MILIEU Spring 2014

When I need inspiration, I look to Paris. There is so much to adore about the city, and what I appreciate the most is that even though it is a place with ancient roots and traditions, the Parisians lead with forward-thinking, new designs. They respect the integrity of the architecture and work to preserve it, and understand the effects of mixing old and new. On a recent trip to Paris, MILIEU attended the annual Maison et Objet show, where we discovered the best new home and design products. While strolling the Rive Gauche, we previewed lines at fabric houses, discovered antique shops, and enjoyed Parisian fashion. No matter where we were in Paris, pinks were plentiful. It is the color of the season and reminds us of the movie Funny Face,…

Soon after MILIEU discovered the flattering and versatile clothing by Dallas-based fashion designer Tish Cox, we set out to find just the right piece of furniture to highlight one of her signature cocktail outfits: a blouse made of a rich, chartreuse-hued damask, paired with glimmering silk pants and a dashing train. An elegant three-seat tête-à-tête, once used to adorn a hotel lobby, proved the perfect choice. “This project with MILIEU was such fun,” says Cox, “and I think the damask on the seating looks great. The lines of the blouse and those of the chair harmonize perfectly.” She points also to the pink piping running along the seat, made of the same silk used for the pants and train. Cox traces her fascination with fabrics to her childhood, when she would sit…

A lthough interior designer Stephen Shadley counts many Hollywood personalities as clients, it is often they who are starstruck by the work he does. Shadley believes in letting the home and its owner’s personality dictate the work to be done inside. MILIEU recently met with him in his loft office in New York’s Flatiron District. You have a starring lineup of clients: Diane Keaton, Jennifer Aniston, Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Matthew Modine, and others. Why so many film and TV stars and personalities? I sometimes wonder why myself. Ever since I was a child, growing up in Los Angeles, I have been fascinated by movies, cartoons, and Walt Disney. I wanted to be an animator, so the celebrity of Mickey Mouse was a big deal to me, even though he didn’t really…

Praised by Virgil and Homer, adopted as a seductive beauty secret by Cleopatra, saffron dates back some 4,000 years, as ancient as civilization itself. Brought to Europe from Asia Minor during the Crusades in the Middle Ages, the versatile aromatic has been celebrated over the centuries as a fragrance, a dye, a spice, and a medicinal treatment. France was once a major producer, supplying most of Europe until the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century siphoned off the workforce necessary for its labor-intensive cultivation. Now, saffron plantations, called safraniers, are making a comeback in France. During the past ten years, a burgeoning number of independent boutique French safraniers have revived the culture of saffron as a succulent gourmet ingredient of French gastronomy Renowned as red gold, saffron is derived from the crimson…

The drive to The Little Monastery might feel like a kind of pilgrimage. The most scenic route to the bed and breakfast begins in the medieval town of Bruges, a place of hump-backed bridges and classically gabled canal houses From there, a journey along a country road, sandwiched between poplar trees and a glinting canal, leads to the village of Damme, where visitors pass the Gothic town hall and a windmill, its sails whirling like a lazy lowlands ferris wheel. By the time you traverse the front drive of the Little Monastery, you’ll feel like you have already entered an Old Master Flemish landscape, but no museum guard is going to stop you. Owner Brigitte Garnier will likely be on hand instead, flanked by boxwoods, hydrangeas, and some squawking chickens. In the…