Colette Check

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when checking in with Colette on checks-She said she had checked out the checks at Christopher Kane last Spring & was wowed, but passed on them.
His collection of checks is what mad geniuses like Kane do with checks.  The Spring 2010 collection was inspired by the cult of Jonestown,  a 1980's image of Nancy Reagan strolling the grounds of the White House  & Jeremy Irons' tailored vest in the film Lolita.
GOT IT? Oh Yes, and gospel & spiritual music.
That clears things up quite a bit-Yes?

Irregardless- the intricacy of pattern play, tailoring, the mix of beading  & Oh yes! Checks-makes it worth checking into.

As always Colette has an eye for showing Us whats' what & putting her finger on that certain something that sticks with Us.

In the Checkered Past story I suggested she do up something in checks for her next evening at Nicky Haslam's Hunting Lodge-  offering up several looks from past designers to inspire her.  She writes "I constantly battle my penchant for checks (and stripes for that matter)...i cant seem to stop! Christopher Kane's gingham dresses last year were a painful temptation that i resisted thinking them too 'on trend'...and now of course, regret. Lesson learnt and i will send pics of the ensemble i now feel i simply MUST whip up."

Checkmate!, Can't Wait.
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Colette van den Thillart on the mixology of Lavender

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Corbis image

"Lavender lends itself terribly well to what I call metamorphic colours 

-colours that change and are complex."

Jacques-Emile Blanche's In the Mirror

image from it's about time here

 "Aesthetically I have always loved it in the garden...it works so well with grey greens especially."  

 Liotard's Empress Maria Theresa

"It was my grandmothers favorite colour so I had slightly 'old fashioned' aesthetic hang ups in regards to decorating with it, 

but Nicky really brought home to me the potentials of the colour."  

Haslam's Shutter Stripe in  Cloudy Lilac

"I have learnt to think of it as a neutral and use it more and more.  It sets off and calms almost any colour palette and when used in a scheme can provide a whisper of necessary clash... that invisible note of the unexpected."

"Reflective silks, silk velvets and lacquer finishes come to life when there is the slightest tint of lavender in them.  Nicky often adds a dash of it to old white ceilings for that hard to place sense of faded grandeur...."

  oil sketch of madame X giving a toast 

John Singer Sargent

Lavender is that wonderful sensory colour that conjures not only visions, but certainly smells, and especially tastes.  Only just this weekend I bought some lavender infused black tea, and last summer while in the countryside of Ontario we experimented with Lavender ice-cream which was an enormous success.

Oh! 

"And a dash of lavender syrup in champagne never hurts either!!"

 Colette van den Thillart- interior designer , blogger here,   here



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Voo Doo

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One of the reasons I started little augury,
Yes, Yes,I know you have heard it before, It began as a way of continuing a conversation with a beloved mentor and a promise to keep just a bit of his wit and wisdom alive by sharing it whenever possible. Along with this, an exchange of creative ideas-that was sadly lacking from my day to day design life.
 No More.

Prior to making the decision to -go it alone-in a business of my own, I worked in a place where creative juices were ripe. Working through a design project meant-getting feedback- inspired conversation. The owner of the design firm was a real talent with an acerbic humour that I could match-if need be. He was a great designer-as were a few others working there at the time. I still miss it- day in and out . .

Here is a place I would love to be in-not as a fly, maybe praying mantis. There must be a storm of creativity brewing in their offices on a daily basis. I am simply hypnotized. Cole Porter puts it this way:

Since you came my way

I am bound to say

things I once thought gloomy

now both bright and gay.

I'm so happy now,

and I'm sure somehow,

of this transformation

there can be but

one explanation:

You do something to me,

something that simply mystifies me.

Tell me, why should it be

you have the power to hypnotize me?

Nicholas Haslam and Colette van den Thillart have been everywhere since starting their own blog-they are in demand and with good reason as far as I can see. Colette says the two started their blog because they "thrive on creative exchange." So do I.

