home design dimensions: fashion | Your Blog Description

Textiles and Fashion Discoveries of Paris and London, Part 1

Posted by Unknown Posted on 12:26 AM with No comments

When you travel for work, it's easy to get stuck into the same old 'the Milk Run' (as a friend calls it) of staying in same trusted hotels, strolling the same favourite routes and neighbourhoods; browsing at the same beloved boutiques; dining at the same restaurants (with friends who love them as much as you do) and even visiting the same museums.

But every now and then it's important, I think, to step off the Milk Run and discover cities anew—just as you did the first time you went overseas. Changing the pace and the paths you take can renew your sense of wonder at places, and make you fall in love with destinations all over again.

This happened to me this week.

In the spirit of this new 'Gratitude Attitude' that we're all joyfully adopting, I decided to try and uncover parts of London and Paris I'd never seen.

I'm here for a few days to source textiles and fashion places for new books, including the Paris book that's been stuck behind a writer's block. For the last few months I've been reluctant to leave my partner at home after a few very sad months, but the state election is on, our house is in chaos because of it (my partner works in politics part-time), and so it seemed like a good time to finally GET OUT OF TOWN and find inspiration again!

As it turned out, the last week of November is the perfect time to travel: Paris hotels are dirt cheap (I found many for $100/n), the Christmas lights are twinkling, and the weather is still gentle. More than that, people are busy and so things that would normally be booked out are available. But the most wonderful thing about getting off the ol' Milk Run is discovering a new side to Paris and London.

Let me show you what I mean.

Every month, the V&A Museum has a tour of its archives. I'd never bothered with it before as it's often over-subscribed, but this week there was a place, so I cleared a few hours to try it.

Oh my. What a textile lover's dream.

Held at Blythe House in West Kensington, the archives are where the museum's collections of fashion and textiles are stored when they're not on show. Our group only saw one room but there were 54,000 pieces in that one room. Rows and rows of vintage Dior, Givenchy, Balenciaga, Chanel and so on... I can't tell you how amazed we all were. The gasps seem to rise higher and higher.

I dare not show you much as I'm not sure how much we're allowed to reveal (the security was tighter than MI5!), but I can tell you it's well worth it. If you love fashion and textiles, it's an incredible place to see. The V&T has always been held in high regard by fashion and textile lovers but this team should be applauded for their dedication to preserving such magnificent history.

Another little-explored section of London—at least for me—is the northern part of Notting Hill, and having heard about the wonders of The Cloth Shop, a fabulous fabric resource in W10, I decided to head north.

(Tip: If you want to see Portobello Road, go on Fridays when there are no crowds. It's bliss.)

The Cloth Shop is a secret treasure trove of textile goodies in the midst of the bustling markets: a store full of beautiful linens (some as little as 12 pounds) and striped bolts galore.

The staff is also lovely. There's a cat too, who happily sits on all the expensive trimmings.

While you're there, pop around the corner to Alice Temperley, a designer loved by both British celebs and Australian expats for her intricately detailed pieces. (link)

She has stores in King's Road and Mayfair, but this is her original, and is still her private atelier.

This house is on the way to Temperley.

If you look carefully, the brass plaque says 'BANK ROBBER'.

Clearly a thief with wit and style.

I'd also never really stopped to notice the flower stalls in London before. This as one filled with Christmas bouquets in shades of crimson and magenta. Just beautiful.

More London cuteness. I can't believe I've never seen this side of Notting Hill before.

But perhaps my biggest London 'discovery' has been the bedrooms of Blakes Hotel.

Which have to be seen to be believed.

Most design lovers and hotel hedonists know about Blakes—it was the first 'boutique hotel' in the world. Like many, however, I'd never really spent much time here. Until now. With cheap November deals (try Sundays and Mondays for the best bargain prices), I booked a night.

They kindly gave me the red-and-white room. Which was like walking into an urban oasis on a cold London afternoon.

This is the bathrom. Balcony and all.

(Can you see the ceiling? It's all lined in fabric. Incredible.)

The detail in the curtains, curtain pulls and door handles was enough to make a design lover gasp.

Apparently Lady Gaga stays in a similar red-lined room here. A room that, incidentally, has just been voted The Most Romantic Hotel Room In The World by Mr and Mrs Smith Guides.

Here's another room, which Amelia, the gorgeous reservations girl, kindly showed me.

The price for this room is incredibly cheap, considering the design.

If you love fabrics, this is the London hotel for you.

Trust me. You'll be as ga-ga as Lady Gaga.

I'm back in London next week, so will post more textile gorgeousness then.

