CondeNast Traveler: “The Obsessed”

Whoops, forgot to post this last month! Worked on a portfolio of portraits for the May issue of CondeNast Traveler: six obsessive, globe-trotting collectors…of everything from street-savvy sneaks to Victorian trademarks. The subjects (who include my editor, Hanya! That’s her, camera-shy on page three…) were total characters and a lot of fun; read the brief interviews in the full PDF here.

Interior Design: “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

 

Wrote about a groovy office in Stuttgart, Germany, by the prolific and talented Ippolito Fleitz Group, who bill themselves as “identity architects.” (We will forgive them the goofy rubric because they are friendly and cool.) Online version here.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek: “One True Thing”

Have a little page in BusinessWeek this week (June 10)…the perfect desk lamp for
late nights on the job (something I know way too much about)!

Vera on the cover of New York Mag!

For the past week, I’ve been mesmerized by Anthropologie’s ooh-la-la Louisa settee, featured on the cover of New York Magazine’s always-eagerly-anticipated design issue. Finally went to look it up on Anthro’s website, only to discover: no wonder I love it…it’s based on a vintage Vera pattern! After spending the last year immersed in Vera-iana, I guess her delicious patterns have fully worked their way into my subconscious. Get the book here, or at bookstores worldwide in the fall.

Brooklyn Designs roundup

If, like me, you had to miss this year’s Brooklyn Designs on account of being sick (sucks), here are some of the best blogospheric recaps of the show:

*  Interior Design mag’s Laurel Petriello has one of the most comprehensive (and best-photographed) slideshows.
*  InHabitat (which sponsors the show’s green award) featured a great array of eco-friendly (and other) picks.
*  DesignSponge has lots of great pix, spread over three posts.
*  Otto-Otto posted some fun highlights too.

And some exhibitors, including Uhuru, will also be showing their goods at ICFF again this weekend–as part of the Noho Design District.

[top: KWH Vice collection, as seen on interiordesign.net]

Art+Auction: “Leleu Anew”

For the May issue of Art+Auction, I wrote a preview on the upcoming Jules Leleu show at Maison Gerard, which opens next week (May 20)! Got a sneak preview a few weeks ago–totally amazing. I had no idea that the House of Leleu had such a diverse output. One of the bigger surprises was artist Maurice Calka’s sculptural lacquered desk from the 70s, above–guaranteed to raise eyebrows of those who know Leleu primarily for its intricate inlays, parquetry, and metalwork.

After getting your fill of contemporary designers at ICFF next week, go check out the work of one of the greats who influenced many of them at 53 East 10th Street in NYC. Article here.

[Photo by Michael Stratton/courtesy Maison Gerard Ltd.]

LA Times Magazine: “Seoul Mate”

Wrote an article for LA mag’s spring design issue on Piere Koenig’s Case Study No. 21, which has been overtaken by New York’s R Gallery and Seoul’s One and J for an exhibition of contemporary and vintage art and design. Click here for the full article and slide show and here to read the rest of the issue (including the cover story on Kobe Bryant and Mayer Rus’s tour of an insane house in Joshua Tree). And if you are not already a devotee of Mayer’s naughty/hilarious blog on LA culture–”From Rus with Love”–you must start reading ASAP. It is too, too much.

[top: awesome photography by Jack Coble for LA]

Surface: Spring Fashion

For Surface magazine’s spring fashion issue, I wrote a small profile about upstart British womenswear designer Julian J Smith (a new fave of Victoria Beckham). Click here for the full article…

The Vera book: Out now at Anthropologie!

The Vera book is out: authored and produced by Susan Seid (president of the Vera Company and current owner of the artist’s archives), text by moi, published by Abrams, and wildly supported by Anthropologie, who made it all happen. The book is a gorgeous pictorial survey of the life and work of this pioneering artist and visionary entrepreneur, who rubbed elbows with Alexander Calder, commissioned Marcel Breuer to design her home and showrooms, and made the lives of ladies in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, so much more colorful!

Click here to buy a copy, here for the Vera Company’s newsblog, and here for more Vera goodies from Anthro–from dresses to scarves to wallpaper!

And check out this amazing Vera wallpaper Anthro is producing, I could die…

Also, click here for a nice story in W blog about the Vera/Anthro collaboration…

A “Picture Perfect” preview

Click over to Pointed Leaf Press–Suzy Slesin‘s design-centric imprint–to pre-order Scott Sanders’s quasi-monograph, Picture Perfect (featuring some text by yours truly). Or to snag a copy of any of their glossy tomes, which includes the definitive guide to Dorothy Draper and Mie Yim’s cheeky The A.B.C. of S.E.X (saucy!).

The format of Picture Perfect is pretty neat (I can say such boastful things because I had nothing to do with the cool conceit!): The book starts by introducing readers to Scott’s work–such as a retro pool house for art impresario Jennifer Rubell (below)–then segues into a step-by-step rehash of how he designed and kitted out a traditional-with-a-twist family home in New Jersey farm country. The book devotes whole chapters to the construction of the house and even the furniture installation (complete with hunky movers). A must-read for anyone building a dream home.

And if you’re a fan of the whole before-and-after design stories you see in shelter mags, you’ll looooove this book. Tons of construction shots a la the below!