tell me

What's New?

Miss Ronstadt

It isn't much, but it will have to do until the real thing comes along.

putta...

nesca, that is.

using Nigel Slater's quick and simple recipe

Now playing - Frank Sinatra,  Pal Joey (1957) - The Lady Is a Tramp

love

this
 

song

Mission: Impossibly Smart

Boiled leather and stainless steel chair

by

Simon Hasan

 

Johnson Trading Gallery

Now playing: Sade - Skin

Peek-a-boo

I've been doing my washing today, haven't got a stitch on except my shoes.
I'm all in the rude under this dress...

I only tell you 'cause you are bound to have noticed.

Imperial Chinese court summer robe of embroidered gauze

You...uh...you can't see through this dress can you? 

I have been worried for fear of embarrassing you...

Oh, Mr. Sloane! Don't betray your trust...

Kath in the film version of Joe Orton's Entertaining  Mr. Sloane

Now playing:  Siouxsie and the Banshees - Peek-A-Boo

Make room for ...

Oliver Messel: In the Theatre of Design

 Edited by Thomas Messel 

Introduction by Lord Snowdon, epilogue by Anthony Powell with texts by Stephen Calloway, Keith Lodwick, Jeremy Musson, and Sarah Woodcock. 

Now playing: Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty, Act II. Panorama

S is for...

Serpent

and...

Salviati

Now playing: Blondie - Heart of Glass

Circles

Atsuko Tanaka
(1931-2005)

The formally trained Japanese artist who rejected the traditional notions of art 

and went in search of what she called... unknown beauty.

Untitled, 1964

Museum of Modern Art

Golden Work A, 1962

87H, 1987

Untitled, 1961

Round on Sand, 1968

Now playing: The Beauty Room - Don't You Know

Reformation of a minimalist

There are deep gouges in the parquet flooring, and paint flakes off the ceiling in the fashion designer Sacha Walckhoff’s fifth-floor apartment. He describes it as 'a little shabby’, and explains that the hairline cracks that creep their way up the walls are the result of this part of Paris’s 9th arrondissement being built on swampy ground above a small underground lake. Thus the building, from the 1820s, has been subjected to a fair bit of movement in its lifetime. 'When my mother visits she always says that we should repaint. But I love this. It feels so Parisian. - 

Sacha Walckhoff's eccentric Paris apartment by David Nicholls, The Telegraph

Now Playing: Julie Driscoll - This Wheel's On Fire

Vintage

Miss Hendryx

Above all else...

Jacqueline de Ribes  

by 

Richard Avedon 

Shortly after meeting Diana Vreeland, de Ribes was photographed for the Beauties of Our Time feature which appeared in Harper's Bazaar, April 1956. On working with Vreeland, de Ribes recalled -

 She taught me that day to be very self-confident, and she told me something very important: 
Whatever you are going to decide for yourself is going to be the the right thing. Don't get influenced. -

from,  Diana Veeland: The Eye Has To Travel

Now playing: Nona Hendryx - Now That I Know Who I Am

Let the mind and heart follow

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel

by 

 Lisa Immordino Vreeland

The book that inspired Immordino Vreeland to direct her first film, a documentary by the same name.

Last year, as I was conducting research for a book I’m writing on Mrs. Vreeland, I realised that her real strengths and subtleties needed to be conveyed in a three-dimensional platform in which she could come alive. Film is the most obvious and effective medium to communicate Mrs. Vreeland’s unique and visual journey. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel will be more than just an intimate portrait of the legendary fashion icon. It will capture Vreeland’s life visually through a multitude of media. Vreeland’s own voice and persona – strong, eloquent and often very exaggerated – will guide us through her life, adventures, accomplishments and passions.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 3rd September, 2011.

Now playing: Blueboy - Remember Me

Ab Fab

In the 1980s and 90s Sara Thorn was Australian clubland's answer to Zandra Rhodes.

Galaxy,  Melbourne

photograph by Kate Gollings, 1986

The joint venture that Bruce Slorach and Thorn (pictured reclining) established in 1985.  

Galaxy was Thorn's and  Slorach's first shop selling their Abyss Studio label. 

I see textiles not just as fabric, but as a form of cultural communication. - Sara Thorn

Thorn's latest incarnation is WorldWeave, a collaboration with Piero Paolo Gesualdi.

