Veranda Jan/Feb 2021

“Preservation today can be a form of activism and a pathway for equity.” BRENT LEGGS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund 1, shared this eye-opening characterization of preservation with me last fall. I’d called him on the suggestion of my mother-in-law, after mentioning to her that working on an upcoming Veranda issue dedicated to Southern design had stirred my curiosity about preservation of antebellum sites. After all, how can one truly understand Southern style today without exploring its origins—and the ugly, often untold stories that lie therein? Of course, those stories are not just Southern but American, and they’re not limited to antebellum sites, as Leggs was quick to point out. In fact, of the more than 100,000 places on the National Register…

A COOL CROCODILE JEWEL, GRAPHIC SWEDISH RUGS, PATTERNED CHINA LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT & MORE! THE FIND • Sabrina Landini’s Freevolle sculpture table lamp, in hand-crafted and finished brass, with a silk shade THE BACKSTORY • “Freevolle is femininity, elegance, stability,” says Italian designer Sabrina Landini, who points to a pantheon of influences for her lithe metal silhouette, with its near-insouciant crossing of legs and gently pleated silk shade (aloft as though a skirt caught in an updraft). Among them, Rose Repetto, the French-Italian designer who pioneered the ballet flat (and put them on Brigitte Bardot for the film And God Created Woman); Line Vautrin, the famed French creator of sculptural mirrors and fashion; master glass artist Max Ingrand; and, not least, “Audrey Hepburn,” she adds. MEET THE MAKER • With the…

MIND-ALTERING PRINTS In her first solo venture, Beacon Hill alum Alexis Audette (inset) brings the rustic lino- and wood-cut expressions of old-school techniques to five digitally printed designs. Even more novel: her inclusion of sublime psychedelic plants ranging from yage vine to poppies and mushrooms MORRIS, ELECTRIFIED For his new Queen Square collection, London-based designer Ben Pentreath (above) delves in to the mind and archive of visionary William Morris, recasting 36 of the textilier’s iconic fabrics and wallpapers in thoroughly modern colorways—proof that the master’s vision springs eternal.…

WONDROUS ROLLAKAN FLATWEAVES swept through the mid-century like a comet. Led by vanguards like Märta Måås-Fjetterström, whose Båstad textile workshop has been a hothouse for pushing artistic boundaries since the 1920s, modernists spun Anatolian and Oriental motifs into a new, native dialect—exceptional and intensely colorful within Scandinavia’s already noteworthy weaving tradition. Today, the rugs re-emerge with remarkable range. Whispers of folk art blend with brilliant geometrics for a new class of kilims that transcend modernism.…

FIERY BARGELLO The flame-stitch motif gets its name from the Florence castle (and former prison) where a set of embroidered chairs were discovered. Excellent palace intrigue… IKAT ALMIGHTY Contemporaneous remnants of the resist-dyed fabric unearthed from Peru to Japan suggest unifying powers—heroic at the dinner table. POTENT DYED SILKS Han Dynasty elite would ply hostile nomads with the ultrafine textiles as a way to weaken their resolve. Indelicate guests might benefit from the same. MAIN PHOTOGRAPH, LAUREY W. GLENN; STYLING BY RACHAEL BURROW.…

JOY MOYLER: People are taking note of your work. How does it feel to have the spotlight? FLETCHER WILLIAMS III: It’s rewarding and encouraging that a wide range of people are attracted to this work and are part of the conversation, and to shed light on a practice so deeply rooted in the Low Country landscape. My curiosity for my own neighborhood and city, the development of new neighborhoods, and the destruction of old ones has unfolded into a body of work relevant to the conversation regarding social issues. JM: The materials you work with are varied: scrap steel, found wood, marsh grasses, automotive paint. Are they your language? FW: They definitely inform my work. I’m looking out of my window now seeing moss hanging from the trees swaying in the wind. JM: Lucky…