and creative engines of 2Michaels, the Manhattan interior design firm they launched in 2001, the sisters’ similarities no doubt run beyond skin-deep, but it’s their differences that ultimately fuel their design.

“Jayne always wants to go bold in terms of art and color, while I like things more quiet and subtle,” explains Joan. Her sister, the bold one, makes essentially the same observation, only bolder: “I push more, make the bigger gesture, while Joan is more poetic.”

However they phrase it, it’s a good mix. “Joan and I bounce off one another. Really, we’re a yin and a yang,” Jayne says.

Each gravitates to her own interests, which simplifies the day to day: Jayne is obsessed with ferreting out the ideal furnishing and architectural detail, however much research that entails, while Joan’s passion runs more to palettes and rugs. Both love art.

Having grown up in the spare landscape of Palm Springs, they share a natural bent as modernists. That was reinforced while living in Milan after their parents died (within three months of one another, when the twins were 22). “Right now we’re kind of experts at 20th Century,” says Jayne, carefully distinguishing that from the narrower mid-century era. “But we love all styles.”

Photo Credit: Eric Lagnel

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2Michaels | Designer

Photo Credit: Douglas Friedman

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Photos By: Eric Lagnel

our other clients find us, as we don’t have a ‘decorated’ look,” recalls Jayne. “That’s a really good observation and question. We don’t like a decorated look. Yet everything in our designs is balanced and carefully selected.

If we use a Baroque mirror it must go with something spare-lined. I will hunt high and low to find the perfect piece of furniture for a project. I like to look at auction sites all over the world.”

So to answer the celebrity’s question, the Michaels’ clients find them through referrals.

Most are youngish, in their 30s and 40s.

Wherever their creative tentacles may take them, it’s never far from a taproot of art. “Ours has been called a ‘painterly’ style,” says Jayne. “We’re very involved with the whole gestalt of finding the art.”

Often that results in a spare elegance.

The sisters edit to create airy, light spaces where the art can shine. They enjoy embracing new pieces by their artist friends, but they’re just as careful curators of long-held collections.

One of their favorite complements is being told their style appears undecorated. “A celebrity client who cannot be named asked us how Photos By: Eric Lagnel

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Often those who seek out the sisters’ expertise share their affinity for Swedish and Italian design, as well as their passion for art, light, and clean, uncluttered spaces.

Their firm’s start-up was a reaction to the economy—the recession had left them both without jobs. After attending Parsons then earning design degrees from F.I.T., the twins had parted paths. Jayne worked for Victoria Hagen, and Joan worked for architect Ron Borus. A design referral from a friend meant they were in business for themselves.

“We are very, very lucky,” says Joan. “It’s a relief to work with someone you can be so completely honest with. We don’t feel the need to feed each other’s egos. That brutal honesty keeps us challenging each other to learn and to grow.”

And should you still have trouble distinguishing between the two sisters? Jayne’s the one wearing vintage Ossie Clark. Joan prefers Romeo Gigli.

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Photos By: Eric Lagnel

Art plays an essential role in all their designs. In this Upper East Side duplex, they organized a colleciton inherited from both sides of their clients’ families.

“We took the art pieces out, dusted them off and had most of them reframed. It took almost a day to figure out how to place the art on the wall,” says Jayne Michaels. “We laid the pieces out on the floor and took pictures of the configurations we liked.

It was not easy to recreate on the wall!” as Joan Michaels.

Photos By: Eric Lagnel

The large scale of this Tribeca loft demanded oversize pieces including a pair of sofas that are 9- and 10-feet long. A rug defines the conversation area as a discrete space, while pendant lighting serves the same function for the dining area.

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A curtain pulls to shut off the kitchen from the rest of the space in this Tribeca loft.

warm modernism

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The living room in this Central Park apartment is an example of the warm modernism 2Michaels is known for.

Jayne’s den in Sutton Place is painted in a warm, rich teal gray from Donald Kaufman Paints. The Ponti table is her first “real” purchase. “It’s one of a kind, designed for a hotel in Rome.” The doll is by the artist Keith Edmier. “It’s quite haunting, not at all sweet or child like.”

Photo Credit: Eric Lagnel

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Designer | Thomas O’Brien

AMERICAN MODERN

Top interior and home furnishings designer Thomas O’Brien masterfully edits pieces from the past to make them fresh for today

By Elizabeth B. Hickman All Photo Credits: American Modern by Thomas O’Brien written with Lisa Light, Photography by Laura Resen Abrams

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While many interior designers incorporate wonderful antiques into their projects, New York-based designer Thomas O’Brien is a standout in his field due to his brilliant use of 20th century antiques and vintage accessories in projects that soothe and calm the senses.

