Tabla de contenidos para Spring 2016 en MILIEU

After thirty years, Paris still holds me under its spell. Everything has been said about the city — its romance, the grandeur of its architecture, the breathtaking beauty of its sky at dusk, the poetry of the bridges — and yet it continues to take away my breath. Paris reveals itself slowly though, and you need to “earn” the city. When you walk and allow yourself to get lost, you suddenly discover enchanting streets. The ninth arrondissement, referred to as “La nouvelle Athenes” (New Athens), is one such discovery, the entire quartier having earned its name in the 1820s when it became the center of Romanticism. The streets are filled with wonderful examples of neoclassical architecture. Another recent discovery I came upon is the geological museum at the Ecole des…

During a youthful conversation about their enthusiasm for Georgetown’s stock of nineteenth-century architecture, Tom Anderson and Marc Schappell discovered a mutual admiration for one of the neighborhood’s few eighteenth-century Federal houses. “It was a small manor house, built on property overlooking the Potomac River before Georgetown became a part of Washington, D.C.,” says Schappell. “We recognized the circa-1790 date of its exterior architectural features.” Fast-forwarding twenty-five years, the two had left jobs in Manhattan, Anderson as one of the founders of Sotheby’s International Realty and Schappell as co-head of an international search firm, and resettled in Georgetown. That’s when Anderson discovered that the old house was for sale. He became so invested in buying it that he asked the owner to stop stripping paint off the front door in order…

COVER: Photography: Peter Vitale, petervitale.com. Top and skirt made by Anne Khuong, 832-282-3299 with Blue Fauve Suzani silk cotton, MADELINE WEINRIB, madelineweinrib.com. Brittany Clark, model with Page Parkes agency, pageparkes.com. Hair by Mario Tort, Estilo Salon and Spa, estilosalonandspa.com. Makeup by Lisa Capuchino, Capuchino Beauty, capuchinobeauty.com. Floral design on skirt by Françoise Weeks, francoiseweeks.com. CREATING CALM Written by: David Masello. Photography: Melanie Acevedo, melanieacevedo.com. Pages 28-37 URBAN ZEN, A philosophy of living by Donna Karan, urbanzen.com. MY PARIS Written by: Carolina Irving. Photography: Miguel Flores-Vianna, mf-v.com. Page 42 LA TUILE À LOUP, latuilealoup.com. Page 44 GALERIE KARRY, karry-gallery.com. Page 45 (Top) Fabrics: IRVING & MORRISON, irvingandmorrison.com. (Bottom left) GALERIE KARRY, karry-gallery.com. (Bottom right) CSAO – LA COMPAGNIE DU SÉNÉGAL ET DE L’AFRIQUE DE L’OUEST, csao.fr. Page 46 (Clockwise from top…

1. JULIE HAYES, A NATIVE TEXAN, HAS FOCUSED ON RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR DESIGN FOR MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS and is the founder of Fort Worth–based Simms Hayes Design. She is recognized for her understanding and skill in working with color. Hayes begins each project by assessing her client’s family life, entertaining needs, color preferences, and most importantly, personal style. Her intention always is to create a beautiful, chic home that best reflects the character of the client. 2. DESIGNER SUSAN BEIMLER, BASED IN WASHINGTON, D.C., IS KNOWN FOR HER INTUITIVE USE OF COLOR AND TEXTILES, as well as the ability to balance antiques with new furnishings and accessories. Her interiors exude a timeless warmth and elegance. She treats every project as if she is telling the story of a client. “A…

There is a place in Greenwich Village most New Yorkers know about but may not have occupied. It’s a space charged with a special creative energy and spirit, where ideas arise and people gather to think up ways to help others in need around the world. Ideas for new furniture, women’s fashion, jewelry, and decorative accessories also are conceived and later realized. While the vaulting, sun-filled loft and its contemplative rooftop garden belong to designer Donna Karan, they also belong, in a way, to everyone. “When I conceived Urban Zen, I wanted to create calm amid the chaos of New York,” says the legendary fashion designer and, now also, maker of furniture and home accessories. It’s not easy to think of Karan as being exactly calm, for she is one…

MILIEU editors had spring flowers on their minds well before the first buds appeared on trees or green shoots had sprung from the soil. When they discovered some startlingly beautiful and floral-motif embroidered fabric collections from Schumacher, Brunschwig & Fils, Marvic, Manuel Canovas, Madeline Weinrib, and Cowtan & Tout, they began to think of new ways to celebrate the arrival of spring. Suddenly, caftans, sarongs, ball gowns, sundresses, and togas bloomed in ways never before seen — as did a variety of women’s accessories. Months earlier, MILIEU had admired the creations of Francoise Weeks, a Portland, Oregon–based maker of what might best be called floral couture. Soon, the editors began to envision women’s clothing transformed with flowers. Weeks is long known for her inimitable ability to transform women’s accessories —…

With four males under one roof, a woman could find herself with sports equipment tumbling from closets, shelves crowded with trophies, and toy trains, boats, and planes everywhere. But Merry Vose, a wife and mother of three young sons, as well as the Texas tastemaker behind two chic womenswear boutiques in Dallas, longed for blissfully serene surroundings for her family. She wanted a clean and precise look, a bit of lushness, and a neutral palette with hints of palest pink. She did not want to live in a man cave. Vose turned to interior designer Julie Hayes, based in Fort Worth, just as she, husband Chad and their sons, now 11, 13, and 17, had purchased their mid-century home. Working with Vose’s furniture and new purchases, Hayes finessed the desired…

Every designer starts somewhere. For Dallas-based interior designer Shannon Bowers, her first full-scale home project is one that has yet to end. “I started work on this Dallas home more than a decade ago,” recalls Bowers, “but it’s ongoing since the rooms are always evolving and changing.” That’s not because Bowers or her client are indecisive about the chosen furnishings, but rather because the homeowner continues to add to her collection of contemporary art, so new interior design schemes frequently are needed. “In a very fun way, we’ve grown and evolved together,” says Bowers. As the art collection has expanded, Bowers has responded by toning down the palette throughout the house, choosing an array of creams, whites, grays, and oatmeal. The more neutral the palette, the more accommodating it becomes…

French artist Marie Christophe is a high-wire performer with a difference. Instead of acrobatic flips over the center ring, she fashions sturdy iron wire into decorative chandeliers and lamps, bejeweled with ceramic and crystal beads. The result is an enchanting universe of irresistible animal sculptures, using squiggles and curves of wire to imbue each one of her creatures with a personality of its own. “It’s not dusty or noisy and less intrusive than marble or stone sculptures,” she explains from her atelier overlooking green fields dotted with deer and a large cedar in the Gers region of southwest France. When Hermès president, Jean-Louis Dumas, saw some of her works in a Paris window, he commissioned two life-size wire horses for his new Los Angeles store. Seemingly caught midgallop, Christophe’s equines…