Mermaid Throw

Embroidered Felt Throw

Now playing:  Eskimo Joe - Sarah

Lost and found

The New Cars 1964 

by Lee Friedlander

In 1964, the then up-and-coming  Friedlander was hired by Harper's Bazaar art directors Ruth Ansel and Bea Feitler to photograph the year's new car models. As Friedlander's album covers (for many of the jazz artists at Atlantic Records) had already proven his ability to work on assignment and wishing to obtain his best work, Ansel and Feitlier decided that he should be left to his own devices.

Rather than glamourising  the then ultimate symbol of success, Friedlander ...just put the cars out in the world, instead of on a pedestal. The then editor-in-chief Nancy White was less than impressed and well aware that offending the car manufactures could ultimately harm advertising revenue. 

Though Friedlander was paid, the shots were never used and all but forgotten. That is, until Friedlander rediscovered the negatives in 2010.

Now playing: Gary Numan - Cars

Mistress of swing

French born American designer Pauline Trigère (1909-2002)

Inside Fashion: Pauline Trigere, 1984

Patricia Neal dressed by Trigère in Breakfast at Tiffany's

Pauline Trigère was famous for her coat designs, especially for her swing coats. This notable example shows how she has adapted her swing silhouette for use with leopard skin. The dolman sleeves are an interesting touch that allows for an attractive display of this handsome fur. Designed by Trigère, this coat, according to accession information, was made by Jerry Sorbana in 1962.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Now playing:  Ella Fitzgerald - It Don't Mean A Thing (1974)

Vintage

Miss Jones

Mid-century modern

A Mid-Century Eye: The Collection of Colleen Sullivan

Now playing: The Beauty Room - Visions of Joy

photo synthesis

Nick Leary's tribal inspired shoot for Australia's Next Top Model

Now playing: Yma Sumac - Tumpa

Who is she?

Who was she?

Who did she hope to be?

Hibiscus

Now playing: America - Sister Golden Hair

the figurative abstract

Lynn Chadwick (1914-2003)

Now playing: David Byrne - This Must Be The Place

Inspired

Alexander Rodchenko

Prototype 576 table light, 1971 

Made by Arteluce, 1971

Based on an idea of Germano Celant. Lights in the style of the Russian avant-garde of the 1920s, particularly after works by Alexander Rodchenko. Having acquired consent from the artist's widow, lights 576 and 577 were realised in very limited editions in the early 1970s.

One has to take several different shots of a subject,  from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again - Alexander Rodchenko

Now playing: Arthur-Vincent Lourié - Synthesis for piano op. 16

Almodovar's women

Luz Casal - Un año de amor

La Lupe - Puro teatro

Chavela Vargas - En el ultimo trago

Lola Beltran - Soy infeliz

Mina - Esperame en el cielo

November came early

 Almodovar's  The Skin I Live In is in the cinemas.

Part of the Almodovar magic has always been his choice of extraordinary singers.
And Concha Buika is no exception.

Here she performs Oro Santo with her artistic producer Javier Limón.

... un lamento como preludio de las horas muertas
horas que pasan con la agonía de una muerte lenta
vuelve el silencio a vestirme de oro mi santo...

Meanwhile...

Upstairs, Louis is gone...

replaced by  George.

A quick snap after installing the artwork.

Now playing: Adele - Rolling In The Deep

September issue

And it's back to school.

From the ground up.

The basement kitchen of the house that I originally, and rather wantonly, described as a very poor mix of neo Georgian, Arts and Crafts, and contemporary Scandinavian elements. With an absolutely hideous reproduction Louis XV chimney thrown in for good measure.  Whilst the assessment may have indeed been accurate, it failed to acknowledge that this was in fact once someone's house. And they undoubtedly thought it perfect. For them, it more than likely was.

However, to this jaundiced eye,  the house was lacking. 

Beginning with the kitchen and its adjacent rooms. The cherry wood cabinetry (replete with its quasi-Shaker details) and granite work surfaces looked dated and commonplace. And the overly bright colour scheme throughout seemed desperately cheerful.

Luckily the cabinets were beautifully made. And contrary to the current vogue of ripping out for ripping out's sake it was unilaterally decided to restyle the existing kitchen. Which, incidentally, had the most beautiful copper clad baseboards that would inspire the colour palette and the kitchen's details.

On the way to completion.

The kitchen walls were painted a dark green that was further deepened by 20%. The adjacent spaces were painted different shades of verdigris. With the space farthest away from the kitchen painted in the same dark green used as a tent stripe.

The morning room's rather innocuous cast iron Art Nouveau  chimneypiece was replaced

 with a larger ceramic Arts and Crafts example.

Now playing:  amp fiddler - Faith