Indeed O’Brien, founder and president of the respected interior design firm Aero Studios and owner of AERO, the famed home furnishings boutique, continues to refine and put warm, livable modern style on the map.

In the introduction to American Modern (Abrams, 2010), O’Brien’s influential book he wrote with Lisa Light, he masterfully sums up his approach: “So, when people ask about what I do, I might say that I help find the classic elements from past generations, and then edit them together for this one. An American idea of reinvention: traditional things for modern living.”

A careful study of O’Brien’s broad portfolio and his iconic book reveals five top techniques that he often uses to help seamlessly incorporate the best of the past with the way we live today:

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Thomas O’Brien | Designer

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Consider a creamy backdrop for your collections.

Whether it’s a wall of colorful art, restrained framed drawings, or linear vintage maps, a creamy white background does double-duty, showcasing art and beautiful brown or ebonized furniture to its best advantage. Graceful shapes will stand out against a light background, and a lot of O’Brien’s rooms feel airy and light thanks to quiet backgrounds without a lot of contrasting trim and challenging patterns and colors. It’s all about the balance of dark and light.

You’ll see cerused oak furnishings alongside gleaming mahogany pieces too, which goes to show that furniture with great bones and good design holds its value over time, regardless of the period in which it was made.

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Use vintage fabrics to soften contemporary spaces.

O’Brien loves how vintage silk velvet is not only comfortable to the touch but fades beautifully over time, creating a lush patina.

Upholstering a lone chair with a small piece of a special fabric is a great way to use a vintage textile fragment. Fabrics from the 20th century are often affordable and are useful: be on the lookout for soft, natural-fiber napkins, raw silks, and 1950’s Russel Wright plaid cloth. Plain ivory or cream vintage linen napkins and hand towels lend a quiet elegance to even the most modern of settings.

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Look for special antique pieces that hold their own no matter what you place around them.

“I hunt for objects and furniture that are charming, if unsung; well and regionally made; marked by the unique history of where they were found, but not too serious,” writes O’Brien. “These are good choices to form the foundation of a collection – good foils, too, for the modern pieces with which I often combine them.”

For example, for a beautiful home in New England, O’Brien worked with a large collection of antique picture frames, many of which were fitted with handmade, antiqued mirrors rather than pictures. The result is quietly sophisticated and the mirrors reflect a lot more light throughout the elegant rooms.

“Finely framed mirrors are something I use very often in interiors to bring an architectural moment to a wall,” he writes.

“The mirrors bounce and multiply light throughout the rooms, and the forms feel practical and modern in their own way.”

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Incorporate the judicious use of vintage or vintage-inspired lighting and accessories to freshen a traditional room.

In a kitchen, that might be the use of 20th-century industrial pendants, or simply new pendants with an industrial look, or drum lampshades to snap a vintage lamp into the realm of the contemporary world. In an office, it could be an old desk with all new desk accessories, or vice-versa: a new desk dressed with old wire baskets and vintage office supplies.

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Use trays – whether wicker, wood, or metal, to corral collections.

This is one tip that can be translated throughout a home: from a narrow silver tray in a bathroom to display vintage perfume bottles to a tray on a mantel to hold candlesticks, to a 1940’s enamel tray in a kitchen to keep spices handy. “I use trays all the time as a way to organize varied objects without the appearance of clutter,” writes O’Brien. rubylane.com | 49

Designer | Christopher Radko

ALL OCCASION CELEBRATION Christopher Radko reflects on the importance of holidays and how they give us all a chance to pause and celebrate life.

By Elizabeth Betts Hickman Photos Courtesy of Christopher Radko

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Christopher Radko is excited, and not just because we’re in the middle of the festive season at the moment. After all, the designer known by name for his exquisite glass ornaments that gathered a new generation around trees dressed with European decorations sold his company a few years ago.

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Christopher Radko | Designer

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While his eponymous ornaments are still being made, the change propelled Radko to reflect on the celebration of all holidays, focus on his next venture, and savor all of the seasons in style.

“I continue to cherish holidays,” he says. “All holidays give us a chance to take a break from the daily grind and say, ‘oh wow, I care about you and let’s celebrate.’ You can enhance that by decorating.”

“I think I have more balance in my life,” says the designer, author and lifestyle expert. “In my 20s and 30s it was all about growing the company.”

