Thursday 30 September 2010

Narry a whisper

Madame Schlumberger photographed by Eric Boman

Bob Colacello's The Wow of São has seemingly sparked little or no interest in cyberspace. Not one of the ravinshing details created by decorator Gabhan O'Keeffe has been swooned over or glommed onto. Surely the readers of the two or three remaining interiors magazines are the same audience as that of Vanity Fair? Perhaps Madame Schlumberger's rooms were simply too grand, too foreign, and too quixotic...



....nothing shocked Paris—a city where taste is everything—more than her over-the-top new apartment, on Avenue Charles Floquet in the Seventh Arrondissement. Conceived as a neo-Baroque fantasyland by the London decorator Gabhan O’Keeffe, it set São’s contemporary art and 18th-century furniture in a series of rooms that combined France with Portugal, Scotland with Persia, and Egypt with Hollywood. The pièce de résistance was the Andalusian-style terrace, with the Eiffel Tower rising directly above it. Dinner-party debates over whether O’Keeffe’s creation was “innovative” or “abominable” got so out of hand that at one soirée a pair of socialites had to be pulled apart before they came to blows. “It’s simply hideous,” said one visitor, “but totally fabulous!”



 She had more than taste. She had audacity. - Pierre Bergé





Eric Boman for Vanity Fair, October 2010


 The grand salon  photographed by Jean-Louis Garnell for Nest



Mme Schlumberger was living proof that there is more to being a Medici than simply money and influence.





Now playing:  Frank Sinatra - The Lady is a Tramp

8 comments:

P.Gaye Tapp at Little Augury said...

have to say-I could be quite comfortable living like that. over the top-yes some elements, but SO?
I am so attracted to that yellow & that what color is it teal? painted finish. the doors are monumental and that handle? don't think I am getting VF anymore, but the picture of those doors is worth a renewal.

katiedid said...

Why have I not received my Vanity Fair copy yet?! Perhaps I need to see if all of my bills have been paid.....hmmmm.

Christina @ Fashion's Most Wanted said...

Dear HOBAC, what fabulously daring colours. I love it and the Pierre Bergé quote is wonderful xx

Anonymous said...

Incredibly beautiful interiors, Mrs. Schlumberger fits the decor so well, like a queen commanding her court. The dining room reminds me of Queen Carlotta's bedroom from "Desperate Living".

Lynne Rutter said...

wow! my dream life!

Jill said...

Divine...I would not be reading in that bed!

Jon said...

What an absolutely fascinating blog - thanks indeed for highlighting the story of a style maven... Jx

Easy and Elegant Life said...

O'Keefe's party sounds like a fun evening...

What's that line from "Tender Is the Night"?

"I want to throw a party, a really bad party, where drinks are thrown and people get divorced." Or something like that.

I may have to subscribe to Vanity Fair....