Recent Post -  Patmos Garden From the Archives Desert Island Discs

Thursday 30 June 2011

SERPENTINE GALLERY SUMMER PARTY

Long legs, short skirts -- the best organised party of the summer whose Director is the shaker and mover Julia Peyton-Jones. Wow!

Wednesday 29 June 2011

John Stefanidis Fabric Bokhara - available in 2 colours

John Stefanidis Bokhara


Bokhara Red on White
Bokhara Red on Cream




















Available from:

London:          Tissus d'Helene, Chelsea Harbour, London, SW10 0XF
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7352 9977
                        Email: tissusdhelene@mac.com
                        Website: tissusdhelene.co.uk

Miami:            Monica James, 40 NE 40th Street, Miami, FL  33137
                        Phone: + 1 305-576-6222
                        Email: sales@monicajames.com
                        Website: monicajames.com


Los Angeles:   Harbinger, Almont Yard, 636-A North Almont Drive, CA 90069
                        Phone: +1 310 858 6884
                        Email: Info@HarbingerLA.com
                        Website: harbingerla.com

Tuesday 28 June 2011

FLAUBERT'S ‘Salammbô’

BOOKS - FOR THOSE WHO READ PAPERBACK, HARDBACK OR KINDLE:


AT THE START OF FLAUBERT'S Salammbô  I thought his spectacular descriptions bordered on the grandiloquent – was it possible there were quite so many different races amongst the mercenaries at Carthage?....Gauls, Balearics, Romans, Lydians, Namidians to name but a few!

On arrival in Patmos, in the remote Eastern Aegean, the Goddess Amazon.com bequeathed me ‘The Great Sea A Human History of the Mediterranean’  by David Abulafia, Flaubert was fully vindicated….in 1000BC, Libyans, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Philistines, Ethiopians, Cananites, Hittites conquer, enslave, trade or enrol as mercenaries in each others armies….what a contrast to the provincial France of poor Madame Bovary!

Monday 27 June 2011

Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore at Glyndebourne

An annual treat is being invited to Glyndebourne by George and Mary Christie whom I admire immensely and whose forbearance and initiative have set the highest of musical standards at that phenomena in the East Sussex countryside.
This year it was Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore – Enrique Mazzola conducted like a master, Danielle de Niese as Adina did her husband Gus Christie proud [he is now Glyndebourne’s Executive Chairman]. Michael Wade Lee, the understudy, played a touching and believable Nemorino. 

Wednesday 22 June 2011

PEOPLE - Patrick Leigh Fermor


Patrick Leigh Fermor, died last week aged 96 – the end of an era – an ebullient life-giving force, a man who bore his erudition lightly and made Greece his home.  In The Peloponnese, he built a house with stone hewn from the mountains of the Mani [it will now belong to the Benaki Museum of Athens].

Travel writers emulate him and cannot – is it the age of communication which makes their craft more difficult? – who agrees with this point?

Tuesday 21 June 2011

PROJECT OCEAN AT SELFRIDGES


Thunderous applause for Alannah Weston - for PROJECT OCEAN at Selfridges - the windows, the cut-out fish, giant anemones...all splendid and all over the store.  A booklet at every cash desk is given free that shows endangered species - which fish are farmed...an excellent guide..every household should have one.
Project Ocean [in partnership with the Zoological Society] of London highlights the results of over fishing and encourages people to  to buy and eat fish from sustainable sources and is keen to conserve marine life.

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Blues in Art and in John Stefanidis Fabrics

"As in all things aesthetic, it is best to keep an open mind with regard to the decorative arts." John Stefanidis


Basilica di S. Maria Sopra Minerva - Rome - Filippino Lippi
John Stefanidis Gonfaloniere - Grey Blue/Red on Natural
A gonfaloniere in Renaissance Italy wore an elaborate costume to identify his position.
 This design was inspired by the embroidery on his coat. 