Right now Nicky Haslam is featured on the All the Best Blog and on the blog Style Beat. Read his rapid response here and here. He is also  featured in the United Arab Emirates The National.  Here is a bit of what he has to say about the direction of design in this year. "In 2011, I am most looking forward to this idea of 'heritage branding' that Suzy Menkes [the International Herald Tribune style correspondent] is espousing … I want design to be human and romantic. We need books - and not just on our coffee tables! And pictures and candles and layers … a move towards the quietly unexpected and less of this contrived hotel-style decorating."

Haslam finds inspiration, "what I like to call 'a germ of an idea' everywhere - from the grandest palaces to the most unexpected 'moments' … like a moss on a wall or a foil wrapper on a sweet … I am constantly inspired by fine (and not so fine!) art, fashion and shop windows - Louis Vuitton's and Harvey Nichols's have been fabulous." Haslam has recently begun blogging (you can find it at www.nh-design.co.uk/blog) and admits to rather liquid approach that includes Cool Hunter, All the Best, Little Augury, the Peak of Chic and An Aesthete's Lament.

The gentleman even sings.  A recent performance at the Savoy's Beaufort Bar Nicky says " I performed (note: not sang, am only too aware my talents lie in interiors and not singing!) the magical songs by Cole Porter whose lyrics have such depth, I simply adore his music." Since no video exists of this magical night Yet, I am hoping something will surface very soon. Here is a bit of voo doo from a sorcerer friend of Mr. Haslam's in serenade to the pair of design wizards-

 

and flowers-

 Mostly this twosome inspire. They inspire each other & are thoroughly inspiring others- especially me. Both cite the other- for their own inspiration- design twins? I think so.

(here & above)  Schiaparelli in collaboration with  Jean Cocteau

I could be a kissing cousin. No?

Colette recently wrote about "oily green"-a favorite color of the Haslam set. She cites the glossy green Hammersmith Bridge- that she traverses everyday to work as the color in question.

I'm sold on it obviously. Right now, I am using it in a Library. 

Here it is- still very much in the works.

Colette also talks about pink and violet as decorating neutrals.

I like it-

 some of my favorite colors, projects and  personal collections.

 read all of my recent NH Design posts here for inspiration (here), & go to Nicky and Colette's blog (here). I check in every day, you should too.



1st image of the great Jean Cocteau.


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wing and a prayer

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 detail of Cavallini's angel

I am utterly inspired right now by the new blog  COLETTE van den Thillart and Nicky Haslam are writing.  A recent COLETTE entry- A WING AND A PRAYER started me thinking.
Now-You may say, Here We Go.
Well Yes.
come along.

photograph NH Designs

Collette talks about a recent shop acquisition and the co-opting of classic symbolism into massively mass production-she puts it this way concerning : "Wings, like skulls, have become by and large cheap clichéd symbols of our time" CvdT This console, acquired by Nicholas Haslam Designs- wings and all- Is 18th century.

photograph NH Designs

This one- or "pair" as it were- Is the exception- and isn't there an exception to every cliched cliche?
So there-
The Wings.
The prayer would be- to host on high-that it was Mine. No, it was not to be. It was scooped up by lofty Haslam clients immediately.

Along with the Wings everywhere, Skulls must be dealt with. What does it all mean? Wings? Skulls? The motifs are ever present in Momento Mori imagery from centuries past telling the earth bound "Remember your mortality."
Embraced in our Youth obsessed world today-unusally enough- it is easy to dismiss them as Trend. Fashion. They will be Out and the next big thing is In.
I do have a little skull here and there.
I embrace.
I would definitely have this-

I spotted this Delfina Delettrez  ring  about 2 years ago.

So don't shy away from a gorgeous skull, it has been knocking about since-

 Pompeii

 &

Sophocles

“Let every man in mankind’s frailty

Consider his last day; and let none

Presume on his good fortune until he find

Life, at his death, a memory without pain.”

Sophocles

& so it is with Wings,

 Pompeii

&

yes, snakes- (the next "big" thing.)

