Moonrise Residence

From what I can gather from the myriad of interviews I've read, the art director and production designer of Moonrise Kingdom seem particularly proud of the Bishop Family Home set - and you certainly don't have to have more than a passing interest in architecture and design to appreciate how incredible it is in the film's opening sequence. Now I've never been to New England, and really don't know too much about its aesthetic beyond hurricane lamps and adirondack chairs, but that first 3 1/2 minutes seemed like a crash course in New England style. Well it turns out that the influence for the house was an amalgamation of five New England houses of varying iconic status. 

Thanks to a great piece on the film's official website (shout out to Focus Features!) I could learn all about the most important of these house inspirations. The first one, Conanicut Light on Rhode Island, was used solely for the exterior, and has been replicated almost exactly: (set house on left, real house on right)

Another great influence was Clingstone house, the inspiration for interior shingles, which literally sits out in the bay off Newport, Rhode Island. The New York times has a detailed piece on the house, but I'll just steal some of their photos:

From Comfort Island house, which sits on the St. Lawrence River right on the cusp of Canada, the designers took the Alson S. Clark impressionist wall murals and the kitchen and inserted them into the Bishop family home. And apparently they even rented furniture from the house itself!

Clingstone house images by Erik Jacobs from The New York Times

Comfort Island images from here

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

Edeline Lee Cool Cool Cool

Saw this collection on NY Times' T Magazine Style blog or whatever its called (I get so confused on that site), I thought it was awesome in a more wearable/down to earth Bouchra Jarrar kind of way, and I had no idea who Edeline Lee was so I looked her up. Now this collection is pretty cool, make no mistake, but the importance of presentation was highlighted for me because I liked these images a whole lot more than the ones on her website. I might not have given any of it a second thought if her website was where I'd seen it first.

T Magazine tells me that the collection is inspired by the Wiener Werkstätte, an early 20th Century design movement/collective. All very art deco and with an ordinary-as-art and beauty-is-practicality ethos. Lee's logo is riffed directly from the Wiener Werkstätte's, which is a little too literal for my liking, but I do like the subtle way that she's incorporated their design principles into the clothes. One lovely detail mentioned by T Magazine was the "beauty buoyed by craft: soft pleating of a cream-colored Grecian frock is anchored by an inner grosgrain belt that preserves its shape without interrupting its flow".

Special mention must go to the redhead. I don't know what that expression she has is, but it sure works for the clothes and the vibes. Also: Couture Winter 2012 is happening! Reviews coming shortly.

all images from NY Times

Mid-Century Madness

A couple weeks back I said that I'd do a post on what seems to be the entire world's obsession with 'mid-century', and I'm going to get to the bottom of what has culminated so far in Proenza Schouler's Googie collection - at least from the fashion person's point of view.

You may think this all started with Mad Men, but the seeds go back a lot further than that. In fact I think we should actually blame the whole thing on Brad and Angelina. I am sure many will remember 2005 and that infamous Steven Klein W shoot with Brad and Angelina in a 'fictional' state of domestic bliss. It would have been enough that they were portrayed in the 50s/60s family fairytale, but the whole shoot was actually a homage to Julius Shulman - the architectural photographer and unofficial ambassador of West-Coast Mid-Century Modernism (also somewhat of a god to anyone who is serious about design*).

And so with Klein and Brangelina the sparks were ignited, and in quick succession came the film and fashion industry fawning over anything Modern with a capital 'M'.

Next, in 2007, there was...

Mad Men

(look familiar?)

The following year there was...

Visual Acoustics

And a year after that in 2009...

A Single Man

Perhaps a little late, fashion designers have jumped wholeheartedly on this bandwagon, most notably at Celine with Pheobe Philo's Autumn'11 collection. And if the clothes aren't physically reflecting design elements of mid-century modernism, then they are imitating what was actually worn during that period, such Louis Vuitton's Autumn'10 collection. Of course Proenza Schouler's Spring'12 collection was a strange mix of the two.

And Vogue, being the proudly American publication that it is (never mind that many of these architects and designers were European) is never short on Mid-Century themed spreads.

Obviously the development wasn't as simple as this and sole responsibility can't land on Klein's shoulders, but this is the most entertaining and visually appealing rundown! Now personally I've always loved Mid-Century Modernism, everything that led to it, and almost everything that has stemmed from it. And here I am writing a massive post on it! But even I am getting sick of all this at the moment, and if one more person smugly mentions 'mid-century' as if they have a PhD in the history of design I might scream. Let's give it a rest fellas.


*Note: Sarcasm

Steven Klein images from W Magazine

Runway images from vogue.com

Fashion's Got a Good Thing Going With Chairs

The Proenza Schouler campaign came out today (or at least Fashion Gone Rogue posted it which is basically the same thing), and I noticed it has taken part in the latest growing fashion trend - chairs. Chairs, it seems, are the latest major accessory. Less practical than a purse, I am sure, but far handier at a table or say, in a waiting room.
I personally think this trend has something to do with the more general obsession people have at the moment with 'mid-century' (oh god this term mid century, sometime later this week I'll do a post about that), and nothing says mid-century more than a functional, yet gorgeous, chair.

With Proenza Schouler, the choice is obvious, their collection was based on some mid-century principles after all! Although the inspiration was the more trashy side of mid-century, but never mind.

b MAGAZINE (b magazine, anyone? anyone?) are definitely on trend with their chairs, with a vaguely uneasy, pool slider heavy interpretation.

But even earlier than these examples, Craig McDean made a most glorious tribute to chairs in a 2010 Vogue Italia editorial. I'm sure many would agree when I say that in this case the supporting cast almost eclipsed the leading ladies.

Boy do these chairs make for some pretty edgy images. I'm also picking up that these images are communicating that if a woman knows her chairs, she knows her design, and if she knows her design, then she is pretty sophisticated.

While I've got the chance I'm also going to throw in a gratuitous shot of some pretty important men with their pretty important furniture.

L-R George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames, Jens Risom

from Playboy July 1961

I guess the morale of all this is that if you are going to do anything in 2012, do it with a chair.

All editorial images from Fashion Gone Rogue

Playboy image from The Selvedge Yard