Dressing the Home

New York is a buzz right now in preparation for Fashion Week which begins tomorrow so what better way to start things off than by letting you know about a new book that peaks into the homes of some of the most talented fashion designers. Dressing the Home: The Private Spaces of Top Fashion Designers by Marie Bariller and photographs by Guillaume de Laubier has already been out in France but will be available here in either March or June depending on which online book retailer you check, and is perfect for fashion lovers and design enthusiasts alike.


I am excited for this book because I love see how fashion designers interprete their fashion aesthetic and style into the interiors of their homes. Some of the designers include Christian Louboutin, Catherine Malandrino, Patrick Cox, Betsey Johnson, and Diane von Furstenberg, as well as Dolce & Gabbana, who wrote the foreword.

Now, I just wish I could just get over this stupid cold so I can enjoy all the fashion week parties!

Achoo!

Habitually Chic apologizes for the lack of posts recently but she has a cold. She will resume her normal posting schedule when she is no longer an "incubus of viral plague". Good news is that she's one stomach flu away from her goal weight! Just kidding!

Photograph Kleenex, 2006, by Abelardo Morell

MODELOS DE COCINAS

Algunos modelos de cocinas para que puedan ambientar su hogar, los modelos de estas cocinas son super practicos donde puede ponerse de todo, se puede agregar mas muebles para poner mas cosas o artefactos.

DORMITORIOS JUVENILES MODERNOS

Dormitorios Juveniles Modernos
Estos dormitorios y muebles juveniles lo encontre en internet. Cada diseño se pueden adaptar a los nuevos espacios y segun las necesidades, creando ambientes minimalistas pero a la vez alegres y divertidos debido a su gran variedad de formas y colores. Claro, todos estos muebles dormitorios son una idea de como podemos diseñar los nuestros.

DORMITORIOS ELEGANTES Y MODERNOS CON CAMAS AMPLIAS

Dormitorios Elegantes
Otros modelos mas que encontre en internet, ustedes puedes modificarlos o agregar mas detalles a estos dormitorios muy elegantes.
Dormitorios hechos para crear ambientes únicos y personales, en confort y diseño podrá elegir el dormitorio que más se adapte a sus necesidades, modelos para todos los gustos y estilos.

DORMITORIOS MATRIMONIALES

DORMITORIOS MODERNOS Y SENCILLOS
Estos diseños de dormitorios encontre en internet. Espero les sirva de mucha ayuda a quienes estan buscando ideas de decoracion del dormitorio. Estos dormitorios tienen una composicion de lineas rectas y moderna y la otra es un modelos mas sencillo en acabados en chapas naturales. Bueno se ven muy bien y los comparto con ustedes.

DORMITORIOS MATRIMONIALES

Dormitorio Matrimonial hermosos y amplios

Aqui les comparto estos diseños de dormitorios que encontre navegando en la red. Todos estos modelos de dormitorios tienen un exclusivo acabado y muchos detalles para el deleite de todos, los acabados son en chapa naturales wengue, roble, cerezo. Asimismo en colores arena, chocolate y lacas en rojo ferrari, gris y blanco.
Los dormitorios son amplios modulajes tanto en camas, mesitas, tocadores, xinfonier y marcos de espejos.
Bueno les comparto todo esto porque a mi en especial me encanta todo tipo de diseños y decoraciones.

Chic City Kitchen

I was going to call this post, Chic Country Kitchen but then I remembered that the husband and wife owner's Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch don't care for the connotation that the phrase "country kitchen" infers, especially since theirs is in a loft in downtown New York. Regardless of what they call it, it's one of my favorite kitchen designs. The forced cherry blossoms add to the beautiful ambiance and have me drooling as well. I also thought that Decorno might need a little inspiration after her "home of never ending projects" post today. You can read the entire article about this chic kitchen here.

1) The island: The marble top comes from a lithographer’s studio in Indiana and had to be craned in through the window. Standefer found the tree stump in a forest, and uses it as a cheese platter or fruit stand.

2) The Garland stove: A well-used workhorse that was inherited from the loft’s previous owner, an urban pioneer who’d been there since 1968 and also kept a giant loom on the premises. She’d cloistered her kitchen in a dark corner of the loft. They moved the stove—and everything else—out into the open.