So what will the Radko home look like this Christmas? Think blue and green on a fantastic flocked tree, with some touches of fuschia.

That meant logging thousands of miles of travel every year and getting home just a few days before Christmas. He adored meeting customers, sharing stories and seeing new places, but it was a hectic pace, akin to being “at the North Pole” as he puts it.

“This year I’m doing circa 1963,” he says, noting that he uses some of the ornaments he designed but he also decorates with older pieces from the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. “I love the color blue and blue lights,” he says, recalling a childhood memory of a neighbor

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who decorated outside with blue lights and how fun it looked.

Indeed, when it comes to vintage decorations, though, holly has his heart at this time of the year. “I love holly – it’s just this wonderful evergreen,” he says, noting that holly, ivy and mistletoe are traditionally associated with Christmastime in England. He points out that Limoges made a lot of holly dinnerware, and his former company came out with holly china about 15 years ago.

“I buy vintage holly Christmas decorations,” he confides. “It’s stuff I remember having when I was a kid.” In particular, he remembers a Santa’s sled with molded holly leaves filled with candy… “and I was always near the candy dish,” he says with a laugh.

Vintage decorations are readily available depending on what one is seeking. “You can find a lot of the old cardboard decorations,” says Radko, noting that ornaments and decorations made in Germany in the early years of the twentieth century are more rare, whether they are glass or papier mache. The most frequently found vintage Christmas items are American-made decorations from the 1940s on, which were primarily sold at Woolworths and other popular stores, along with a lot of items made in Japan.

Radko notes that the American brand ShinyBrite was hugely popular in the mid-twentieth century, and when the brand name became available some years back, “I picked up the name and re-created a lot of it,” he says, “and you can still see my version of Shiny-Brite in stores.”

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Vintage decorations of all kinds, he says, can be wonderful reminders of your childhood or times past or people not with us anymore, and “there’s a sentimental value to them,” he says.

Decorating with vintage items helps connect families and friends and create a joyful atmosphere in which to relax and enjoy good company and good times. “Every holiday gives you a chance to celebrate life,” he says, whether it’s Valentine’s Day or Halloween.

And there are vintage decorations to be found for both of those holidays as well.

“It’s been fun but I don’t want to rest on my Christmas laurels,” says Christopher Radko.

“There’s so much good yet to come.”

Christopher Radko Christmas Poinsettia Pin

Tall Russian Knight Christmas Ornament

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CHRISTOPHER RADKO’S HUDSON ORGANICS

Christopher Radko’s newest venture is producing mindfully made spa products and home fragrances, and it is close to his heart since it focuses on the home and well-being and involves sustainable organic agriculture.

“I’m an organic lavender farmer now,” he says with enthusiasm, referring to the 25 acres of lavender he’s cultivating in Poland and therefore also tapping into his Polish and French heritage. “I’m very excited about it because I love being outdoors.”

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He sought out traditional true lavender plants – not the hybrid lavender that makes up the majority of the market and that produces a more medicinal scent - and he notes that the organic cultivation means it’s a bee-friendly operation.

Also, in keeping with his past tradition of creating ornaments for charitable purposes, 10% of the profits from Christopher Radko’s Hudson Organics will be donated to Doctors Without Borders in memory of Radko’s parents, who were both doctors.

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Designer | Joe Ruggiero

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Joe Ruggiero | Designer

DEAN OF

DESIGN

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BY CANDACE MANROE, AUTHOR AND FORMER DESIGN EDITOR OF TRADITIONAL HOME MAGAZINE

Joe Ruggiero is a household name among us home folk—people passionate about all things related to the home and making it lovely. But what his name means varies among the households. It all depends on what point in his 40-year career trajectory they connected. Ruggiero has worn many homey hats. rubylane.com | 57

For me, it was the late ‘80s when I was young design editor at the High Point Home Furnishings Market, and Joe, only a bit more venerable, was the editor-in-chief of Home magazine. We were introduced, and I was charmed. So to me he’s a print guy and a rock-solid journalist with a forte for home design.

The first time I recognized his own design talents was when, back to freelancing, I was assigned a magazine story on the innovative woods-harvested holiday decorations he created for the California home he shared with his wife, Barbara, and their three children. (He remains a consummate family man, married to Barbara 45 years and heartwarmingly close to Meg, Beth, Joe Jr. and the grandkids.) That story was a spinoff of his 1981 Clarkson Potter book, “Found Objects” - a natural decorating concept ahead of its time by at least a decade, maybe two. After that interview, my definition of Joe shifted, expanding from editor to author and talented designer.

