Inhaltsverzeichnis für Spring 2018 in MILIEU

WE GO MANY PLACES in this Spring issue of MILIEU. A small town tucked into Italy’s Amalfi Coast, a family-friendly resort at the foothills of Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, an artisan workshop in Portugal, and lovely homes in Normandy, the Bahamas, Santa Fe, Palm Springs, suburban D.C. So often, where you go in life is about where you’re from. I live in Houston, but I’m from a small town in West Texas called San Angelo. While I have not lived there for some time, it is my original home and always will be. Which got me to thinking about Texas and the special hold the state has on those who grew up here. Once Texas is in you, it’s always in you. For one of our features in this issue,…

ROGER HODGE Writer and Editor Even in his longtime Brooklyn home, the writer and editor Roger Hodge admits to feeling “a tremendous pull” back to the West Texas landscape in which he grew up. For Hodge, it’s the Devils and the Pecos rivers of his home state, the Chihuahuan Desert and Edwards Plateau that continue to resonate. As a very young man, Hodge made his name in New York—and throughout the literary world—as editor in chief of Harper’s Magazine, a goal he set for himself when he moved to New York in 1991. Within a decade, he was at the top of the masthead and is now deputy editor of The Intercept, a highly influential online publication. “I grew up on a ranch, where we raised cattle, sheep, and goats…

Houston’s Joyce Horn Antiques Ltd. and MILIEU co-hosted a book signing party for The Authentics: A Lush Dive into the Substance of Style (Clarkson Potter), a new volume by Dara Caponigro, creative director of Schumacher, and photographer Melanie Acevedo. Amid Joyce Horn’s collection of fine European antiques, guests learned about four American originals featured in Caponigro’s book—interior designers Miles Redd and Kelly Wearstler, TV actress Peggy Lipton, and designer icon Johnson Hartig—and the ways they embody style. For more images, visit milieu-mag.com…

1. Establish your home nest with Anker Bak’s Rocking Nest Chair, from Carl Hansen & Son, the inspiration for which was the designer’s sister who was seeking a practical piece of furniture to rest and relax in with her newborn. Available in oak or walnut combined with stainless or powder-coated steel. carlhansen.com 2. Cast light with the Claw table lamp by Charles Edwards. The lighting element is inspired by a French design dating from the 1900s. The mobility of the ball at its base enables the arm to be moved in any direction. Available in a range of metal, paint, or combination finishes. charlesedwards.com 3. This French Louis XVI-style grouping of two winged cherubs was designed by Antoine Durenne (1822–1895) and is signed by its maker. While this version is…

Susan Snyder Susan Snyder, head designer/founder of the Himalayan Cashmere Company in Nepal, is an American who trained at the Detroit Institute of Arts and The Cooper Union in New York City. She left America for Asia to start a unique hand-manufacturing artesano weaving workshop in Kathamndu, where she became a pioneer in the cashmere boom, working with Calvin Klein Home, Donna Karan, and Polo Ralph Lauren. David Flint Wood Twenty-five years ago, David Flint Wood threw in a perfectly decent career in advertising and ran away to run an eight-room hotel and a bar on Harbour Island in the Bahamas. Not long afterwards, India Hicks “wandered into his gin joint” and they began a family together. They restored an old house, then built cottages to handle the overflow of…

A writer can work anywhere. But the muse is especially accommodating in a tiny town called Cetara, cradled within hills on Italy’s Amalfi Coast. There, amid the dull clangs of fishing boats, hourly choruses of church bells, and the effusive greetings of townspeople as they course the cobblestone streets, the material for a story or a poem seems as available as the region’s sunshine. It is here, in an airy room filled with sea breezes atop the town’s 14th-century fortress torre, or tower, that students gather daily for the Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute program, I among them. This is the ultimate example of a working vacation (this year, classes run May 25–June 1), though the labor involves penning stanzas and the opening paragraphs of memoirs and novels— which make…

British artist Carolyn Quartermaine sees things through her camera lens that no one else does. But once her works are displayed, everyone gets to see her vision. No matter in what medium she is working—be it painting, collage, film, fabrics, or interior installations— Quartermaine’s creations exude spontaneity, whimsy, and an unerring eye for detail. Her most recent foray into photography is no exception. With the same distinctive style that has characterized her work for more than three decades, Quartermaine trains her camera lens on quivering blossoms, sun-dappled garden paths, and other fleeting imagery. “I’m always trying to capture that instant that’s part dream and part memory,” she reveals. “A Through the Looking Glass moment.” Quartermaine had already begun devoting more and more studio time to photography when a 2016 visit…

PALM SPRINGS HAD its Golden Age. During that era in the 1950s and 60s when stars such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dinah Shore and others made the desert town their home away from their Los Angeles homes, Palm Springs became not only a glamorous locale, but also one in which the mid-century Modern house flourished. Some claim that it was born there. But Palm Springs’s glory days are far from over, especially when the likes of designer Michael Smith adds his imprint there. Upon undertaking the interior design for a classic, circa-1960 mid-century Modern home owned by longtime friends of his, Smith says, “A lot of sophisticated people lived in Palm Springs during its Golden Age, and we wanted to reflect that sophistication in these interiors in…