I'm going to have to do another post about the owners and their design firm Roman & Williams because they have a really interesting back story. They started out as set designers for movies and then started to get interior design jobs after a few celebs who admired their work started to hire them. There also came a point where they couldn't stand to watch all their hard work destroyed at the end of a shoot. They recently finished the lobby renovation of the Royalton Hotel in New York and word is that they have quite a few more celebrity clients. Now, I just wish they would post some photos online so we can see what else they have been up to!

Chic Shoes by Carmen Ho

My post about Lyell got me thinking about other designers that I love and my new obsession with Carmen Ho shoes. According to her website, Carmen Ho was born in Hawaii, raised in Hong Kong and educated at MIT where she earned a degree in business and architecture. It was a love of structure that finally led her to designing shoes.

"Wanting to fuel her imagination to create unique shoes and to run her own company, Carmen, armed with business skills acquired from her investment banking days, enrolled in the prestigious Ars Sutoria footwear school in Milan. She then went on to work in a leading Italian shoe factory, where shoes for Christian Dior, Prada, Andrea Pfister, Rudolph Menudier, among others were produced, to gain hands-on experience in design and production."

"Her design philosophy is to celebrate thoughtful details, discreet sophistication, and comfortable fit. She combines her multi-cultural background with traditional Italian shoe-making techniques to create shoes that are laboriously and lovingly made." And I agree. Her shoes are interesting and unique, as well as comfortable. The company also incorporates "social consciousness" into it's business practices which is an added bonus. You can check them out in New York at Bergdorf Goodman and other stockists online. Your feet will thank you for it!

Habitually Chic Shop: Lyell

One of the best things about living in New York, is the access we have to so many talented young designers. One of my favorites is Lyell by Emma Fletcher. The clothes have a vintage feel and remind me of a little bit like Mayle. They both have cute little shops on Elizabeth Street. But unlike Mayle, which I can barely get my arm into, Lyell actually fits. The line is romantic but also modern and wearable. They are also having a sale so if there was ever a time to check them out, it's now! Oh, and I hear a line of shoes is in the works!

The Geography of Bliss

I have a list of things I have been meaning to write about but for some reason, I feel very uninspired today. Perhaps it's because it's the most depressing time of the year. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read yesterday's post. I will admit that I am already sick of winter. Right now, I am dreaming of moving to a warmer climate because I think that sunny weather would make me happy. Well, in the new book The Geography of Bliss, author Eric Weiner, travels the world in search of the happiest place on earth.

I haven't read the book yet because if I bought it, that would be breaking one of my New Year's resolutions (you know, the one about finishing one book before I start another) so I'm curious if anyone else has read it and what they thought. It seems to be getting great reviews. I am very interested in reading more about the Danes who are the happiest due partly to their lack of materialism. Might be a book that should be required reading for all status conscious Americans. Myself included!

Worst Day of the Year?

According to a story on MSNBC, a UK psychologist has calculated that today, January 24th, is the most depressing day of the year. Apparently, it has to do with the cold and dreary weather and holiday debt. I guess the good news is that it can only get better from here!

So, if you are in need of something to cheer you up tonight, you can always head on over to the Elliott Puckette opening at The Paul Kasmin Gallery. Her new work looks to be mostly black and white and she is also experimenting with collage. If that doesn't work, you could always book a trip to the Caribbean. If anyone has any other ideas to beat the winter blues, let me know!

The House that Perfume Built

Not only were we rewarded this month by the beautiful profile of Francois Halard's home in Vogue, but of Frederic Malle's home in Men's Vogue photographed by Francois Halard, mais bien sur! The surprising part is that the Malle family lives on the Upper East of New York and not Paris! They decided to move here in 2005 and into a 3,000 square-foot triplex. Obviously, Frederic's perfume business is doing very well!

I love the mix of bright colors on the walls that set off the fabulous art and photography collection. I also don't think most people would pair bright blue walls with a red sofa but it all works. The photograph of the woman above is by Suzanne Lafont and the hand below is by John Coplan.

I always love peeking into home owned by Europeans. It always looks as if much of their furniture may have been inherited and the objects collected over a lifetime of travels around the world yet et it is also a place where modern objects feel at home. For example, a Jeff Wall lightbox and Arne Jacobsen Egg chair share space with a Veronese painting and a honeycomb bookcase by Sean Yoo.

The bedroom below incorporates an African wool bedspread and an eighteenth-century leather chair with a fabulously worn seat and more amazing art.

I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for Frederic Malle in the neighborhood or perhaps I should keep my nose open. I can imagine that he's probably the best smelling man in New York.

Does Robert Burke Owe Someone a Commission?