Over the last 13 years, his design base has expanded exponentially. In 2000, Ruggiero (the surname’s more respectful when not speaking anecdotally) created his own Home Collection of fabrics and furnishings - one of the industry’s most enduring brands. If you’ve bought Sunbrella fabrics (and who hasn’t?), you may know him as the textile designer who stays ahead of trend to bring you collections that look equally good indoors and out.

Or it may also be his upholstery for Miles Talbott, wood furniture for Gat Creek, decorative throws for Textillery, outdoor furniture for Terra Furniture, or allweather wicker for Viro that brought 58 | rubylane.com

A Joe Ruggiero interior featuring his furniture line with Miles Talbott.

you into the Ruggiero fold. If you’re a newbie to this household name, the hook may be his most recent lines: bedding and drapery for Casa Fiora or decorative trims for Phoenix Trims.

However you know him, timing is everything.

“I’ve had my own brand all these years, but many people still associate me with my HGTV shows,” Ruggiero says.

There’s a reason for that. After his print career, he pioneered bringing home design to TV. At the height of his on-camera presence, some 84 million households tuned in daily to watch him host at least one of the home design series or specials he kicked off in 1994 on HGTV. Through the course of just one of those shows, “Homes Across America,” he treated viewers to a sneak peek at 1,700 otherwise off-limits homes for an insider’s tour of the very best in architecture and design from all regions of the country.

So there’s that. Or maybe, like my significant other, your introduction to Ruggiero came from his nine years as chief design consultant for the PBS award-winning series, “This Old House.”

For guys like mine, he’ll always be the go-to guru for remodeling advice.

Actually his TV career began much earlier, just after the native New Yorker got his master’s in journalism and landed a job doing sports for CBS. “Go figure,” he laughs. “I was always interested in design, but that wasn’t an option.

As a first-generation Italian American, I was expected by my father to be a doctor, a lawyer or an Indian chief.” The best part of the CBS sports job, he says, was meeting Barbara. rubylane.com | 59

Sleek and livable are the hallmarks of a Ruggiero design.

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After TV sports, he cut his design teeth at Ethan Allen, where he spent 15 years as the advertising and creative director before moving on to textile manufacturer WestPoint Pepperell.

This background ultimately prepped him for his work as an Editor of Home Magazine and as the host of television design shows.

“It’s true. It’s not the destination, but the journey that counts,” Ruggiero says. “For me, it has taken 50 years to realize my dream of designing. As Tom Ford said in a recent interview, he was always good at jumping through hoops. If the hoops were on fire, so much the better. That’s how I feel. This business is not for the gentle of spirit. You’ve got to love it with all your heart and just keep going. I was a lifeguard. I know you just have to keep swimming to the finish line.”

Fortunately for us home folk, Ruggiero hasn’t reached the finish. His career is evolving, with its most recent incarnation being a stronger Internet and social media presence. There’s also talk of another book, as well as an endless outpouring of ideas for the sophisticated but attainable home and garden designs that are his signature.

“The beauty of this industry is that age is not a boundary. As long as you don’t lose your mind, you don’t lose your creativity,” he quips.

However you know Ruggiero, you should also know this: In an industry of unbridled egos, he’s refreshingly uninflated. His creativity soars, but he stays grounded. As a design guru who’s also a really good guy, his is a name always welcome in my household.

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“It’s true.

It’s not the destination, but the journey that counts.”

“The beauty of this industry is that age is not a boundary. As long as you don’t lose your mind, you don’t lose your creativity”

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Designer | Alexa Hampton

ALEXA

HAMPTON

By Elizabeth B. Hickman Photo Credit Courtesy of Potter Style/Scott Frances

What does Alexa Hampton love best about decorating for the holidays? “I love the Pavlovian response to decorations that we all experience over the holidays,” says the noted interior designer, who is known for her furniture, fabric, trim and lighting designs in addition to leading the company Mark Hampton, LLC, which was founded by her late father, the famed Mark Hampton.

“Unlike other times of the year, holiday decorations bring such a sense of celebration with them, that on any given Wednesday work day, you feel like kicking up your heels,” she says. “The decorations say: it’s a party!”

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Alexa Hampton | Designer

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One of Alexa’s favorite holiday traditions is the annual gathering of the beautiful, handpainted ornaments that her father created for their family tree, which results in a very personal and meaningful display every year. Although the family ornaments are clear favorites, she loves mercury glass ornaments too. “They are terrifying to handle, but they twinkle and reflect the Christmas lights just perfectly,” she says.

candy is accessible and longer lasting than flowers… and who doesn’t love eating candy, or at least looking at it?