Pompeii

Pompeii had it all- everything, it started there & never stopped.

we grasp at something new, undiscovered.

it had all been done -B.C.E

& I mean everything darlings, 

Pompeii.

& I'm not talking about jewelry -

but they had that too-

Pompeii

I would have this in an instant & I would wear it with my
Delettrez skull.

Victorian gold and diamond snake bracelet at 1st dibs 

Are you on Trend or are you already into snakes?

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thanks, and thanks.

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"I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks."

-Shakespeare.

 to Nicky Haslam for naming little augury as one of his favourite blogs of the moment on the Life.Style.etc website of the UK magazine Livingetc. HERE.

&  another current favourite he names is Amanda Eliasch’s RAT TAILS. I checked it out and I can see why, can not wait to subscribe there

when asked in the lifestyle.etc interview:

What can we expect from your blog?

he answers:

The unexpected, the unsuspected, the unforgotten, the unexplained, the chic, the charming, and the cool.  

 this composition of benches by Haslam encapsulates all that

 image from his SHEER ELEGANCE book

&  this is why I am loving his own, written  by  NH and NH Designs Creative Director Colette van den Thillart.
Here is their OWN

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why don't you?

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 Colette and Nicky

at the UK Redeeming Features book launch

this is one of the things I must do. No-not get busy working out, well- Yes that too- but I am thinking about that DRESS.
Colette van den Thillart, Creative Director of Nicky Haslam Designs  is wearing Shutter Stripe fabric ! She says" I had it specially printed in this ‘Grisailles Grey’ so that’s a bit of a cheat – but it did turn heads!"

She looks fantastic- I have always loved the fabric and now Colette says "we have started producing this in 12 colourways as part of the Random Harvest Collection by Nicky Haslam for NH Design."

Colette with fellow Canadian Katharina Flohr, creative director of Faberge

This fabric was one of John Fowler's favourites. I wrote about the Prince and heir apparent NH- here -'the Shutter Stripe is nothing but one of the most clever fabrics I have ever seen-Well does that make Colette's dress one of the most clever then?
Yes.
She remarked when quizzed about the reaction: "Funny enough not that many people ‘clocked it’ at the UK party, but when I wore it in NY..Stephen Drucker, Mitchell Owens and a host of other Fowlerites spotted it right away."

a Fowler room dressed in Colette's dress

I have stowed back a dozen fabrics or more over the years to have something done up to wear.
A Scalamandre silk lampas will be a dress coat , a Kelly Wearstler embroidery- a weskit, a perfect shade of grey glazed chintz- a tailored suit, a Glant sparkling black polymide is awaiting the perfect evening skirt- and so goes the list. At some point I had a fine wiz at the machine but after smocking too many curtains, making too much looped cord trim for pillows and chevron quilting cornices- She suddenly took a very early retirement- I wonder why? I should have been feeding her threads and fabric to get these things made.

Now I have to make a start-
& I should maybe add Shutter Stripe in a tailored jacket with tiny covered buttons?
do you stash fabrics away to frock?

why don't you?

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blog BLISS

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 NH & friend read the blog entry here

in the sphere of blogging there are some stellar ones. new discoveries shining out. One I am especially admiring is the new Nicky Haslam blog. I have written-He is the One, my decorator for the decorator. Is it his ability to nimbly create fresh "period"spaces, references to the grand rooms of the past or his personal joie de vivre?
Inevitably -It must be both.

 

Photograph from the daily mail online

Now- lo, Nicky & his Creative Director at NH Design, Colette van den Thillart, pictured above are writing the posts and they are going to be all about favorite topics like- design, parties and his inspirations. Can not wait to get caught up on the posts and follow along. If you've read his rollicking biography-memoir You will know the blog will be buzzing.

This is a great new resource for great things- So get off to this post and read the article from Financial Times by Nicky, HALLOWED HAVEN  It is all about the English drawing room. My favorite line from the article is:

The room should not be immaculate: otherwise it becomes stiff, formal and uninviting. NH

My new credo
&
My "if only." room by NH.

Other NH posts at little augury are HERE.
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