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Make mine a Pavilion
How was your birthday this year? because quite frankly however you celebrated, the ultimate birthday celebrations are Queen Lovisa Ulrika’s 33rd birthday in 1753. After a private theatrical...
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The Queen’s Taste: Trianon
I finally went to Versailles, it was Monday the palace was closed to the public and we echoed through the vast space of the state apartments, I could have cart wheeled through the Hall of Mirrors…WHY...
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Ground Rules
London is championing the crafts, the quality of materials, the detail and precision of skilled craftsmen. Experienced designers harness crafts to create unique pieces that give depth and character to...
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Elsie de Wolfe: Making of a Legend
You may not have heard of her, but you have seen her work, it resides in every fashionable interior’s combination of antique and modern, each trompe l’oeil tease and striped pavilion. It’s reflected...
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The Power of Provenance: Part 1
The Oxford Dictionary defines provenance as the record of ownership of a work of art or an antique, used as a guide to authenticity or quality. In practise provenance reflects the role that ownership...
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Civilisation
We fought to protect civilisation in WWII, and during it we saw the ultimate extremes of which human beings are capable: monstrous in fact to profoundly generous, brave and determined in the most...
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Can we go again? Ballyvolane
Ireland’s country houses are the stuff of interior dreams and good life fantasies, whilst the Irish ‘themselves’ are famed for their céad míle fáilte hospitality, That’s ‘guaranteed a grand time’ to...
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Decorex Sketch
September is a storming calvacade after the languor of Summer months, there’s endless shows, events and a constant instagram fizz of fabulous shots: are you Fashion Week frenzied? LDF? Focus-ed? 100%...
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woof!
As man’s (and gal’s) loyal best friend dogs have a special place in our hearts and homes. I spotted this interior the other day and the dog leapt off the page, for he is an heirloom dog whose presence...
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Just Deneuve
The wattage of Catherine Deneuve’s fame, her trajectory through film history and modern culture as Belle du Jour and France’s Marianne to Grand Dame and Auteur creates dazzling refractions it’s...
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Playing Hooky
There’s nothing quite like playing hooky? right, especially when it’s with your business partner in the name of ‘Research’, actually maybe we should call ours ‘R and R’ days (Retail gets a look in)....
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S(t)ill the Best?
Do you remember your first tear sheet? I know, I know, it’s not quite up there with some other firsts, BUT… Way back when… I ripped out this American decorator’s guest house, oh alright, like 17 years...
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Library Lea(r)ning
Patrick Leigh Fermor was once described as “a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene,” he kept good company with Deborah Mitford, AKA the Duchess of Devonshire. Their...
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Sorgue Again
No matter how you arrive, once here, the heat seeps into your bones, rosé flows liberally, summer days are hazy, in tune with the cicadas and the path of the sun. The daily schedule and demands of...
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Haslam Has It…
So who… is best friend with Min Hogg, legendary founder of WOI was getting down with Tallulah Bankhead age 15 (in between Eton College term times) was a stalwart companion of Diana Cooper née Manners...
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Ode to the Swan
Alexander McQueen Swans, they are rather elegant aren’t they? beautiful in fact, as every girl whose read the Ugly Duckling knows. The stuff of fairy tales and ancient myths. Swans are devoted,...
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Chinoiserie Forever
When Lord Marchmain asks for a bed downstairs, he requests ‘the Chinese drawing-room; and Wilcox the “Queen’s Bed” ‘. His final days are spent in a Chinoiserie chimera – to aid his vision of a...
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