DESIGN: Formality and Comfort

An historical house in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, where views from all the windows are remarkably 18th century, all houses in the neighbourhood are of the same period and stand proudly in their manicured gardens. 

I thoroughly restored the house - adding an elevator which became invisible, a stable wing was made habitable, two new staircases were added - while paying the utmost respect to this gem of colonial architecture.

On the dining room wall hangs 1820's scenic French wallpaper--carefully restored; Eau de nil silk taffeta blinds in the window; a good quality linen tablecloth; a comfortable 18th century chair in striped velvet - Et voilà.

GARDENS: Gardens of Persia by Penelope Hobhouse

GARDENS OF PERSIA is the first book to explore the evolution of the Persian paradise garden from its ancient beginnings to today's modern designs...

The magical Garden of Fin, Kashan, Iran 

Naranjestan garden in Shiraz

The mausoleum of Ne'matollah Vali, Mahan, Iran

Bagh-e Shahzadeh [Prince's Garden], Mahan, Iran

DESIGN: Picasso from Architectural Digest

A house on East 71st Street, New York, USA - Picasso always helps me decorate!

BOOKS: Evelyn Waugh 'Winner Takes All'

Extract from 'Winner Takes All':

Throughout the peevish months of waiting Mrs. Kent-Cumberland had fortified herself with the hope that she would have a daughter.  It would be a softening influence for Gervase, who was growing up somewhat unresponsive, to have a pretty, gentle, sympathetic sister two years younger than himself.  She would come out just when he was going up to Oxford and would save him from with either of the dreadful extremes of evil company which threatened that stage of development-the bookworm and the hooligan.  She would bring down delightful girls for Eights Week and Commem.   Mrs. Kent-Cumberland had it all planned out.   When she was delivered of another son she named him Thomas, and fretted through her convalescence with her mind on the coming hunting season.

INSPIRATION: The stupendous Villa Farnese at Caprarola in Lazio, ITALY

The Helicoidal staircase is a favourite design of mine. There is another like it in the Vatican and also Palazzo Barberini in Rome...the latter by my beloved architect Borromini.

My banana tree loves heat

TRAVEL: The Alps

Glorious -The Alps in summer when the sun shines:

 Gstaad in Oberland, Canton de Berne, Switzerland

A club on top of a mountain

Lucerne Festival: Canton de Lucerne. The Concert Hall designed by Jean Nouvel - a wonderful space, the auditorium has excellent acoustics....Mahler cancelled and replaced by Incidental music to Goethe's - "Egmont" op. 84, Beethoven, and Mozart's Requiem in D minor K.626 -- the orchestra mediocre and the masterly Claudio Abbado (whom I worshipped in Salzburg) not on form.

Nordic kitsch

A dancing gentleman  

*******

Left: Productions from 1999-2010 Bregenzer Festival on Lake Constance, Austria: this festival deserves to be even better known... 

Only in the open air, by a lake, could such a production succeed.

Umberto Giordano’s opera about the poet André Chénier, is set against the background of the French Revolution. A most astonishing and unforgettable production.  A gigantic figure of Marat rises out of Lake Lucerne....victims of the Revolution, played by acrobats, are thrown into the water…extraordinary choreography by Lynne Page, directed by Keith Warner of Wagner fame...the costumes by Constance Hoffman are lush, ironic, and appropriate. The set by David Fielding is a miracle of engineering and ingenuity, the lighting by Davy Cunningham a marvel.  The orchestra were hidden in the concert hall behind the staggered seating and open to the sky and, surprisingly, the excellence of the acoustics or the singing, was in no way diminished.  Each of the singers had tiny microphones, visible only when seen on video.   

Death with a sickle haunts the opera

A production, so full of delightful tricks and surprises that were never gratuitous….Marat’s eyes light up and close, a singer appears in his open mouth, crowds rush up and down the staircases, over his shoulder, on to a platform held by a giant hand that swung away for more action on the side... Marat's torso opens wide...a giant knife pierces his side...all these miraculous coups de theatre enhanced the drama and made for constant excitement - a triumph!

POETRY: Aya-Sophia by Osip Mandelstam

In Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, the church, then mosque and now museum Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya) still looms large.

Aya-Sophia - here the Lord Ordained
That emperors & nations should halt!
In fact your dome, a witness said,
Hangs from heaven by a chain.

All ages take their measure from Justinian:
Diana, from her shrine in Ephesus, allowed
One hundred & seven green marble pillars
To be pillaged for a foreign god.

How did your bountiful builder feel
When - with open hands & lofty spirit -
He set the apses and the chapels,
Pointing them to West & East?

A splendid temple, bathing in the world -
A festival of light from forty windows;
Under the dome, on pendentives, the four Archangels
Sailing onward, lovelier than the world.

And this sage and spherical building
Will outlive nations and their centuries.
Nor will the seraphs' resonant sobbing
Warp the dark gilt surfaces.

Osip Mandelstam [1912] translated by James Greene  

FILM: SHOAH

The Holocaust documentary SHOAH [calamity in Hebrew] was made long ago in 1985.  It is harrowing but mandatory viewing.  It is by Claude Lauzmann - no archival records or film footage - utterly absorbing and informative. 

FABRICS: Shades of Grey are all the rage!

Left: John Stefanidis Fabrics: 

'Baskets' in Slate 

Right: John Stefanidis Fabrics

'Lucy' in Dove Grey  

Left: John Stefanidis Fabrics:

'Shades' in Charcoal








Right: John Stefanidis Fabrics

'Rice' in 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

DESIGN: Durries

Durries are the best summer rugs

--crisp and fresh--
cotton under bare feet is incomparable.

Above: The simplicity of stripes and chevrons - designed for a terrace in Greece

On the floor of a bedoom in Greece,
 a blue and white durrie from Jaipur

These durries were made to order and have an individuality not always found in shops, which are often too faded, the colours too pastel, of poor design, etc.  They are nothing like old durries which, at one time, were made in the jails of Northern India]. 

A simple design, in cream and terracotta, for an apartment in Athens 

A durrie for a guest bedroom on a Greek island

A durrie designed for a bedroom in Florida.
Note - John Stefanidis fabrics 'Flowers' and 'Floral' adorn the bed and stool

Details of durries designed for an island house in Greece