A Whole New World

I tell ya, I get all Aladdin every time I read a new issue of World of Interiors. There is this whole universe of interior design and decorating and furniture and textiles that I never knew existed, and dipping your toes into it is terrifying. Googling "Louis XVI furniture"? "Moroccan tiles"? Whoa, don't do it man unless you want your mind to be blown. I guess it's like walking into a record shop and saying "I'm getting into classical music - what can you recommend?"

But I can take baby steps. One step was appreciating this beautiful editorial (editorial? I don't know the lingo when it comes to interiors rather than fashion) from the November 2012 issue on contemporary printed fabrics. 

It's far easier googling the name of individual designers, and I've found a couple of favourite textile designers. Sure they don't have much competition for my "favourite" status yet, but I'm sure they'd still stack up once my knowledge expands.

Katie Ridder is routinely described as being "whimsical", but I hate that adjective so I'll say elegantly graphic with a keen and restrained sense of colour. The "attendants" print (below, top left), which can be see in one of the sacks above, is my favourite.

Soane Britain doesn't portray figures or objects in the same way as Ridder, rather they use mesmerizing  deceptively simple, and wholly encompassing patterns, employing once again colours that I just want to eat. That pinky-red is like the jam from sponge cakes, that orange like the juiciest mandarin.

But it must be said I'm already regretting becoming interested in interiors. I thought my relationship with fashion was expensive - but it couldn't prepare me for £150 - £276 for a metre of any of this fabric. I'll have to resign myself to gazing at their representations on the computer screen.

images from respective designers' websites & World of Interiors magazine

An Ode to One's Bed

It is obvious now that when I said, over a month ago, that I was going to be "very sporadic" in my posting, I was very much lying. Not that I knew it at the time, but a lie nonetheless.

But that's ok! I'm back now! In celebration this post is about the thing that one (a.k.a. me) tends to dream about when sleeping on couches and uncomfortable trundler beds when you are overseas and have no say about where you sleep: your own bed.
One's own bed is a very special thing. You may not have spectacular linen and a fabulous mattress and a bronzed bed frame, but it is yours and it is where you rest each night and thus it is important. Beds, in my opinion, also radiate a special sort of calm. Looking at a photograph of a bed (in a bedroom, that is an essential) can be quite meditative, very peaceful. And World of Interiors, of course, produce the best, most peaceful photos of beds out.

So put on some jazz or white noise and peruse through these...

World of Interiors

This isn't about fashion but it's still about how things look so... it fits! It's all aesthetics after all. There's this fantastic magazine called World of Interiors, which IMO isn't good just because of its interiors but also because of the architecture that comes with it. You can get quite a few architecture/design magazines but I think you should avoid most of them because they are v. pretentious (ahem Wallpaper), and lack a certain... soul. World of Interiors, on the other hand, has an abundance of soul. It features the houses and apartments and studios and castles of writers and artists and designers and regular folk from all over the world, and they are all photographed incredibly beautifully.

                                                                        Yves Saint Laurent's bathroom!


Y'know it does have somewhat of a link to fashion. For one thing, the way the magazine is organised is very similar to fashion magazines - the first half of the magazine is about products or reviews and bits and bobs, with the second half dedicated to photo-heavy spreads. For fashion this is editorials, and for World of Interiors it is pages and pages of these beautiful spaces. And for another thing, many of the writers and owners of the houses are sneakily connected to fashion. You've got Yves Saint Laurent's house in the country, Hamish Bowles' Parisian apartment and even one of the homes of Anna Wintour herself.

                                                                              The writer Goethe's house

Out here on the internet you can get a similar-ish kind of deal with The Selby. He has some pretty nice photos too, but I don't like it so much because I find the main focus is on the people who live in the spaces. It's not "this house is designed immaculately" it is "LOOK INSIDE OLIVIER ZAHM'S BEDROOM HE HAS COOL STUFF". World of Interiors doesn't (often) put people in the spaces. It let's you focus on the aesthetics and that is what gives the photos such a beautiful sense of stillness and peace.

It doesn't restrict itself to design either, and has features on art and festivals and all sorts of wonderful things - one of my favourite's was about the man who maintains the clocks at Versaille.