Interestingly, Alexa believes one of the easiest and best ways to trigger happy thoughts of the holidays is with something quite simple: candy.

Whether filling vintage candy dishes or jars,

We asked Alexa to reveal some of her favorite holiday decorating ideas, and she generously agreed to share some of her thoughts for creating a festive mood in every corner of a home:

“I can’t stand gingerbread, but a gingerbread house thrills me,” she says. “Likewise, glass jars filled with peppermints, red and green M&Ms and candy canes are a low-impact way to really evoke the festive spirit.”

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Mantel or Fireplace “I love garlands draped across the mantel. No crazy ribbons; just lush greenery”

Powder Room “Holiday hand towels and a holiday scented candle are just enough.”

Front Door “I like simple wreaths. But beware… sometimes fir wreaths can be stinky.”

Terrace/Screened Porch/Outdoor Living Area Visible from an Indoor Living Area “In my fantasy world where I would have a terrace, I would want repeating small trees strung up white lights.”

Entry Hall “I like candles, scented and otherwise for the entry and just a hint of the decor to come.

Also, who doesn’t like an amaryllis or some paperwhites on the front hall table? However, you have to keep in mind that I live in an apartment building and my front hall is not vast. Were I in a house, I might go for it a bit more with more garlands.”

Dining Room/Tabletop “I like ruby-red glass, black candles (not tapers, though!), and tons of red and green flowers in small bunches you can see over.”

Staircase “Garlands, of course, and for anchors, some wide red ribbons.”

Cocktail/Coffee Table “Just some flowers here…I take my coffee and cocktails seriously and I wouldn’t want to cede the space.”

Kitchen Island “Seasonal fruit that looks Santa-ready.”

Christmas Tree Ideas “White lights only, please. A great way to pull together a tree is to use one kind of ornament of which you’d have or get many. That way the tree looks pulled together even with tons of disparate ornaments thrown into the mix with them.”

Window Sills “I love the Swedish tradition of having a candle centered in each window. I would love to do that this year.”

Alexa Hampton | Mark Hampton LLC 654 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10065 Tel: 212-753-4110 Website: www.markhampton.com

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Designer | Bunny Williams

Bunny Williams Spills Her Secrets for a Well-Dressed Outdoors

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May’s the month of the big migration—the time we humans hit the deck to celebrate the great outdoors. Internationally celebrated interior designer, Bunny Williams, (one of Architectural Digest’s prestigious Top 100 honorees) knows a thing or two about imbuing the al fresco experience with singular style.

For a start, think outside your nearest big-box.

Its suites of matchy-matchy patio furniture are no guarantee of great style. “They tend to look heavy and overdone,” suggests Williams.

Yet a mishmash of too many disparate pieces can be equally unchic, looking “cluttered and distracting.” Williams’ go-to furniture features “the texture and personality that result from the meeting of teak and metal with handwoven synthetic rattan.” Her new line for Century is precisely that combo. Outdoor furnishings that combine varying textures “avoid the cookie-cutter look,” she explains.

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Bunny Williams | Designer

BUNNY WILLIAMS IN THE GARDEN

BY CANDACE ORD MANROE

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Williams recommends considering outdoor furniture choices within the context of both your home’s exterior and interior. “It’s important to tie the color of your garden furniture to the palette of your exterior, since the house is usually the backdrop. If your home is stone, then dark green or gray furniture is better than white. But if it’s white clapboard or has weathered shingles with white trim, then white furniture will look just fine,” says Williams.

Williams prefers a neutral palette in her gardens. “I tend to keep both the furniture and ornaments in a neutral tone. Black and dark green are common outdoor furniture colors for good reason: They harmonize, rather than compete, with grass and shrubs. I love to plant flowers in colors that work with my interior rooms. That way, I can always go into the garden and come out with a bouquet.”

Once the style and palette of major outdoor furnishings are determined, Williams takes a step back in time. “Throughout the years, gardeners have brought history to nature by introducing objects that heighten the garden experience,” she explains. “I like to take my time with these purchases, and always look beyond the standard offerings at the garden center.” She recommends scouring flea markets and online sites like Ruby Lane, poring over garden books, studying magazine photos, and visiting ornament suppliers.