Barbers's shop in Maroussi - Yannis Tsarouchis
John Stefanidis Floral - Hazel

 

El Quitasol by Francisco de Goya
John Stefanidis Abigail - Indigo/Rose

Tuesday 14 June 2011

John Stefanidis visits Beijing, China



A painter mixing colours for me in a house on a Beijing park lake.

Affectionately, known as 'The Egg' - the stunning National Centre for the Performing Arts designed by the French architect Paul Andreu. 

   














Paving
in a
Beijing
park

A Chinese-themed bedroom I designed for an American client.

Thursday 9 June 2011

John Stefanidis Paulina

John Stefanidis Paulina

Colourways: Buttercup Charcoal, Biscuit Marine, Pink Navy & Stone Ink

Available from:

London:          Tissus d'Helene, Chelsea Harbour, London, SW10 0XF
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7352 9977
                        Email: tissusdhelene@mac.com
                        Website: tissusdhelene.co.uk

Miami:            Monica James, 40 NE 40th Street, Miami, FL  33137
Phone: + 1 305-576-6222
                        Email: sales@monicajames.com
                        Website: monicajames.com

Los Angeles:   Harbinger, Almont Yard, 636-A North Almont Drive, CA 90069
                        Phone: +1 310 858 6884
                        Email: Info@HarbingerLA.com
                        Website: harbingerla.com

Friday 3 June 2011

Tuscan Interlude Part II


Linen shops are plentiful in Tuscany.  They will embroider a name or a message in under five minutes. Left - monogrammed hand towels, and aprons for Paul - an incommensurable butler and chef supremo.












Antico Setificio, founded in 1786, the best hand-loom weavers - possibly in Europe - run by Sabine, once belonged to the Pucci family and has recently been bought by fashion giant Stefano Ricci.

Woven silks [Ermisino], brocades, linen and silk and hemp and other marvellous combinations of fibres and colours.  The factory has for decades woven on my behalf the grandest Florentine fabrics specifically to my designs - a treasure trove and a precious survivor of craft and excellence.  
 





Antico Setificio Fiorentino
Via L. Bartolini, 4 50124 Firenze

A dining room I created in the American Midwest, the chairs covered in a woven silk and linen brocade from Antico Setificio.  

I COLAZZI - After years of receiving invitations from Grazia Gazzoni to visit her family at this fabulous villa [designed by Michelangelo himself, or at least one of his pupils] I went to lunch.

Grazia met me at San Casciano and we rolled off into the Florentine hills. A total surprise - she had asked twenty four people in my honour, of which ten were old friends, one being Beatrice Monte della Corti, whose avant-garde gallery showing Rauschenberg, Twombly and Jasper John was in the courtyard of the palazzo where I lived in Milan for five years in my twenties. She subsequently married [Grisha] Gregory von Rezzori, the utterly charming epitome of ‘middle europa’. In his memory, Beatrice has a foundation at Santa Maddalena in Tuscany, a writers’ retreat, which yearly becomes more renowned for nurturing writers, each more famous than the other.
View from Villa I Colazzi


Abbadia San Salvatore


The historic medieval streets are intact at the centre of this small, industrial town near the summit of Monte Amiata.  The Abbey was founded in 743AD  and is to this day a monastery.  

John Stefanidis "Shades" features in House & Garden July 2011


 John Stefanidis 'Shades' in Charcoal

Features in House & Garden July 2011 (page 21)
"Black in Action"







Colourways: Indigo, Soft Pink & Charcoal

Available from:

London:          Tissus d'Helene, Chelsea Harbour, London, SW10 0XF
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7352 9977
                        Email: tissusdhelene@mac.com
                        Website: tissusdhelene.co.uk

Miami:            Monica James, 40 NE 40th Street, Miami, FL  33137
Phone: + 1 305-576-6222
                        Email: sales@monicajames.com
                        Website: monicajames.com

Los Angeles:   Harbinger, Almont Yard, 636-A North Almont Drive, CA 90069
                        Phone: +1 310 858 6884
                        Email: Info@HarbingerLA.com
                        Website: harbingerla.com

SABBATICAL; BOOKS