WALL FLOWERS Floral Design: Kyle Branch, Peaches, kylebranch.com. Photography: Peter Vitale, petervitale.com. Page 26 Allium cotton, Color: 130107, HARLEQUIN, stylelibrary.com. Page 28 Caladium linen, Color: Tropical Teal, JIM THOMPSON, jimthompsonfabrics.com. Page 29 Kiyomi cotton, Color: 530, KRAVET, kravet.com. Page 30 Crystal chandelier, THE MEWS, themews.net. Colefax & Fowler Fuchsia cotton, Color: Blue, COWTAN & TOUT, cowtan.com. Page 31 Sophie’s Thistles linen, Color: Blue, CLARENCE HOUSE, clarencehouse.com. Page 32 Dianthus Chintz linen, Color: Lapis, SOANE, soane.co.uk. Page 33 Ogee linen, Color: Dove/Blue, PUKKA PRINT, pukkaprintlinen.com. Page 34 Nancy cotton, Color: Grisaille, SCHUMACHER, fschumacher.com. Page 36 Amerini cotton, Color: Heather, VERVAIN, vervain.com. HOME PLATES Pages 40–41 1. Tourron Bleu Chardon dinner plate, JARS CÉRAMISTES, jarsceramistes.com. 2. Ruban plate, Colors: Bleu Orage/Noir, MARIE DAÂGE, mariedaage.com, PATINA COLLECTION, patinacollection.com. 3. Cote D’Azur Batik salad plate, RALPH LAUREN HOME, ralphlaurenhome.com. 4. Small blue…

The French have always had a handle on style. No one is more adept at inventing and reinventing today’s lifestyle than French design superstar Philippe Starck. He started his style revolution by designing nightclubs in the late ’70s. When he was chosen in 1983 by President Mitterrand to be one of the designers to re-imagine the private presidential apartments in the Elysées Palace, the young Starck stepped into the spotlight. Some thirty-five years later, he is a confirmed French design legend, still stage center. His hotels, restaurants, cafés, nightclubs, boutiques, private homes, museums, even wine cellars, are each divertingly distinct. What’s so much fun about following Starck is that there’s always something new and surprising. MILIEU European contributing editor Jean Bond Rafferty conversed with Starck. RAFFERTY: Architecture, furniture, kitchenware, toothbrushes, yachts,…

IT MAY BE a reflection of my own sentimentalism, but it seemed to me from first sight that the house on King Street was imbued with an air of nostalgia. Almost thirty years ago now, I had shouldered past the rotting, unhinged gate in a high wall to find the surprisingly large garden, set just off the bay on Harbour Island, here in the Bahamas where I live with my family. The approaching sunset that shone on the house’s face that day might have favored what was essentially a dwelling that had been literally abandoned. The gap between the house and the wall to the street had been colonized by unruly pepper trees whose roots had erupted to tilt the verandah and exterior staircase, giving the impression that I was…

FIVE YEARS AGO, interior designer Mary Clark and her husband, Joe, were in the midst of moving into their newly purchased pueblo-style home on four acres in the Museum Hill neighborhood of Santa Fe. The place was a blank slate, and the Clarks brought only a limited number of furnishings from the one-bedroom home they had previously owned on Canyon Road. A bold, colorful collage by the late artist and graphic designer Rex Ray was one of the few design pieces Clark carried along to the new space, and it was set to be the star centerpiece of a large living and dining area. That day, though, the desert sun was beating down. It was hot, and so the doors were left open as movers came in and out. Then…

YOU’RE INVITING THREE FAMOUS PEOPLE, PAST OR PRESENT, FOR THE WEEKEND. WHO ARE THEY? Truman Capote, Babe Paley, and Slim Keith. It would be amazing to recreate their social circle. A FAVORITE NOVEL/CHARACTER WHO INSPIRES YOU? Scarlett O’Hara (Mark); Perfum: The Story of a Murderer (James). A MOVIE YOU WATCH OVER AND OVER? Now, Voyager—because of Bette Davis (James). Lawrence of Arabia—because of its cinematic, sweeping beauty (Mark). WHO, PAST OR PRESENT, EMBODIES GLAMOUR? Elizabeth Taylor. Her entire life was glamour. WHERE DO YOU GO TO GET AWAY? Tulum, to escape in beauty. THE ONE PLACE IN NEW YORK YOU NEVER TIRE OF SEEING? Grand Central Station. A FASHION DESIGNER OF THE PAST YOU ADMIRE? Geoffrey Beene (Mark); Bill Blass (James). THE ONE ITEM YOU ALWAYS LIKE TO WEAR? Cashmere…