“Ornaments need not be antique, or likenesses of Greek and Roman mythological figures,” she assures. Some vintage, however, is a must. “One of my favorite finds was a beautiful apple picking ladder, long and tapered. I thought it would look lovely leaning against a tree. I also love collections of vintage watering cans. I always include something old in an outdoor space—maybe a pair of antique columns or some crusty pots.” rubylane.com | 73

She describes her interior design style as “diverse—unabashedly mixed. To me, you get a much more interesting room that way.” The same holds true for outdoors, she insists. “On my kitchen terrace in Connecticut, for example, I combined a faux bois cast-stone table with an assortment of French and metal chairs. I love to bring my coffee out there and enjoy the morning sun.”

Keeping an eye open for the unusual vintage piece is essential to her brand of decorating. “For my kitchen garden, I needed something tall and thin, perhaps six of seven feet high. I found the answer in the form of a tin lightning rod set atop a wooden pole—an artifact that in a previous incarnation had served as a weather vane on top of a building. I don’t tire of looking at the patina on the blue tin rod, or the pole’s worn red paint, which in fact matches my barn nearby. It does what it’s supposed to do—draws the eye upward, toward the sky. A bargain, I think, at $150, and more appropriate than other, more costly choices.”

When searching out the ideal vintage ornament, Williams stresses one word: scale. “I find that bold is beautiful in ornaments, especially in a small garden. Just as large furniture makes a small room more powerful, gutsy scale in garden ornaments has the same dramatic effect.”

An en masse grouping of smaller items is another option for obtaining the proper scale, as they will read focal-point large. “It’s fun to arrange a group of objects you love—perhaps old wooden finials, stone architectural fragments, weathered birdhouses, or small wire baskets and topiary forms. At my home, I’ve gathered some of my favorite small pots atop a table.

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They get far more attention there than they would scattered throughout the garden,” Williams explains.

Long before she and husband John Rosselli married, they attended the Chelsea Flower Show in the ‘80s in London, where both experienced an epiphany. In response to lamenting New York’s paucity of good garden accoutrement like those to be had in London, they conceived their own Manhattan store, Treillage, on the spot. “We fill it with things that catch our eye at antique shows, flea markets and European buying trips—great containers, stone tables, old paintings, some new accessories. For us, it’s like a fun scavenger hunt.”

Williams is particularly smitten with vintage finds for outdoor entertaining, a favorite pastime. “I adore eating outdoors in all sorts of different spots on the property. I think it goes back to the fun I had as a child, preparing for tailgate picnics with my parents at various horse events.”

So these days, for picnics, she spreads out vintage straw rugs picked up in Morocco. And of course, a collection of vintage picnic baskets is de rigueur. “For more formal outdoor settings, I’ll set the table with faded Indian bedspreads that make great tablecloths, amber or cobalt glasses I’ve collected from Mexico, and lots of votive candles to add ambience. I’m always on the hunt for unusual votive candleholders.”

Whether it’s decorating with a collection of vintage votive candleholders or rusty watering cans, Williams’ ideas leave little excuse for an unsightly outdoors. It’s May - time to step outside! Decorate and savor the sunny pleasures of spring, in style.

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Designer | Carleton Varney

Carleton Varney in The Greenbrier’s Victoria Writing Room.

Photo Credit: Mike Wyatt

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Carleton Varney | Designer

CARLETON VARNEY MR. COLOR

BY CATHY WHITLOCK

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Considered one of America’s best-known and most accomplished interior designers, Carleton Varney has decorated homes, businesses and resorts all over the world. As president and owner of Dorothy Draper & Co. Inc., one of the oldest design institutions (65 plus years and counting) and named after his mentor and legendary founder of the company, the versatile designer’s work also includes yacht, cruise ship and private plane interiors, product lines (think china, fabrics, wallpaper and furniture), numerous interior design books and two novels, and a weekly column in the Palm Beach Daily News. And if that is not enough, the seventy-five-year-old designer still finds time to tape design segments for CBN’s 700 Club network, oversee an online store on Carletonvarney.com and run the Dorothy Draper & Co. School of Decorating.

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While his penchant for bright, bold, and brilliant interiors earned him the name “Mr. Color,” perhaps Varney’s work on Draper’s project at the Greenbrier Hotel remains one of his most famous.