I was checking out Fashion Week Daily as I do everyday and came across the most interesting story below.

BURKE'S NEW PERCH: While juggling trips to Milan, Florence, Dubai, Qatar, South Korea, and Paris, where he is attending a few couture shows this week in between business meetings, Robert Burke managed to squeeze in selling his Murray Hill apartment. Not that it was ever on the market to begin with. "This realtor called me a few months ago saying her client saw the pictures of my apartment from Elle Décor posted on a design blog," Burke said. "She said, 'my client really, really wants to buy your apartment.'" Figuring he would never hear from her or the client again, the shrewd luxury consultant surreptitiously made an offer that was well beyond what would've been the appraised value.

Lo and behold, the realtor called back and said his client had agreed to the amount. Both parties signed the deal on Thursday. So now, upon his return from Paris, Burke, and his Steven Klein photographs, will be temporarily living out of a hotel until his new apartment--a full floor-through loft on Park Avenue South just north of Gramercy Park that's double the size of his old pad and comes with a rooftop terrace--is finished being renovated. "I'm going to have to get all new furniture now," he laughed. "This new place is more modern compared to my old place, which was classic--but not wound-up classic."

Now, I'm not exactly sure on which design blog they saw Robert Burke's apartment but I did profile it in it's entirety this past September in my post entitled Man About Town so it could have been mine. And in which case, I think I am entitled to a little commission on this deal. Don't you?! What do you say Mr. Burke? How about a little something for me?

Perfume by Kilian

It's hard not to think someone would be successful when their family's last name makes up the H in LVMH but Kilian Hennessy has worked hard and paid his dues and now has a wonderful new fragrance collection to show for it called By Kilian. He became interested in fragrance while studying at the Sorbonne and took classes at the Cinquieme Sens, a fragrance school in Paris, and later interned at Firmenich, a fragrance house where he trained with the best noses. Later, he went on to create and market scents for major fashion houses. It was only last year that he decided he wanted to create his own scent using the highest standards of the craft and "to put perfume back on a pedestal."

His collection of six scents is darkly romantic and has been deeply influenced by his love of literature. The packaging is beautiful as well. Each bottle is nestled in it's own handsome wooden box that actually locks with a key. Of course, this is not without expense. The perfume retails for $250 but later you can just pick up a refill for $95. Bergdorf's carries the Kilian line and so of course I had to peruse the collection and they all smell heavenly. According to Hennessy, "perfume should either be a shield, to create an environment of ease, or else a weapon of seduction." Sounds like my favorite, Liaisons Dangereuses might be of the latter persuasion. Check them out for yourself at Bergdorf Goodman or Aedes de Venustas.

The Women Then and Now

The movie The Women from 1939 is a bit of a cult classic in New York. Based on the 1936 play by Clare Boothe Luce, it follows the lives of a group of backstabbing, gossipy, spoiled New York socialites. Many fashion designers have admitted to watching it for inspiration so when I heard they were planning a modern remake, I was curious as to how they were going to do it considering that most of the movie centers on the characters traveling to Reno for divorces, which is no longer necessary in this day and age. But then I just read in Vanity Fair that the women in the new movie would be traveling to a "ashram-style retreat." Perfect! I can't believe it didn't think of that. Below is a photo of the new A-list cast.


The funny thing about the original movie was how modern the women seemed. You see them exercising and taking care of themselves just like today's New York socialites. Pretty funny then that they are remaking a movie that was already ahead of it's time. My suggestion is that you rent the original before you see the remake this fall.

David Jimenez Does It Again!

Kansas City non-professional interior designing wizard, David Jimenez, has been at it again. This time it's at his vacation home in Palm Springs where he has gone wild with color and pattern. He also has an amazing new website where you can check out more photos of his interiors and event designs. It's a good thing he's still working at Hallmark and hasn't decided to go professional because if he had, he'd surely give a lot of interior designers a run for their money! Enjoy!

Chic Pencil Cups

I came across the photo of Peter Som in his office above and thought it was very clever that he had used old Diptyque candle jars to hold his colored pencils. Then I saw he photo of Alexander Wang's New York apartment in the February issue of Domino and on his desk was an old Diptyque candle jar holding pens and scissors. Do all fashion designers think alike? Regardless, it's a fun way to reuse something that would otherwise be thrown away. Just clean out the old wax first so you don't ruin your pencils by freezing the jar or soaking it in hot water. Then enjoy your chic new pencil cup!