Nestled in the hills of the majestic Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia’s small town of White Sulpher Springs, the award-winning Greenbrier is one of America’s greatest and most beloved resorts. Distinguished guests have included everyone from the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers to Presidents (26 to be exact), royalty (the Duke of Windsor and his wife Wallis Simpson and Prince Rainer and Princess Grace of Monaco) and Hollywood luminaries since its inception in 1858. The 10,000 acre property served as a vacation spot for Northerners and Southerners alike during post-Civil War days, housed an underground bunker that served as an emergency shelter for Congress during the Cold War and served as an army hospital during World War II.

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Photo: Courtesy of The Greenbrier

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A bold use of color and florals are characteristic of the “Draper Touch.�

Photo Credit: Michael Arnaud

The State Street suite features a painting of guest Princess Grace of Monaco.

Photo Credit: Michael Arnaud

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Legendary doyenne Dorothy Draper was hired to renovate the resort in 1948, placing her stamp of lavish color, oversized floral patterns and penchant for the Baroque style in the resort’s one-ofa-kind guestrooms, suites and cottages.

Her goal was to make the resort “feel like a large country house where everything has been provided for the comfort, pleasure, convenience and satisfaction of the beauty-conscious.” 710 guest rooms and 33 suites are filled with Chinese Chippendale, large cabbage rose chintzes and an explosive use of unexpected color combinations. Upon her retirement in the 1960s, Varney has been the resident curator and keeper of the flame, ever mindful of the “Draper Touch.”

Photo Credit: Michael Arnaud

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In 2009, Varney renovated the Greenbrier from top to bottom with Draper’s original design scheme of bold aqua, yellow and pink hues and Mid-Century modern furnishings. “We keep it alive by the spirit of color - black and white checkerboard, sky blue ceilings and wide striped wallpapers,” he notes. “Hotels can’t be categorized, and the guest rooms at the Greenbrier are one-of-a-kind. We make sure no two rooms are alike. It’s all about elegance.” And Varney should know as he has placed his own “Varney Touch” on the interiors of The Breakers, Brazilian Court and The Colony in Palm Beach, Manhattan’s Waldorf Towers and The Grand Hotel on Michigan’s Mackinac Island – just to name a few.

Grand staircase to the Presidential Suite.

Photo Credit: Michael Arnaud

Photo: Courtesy of The Greenbrier

Photo: Courtesy of The Greenbrier

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With its championship golf courses, a world-class mineral spa, 40 designer boutiques, and 103,000 square-foot casino and entertainment venue, the five-star resort offers something for everyone. Dubbed “Monte Carlo meets Gone with the Wind,” the recently renovated casino is underground and with its southern influence, unlike any gaming experience found in Las Vegas or the original Monte Carlo. Varney purchased the original Gone With the Wind chandelier that adorns the entrance hall (fans will recognize it from the Twelve Oaks plantation) from his friend and actress Debbie Reynolds’ collection of movie memorabilia.

The Twelve Oaks lounge also pays homage to the film and was updated with plaid carpet and tufted green bar panels.

Photos: Courtesy of The Greenbrier

For more on The Greenbrier, visit the resort’s website.

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Photo: Courtesy of The Greenbrier

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History Lesson | Christian Dior

Credits: Photos courtesy of Rizzoli/Dior Glamour/Mark Shaw 86 | rubylane.com

Christian Dior | History Lesson

Christian Dior

By Courtney Sconza

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Christian Dior (1905-1957) revolutionized fashion with a modern return to femininity after WWII. Fashion during wartime had been hampered by fabric rations leading to boxy, fabric-conserving shapes - not ideal for accentuating the female figure! Rationminded women were ready for a change, and Dior, influenced by memories of his mother and her friends in their elegant Edwardian dresses with floor-sweeping skirts, indulged in more voluptuous silhouettes. Working in Paris, his full-skirted designs used up to 20 yards of fabric and characteristically cinched in the waist to further accentuate the bust and hips. The extravagance of these designs contrasted with bleak post-war Europe, and helped to invigorate and re-establish Paris as the fashion center of the world.

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Introduced in 1947 and dubbed the “New Look” by Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief, Dior’s new design became extremely popular and a welcome departure from wartime uniforms. The shorter hemline and fitted bodice were quickly copied and spread all over the Western world, influencing fashion designers well into the 1950’s.

Each of Dior’s collections had a silhouette theme - the first collection in 1947 was named “Carolle” or “figure 8”, 1953’s “Tulip” featured flowery prints, and 1955’s “A-line” moved to an undefined waist and smoother shape that resembled an “A”. By his final collections, Dior was designing narrow tunics, and sarilike wraps to accommodate a more casual lifestyle, yet the Dior look never lost it essential femininity and glamour.

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Dior was also the first to arrange licensed production of his designs. Licensing deals for furs, perfumes, handbags and stockings spread the Dior brand across the globe, generating revenue and making Dior a lasting household name synonymous with style and elegance. Considering how well known the name “Dior” is today, it’s amazing to realize he only designed under his own name for 10 years!

To read more on the life and designs, check out the book Dior Glamour by Mark Shaw (Rizzoli, 2014).

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Collecting | Mid-Century Modern

COLLECTING

MID-CENTURY MODERN

By Elizabeth Betts Hickman

As the period expands from the 1940s to the 1980s, collectors seek styles that define a vibrant century 90 | rubylane.com

Mid-Century Modern | Collecting

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While scholars of ‘Mid-Century Modern’ tend to define the period as roughly the mid-1940s to the mid1960s, many believe those dates are becoming a bit more elastic.

“It’s kind of like a good neighborhood,” explains antiques dealer Colin Reed, owner of Colin Reed Art & Antiques in Niles, Illinois, near Chicago. “If you live in a good neighborhood, a good realtor will start to expand the area. It’s a very good neighborhood right now.”

He notes that the style doesn’t include Art Deco designs from the earlier part of the 20th century, but generally now includes the 1970s and early 1980s.

“What happens with every passing decade is that things are harder and harder to come by,” says antiques dealer and interior designer Patrick Dragonette, owner of Dragonette Ltd. in Los Angeles. rubylane.com | 91

“To me the hottest area in Mid-Century right now is fine art,” says Reed. He points out that collecting Mid-Century Modern furniture and accessories has been increasingly popular, so while many have caught the fever, “they’re starting to look at good pieces of art to go with all that Mid-Century Modern furniture, and I feel like that’s a big growth area.”

On the other hand, he feels that there are very good values to be found in mid-level Danish modern period pieces. Top furniture by name designers remains in demand with top prices to match, but sales have somewhat slowed when it comes to Scandinavian styles that were manufactured in quantity and in many cases were what he terms “knock-down furniture” – items designed to be packed flat and assembled in the U.S.

lighting and French lighting,” says Dragonette, pointing to the increasing desire for FontanaArte pieces and designs by Max Ingrand.

“It was unique. It was expensive to begin with and there’s not a ton of it.”

As the first generation of people who purchased Mid-Century Modern pieces when they were new start to move to smaller spaces, more and more objects are coming to market, and there is a wide range of quality and style, which means opportunity. However, one thing remains constant.

“It’s finite – there’s only so many things,” says Dragonette. “My advice to someone who was starting out, who said ‘I really like these things’ would be to buy the very best you can afford. When you are talking about custom goods, there And don’t forget furare certain designers, niture and accessories such as Billy [William] Photo courtesy of Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art made in the U.S. Haines and Samuel Marx, who only made custom furniture,” he “There’s a lot of really great quality American adds. “They both had a stable of motifs. For furniture from the mid-century that’s not really every client it would be a little different.” expensive,” says Reed. Plenty of smaller companies didn’t employ cutting-edge designers and Collectors should pay critical attention to provtherefore didn’t produce the edgier Mid-Century enance, or the documented history of a parModern pieces, but “they did produce good deticular item, and become educated about spesign,” he adds, “and they’re certainly affordable.” cific designers, their clients and manufacturers.

“When you’re buying custom furnishings, provLighting is also hot. enance is of utmost importance, who it was made for,” says Dragonette.

“I think there’s a real interest in great Italian

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“To me the hottest area in Mid-Century right now is fine art”

Dragonette’s designs for the Gentleman’s Study at the Greystone Mansion’s 2012 Maison de Luxe showhouse in Los Angeles.

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A Mid-Century modern room exhibit features a great representation of the style at the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art in Denver.

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AMC’s Mad Men introduces viewers to Mid-Century Modern as shown here in Don Draper’s Manhattan apartment set.

And while condition is also critical, another thing that collectors of the style should keep in mind is that new upholstery doesn’t generally ruin a piece, provided that the job is done exceptionally well.

“We reupholster most everything,” says Dragonette, who approaches his job as a good gallerist would, and makes a point to archive pieces of an item’s original upholstery.

After all, he wants clients to adore their pieces and truly live with them.

“My biggest advice is to buy the things you love and that you get excited about,” says Dragonette. “It makes all the difference in the world.”

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Starz Channel’s Magic City featured fabulous Miami Mid-Century modern interiors.

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Jansson Arabesque Chair

Kagan Contour Chair

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