I'm now in Paris for a few days to source fashion, style and design destinations for the new Paris book (just to finish it off), and will post many of my Parisian discoveries this week.

If you'd like to follow on Instagram, the link is here: instagram link

Or here — http://instagram.com/janellemcculloch_author

I'm only new to Insta, but it's a lovely place to browse pix, so hope you follow. I look forward to seeing you there!

Glamour In Manhattan: Travel Insights

Posted by Unknown Posted on 8:47 PM with No comments

Unlike Paris, New York doesn’t seduce you with its Haussmanian sophistication or its seductive wardrobes and ways. It doesn’t have the history, dignity and grace of London, nor the sunny glamour of Sydney—although it does have its own unique sheen. What it does have is confidence and unending energy, and with that drive and determination New Yorkers have built one of the most thrilling and inspirational destinations in the world. If you're feeling tired, overworked, in need of new direction or creative/business ideas, or just want a glamour boost, this is the city for you.

Most of the creative professionals I know go to New York several times a year, and not just because they can claim the trip on tax. It's stimulating, reinvigorating, inspiring, and enlivening.

A week here will turn you into a new person.

Furthermore, New York is going through enormous aesthetic changes at the moment as New York entrepreneurs revive once-staid neighbourhoods with glamorous new hotels and spectacular new stores.

Three of these rapidly changing neighbourhoods are the Flatiron, the Garment District and the Upper East Side. All three are going through a kind of revival, although the Flatiron is attracting the most attention. Named for its ironic (and much-loved) cheesegrater-style building, this bustling quarter has become the city's new design hub, with gorgeous home stores, edgy hotels, and whimsical boutiques. (Don't miss the Marimekko fabric store, the elegant new J Crew store, which has a mini bookstore, and Rizzoli's stylish new bookstore due to open in spring 2015.)

Here are a few travel insights to help you discover the most memorable sides of Manhattan.

Oh – and my lovely publishers have said to tell you that if you'd like to buy the new New York in Style book directly from them, they'll give you a 30% discount.

Just go to www.mup.com.au and enter the promo code NYSTYLE30 on checkout.

NEW YORK TOUR

Of course, if you really want to know where the great little fashion museums, design stores, fabric stores, vintage Chanel stores, flea markets, fashion boutiques and fabulous restaurants and bars are, come on our Gardenesque Tour in late April 2015. Numbers are limited to 15 people per tour, and we've already had serious interest from five times that number, so it's likely to fill up quickly.

Alternatively, you could book the New England tour (see previous post), and tack on a few days in New York before or after the New England tour.

Links – www.gardenesquetours.com
or Reho Study Tours

WHEN TO GO

My favourite month to experience Manhattan is late April, when the streets burst into blossoms and the park break into bulbs – it always surprises me how many flowers there are here in spring and how a metropolis of skyscrapers can be softened by all those beds of perennials down below.

{Our Gardenesque tour is scheduled to see New York in April – when the city is at its best.}

WHERE TO STAY

The NoMad was one of the first to inject a modern dose of glamour into the rapidly changing and newly fashionable Flatiron 'hood. Other places, such as the Shake Shack, The Ace and Eataly had already moved in, but The NoMad seemed to pave the way for a whole lot of new high-end retailers and businessman. (Even Rizzoli's new bookstore is moving downtown to the Flatiron quarter.) Service can be a bit off-hand at the NoMad, but the fabulous interiors and furnishings are worth it.

Other new hotel openings schedule for 2014 include: The Archer Hotel, which will pay homage to its Garment District location with a mix of fabrics (6 Times Square; www.archerhotel.com), the Knickerbocker Hotel, which will re-open to show off its glorious, Beaux-Arts architecture, literary links and distinctive mansard roof (142 West 42nd Street; www.theknickerbocker.com), and the new SLS Hotel New York – another newcomer to the NoMad/Flatiron neighbourhood 444 Park Avenue. www.slshotels.com But perhaps the most anticipated newcomer is the luxurious Baccarat Hotel, which opens late 2014. Housed in a 45-storey glass tower opposite the MoMA, it’s the first US Baccarat Hotel and likely to be as shiny and fine as its sister restaurant in Paris. 20 West 53rd Street. www.baccarathotels.com

If you want to fork out for a truly memorable hotel room, book into the F. Scott Fitzgerald Suite at The Plaza. Designed by Oscar-winning costume designer and Baz Luhrmann’s other half, Catherine Martin, this dramatic Art Deco space was inspired by Scott and Zelda, both devoted patrons of The Plaza. The suite features photos of the duo, Scott’s complete works, documentaries and movies, and beautiful coffee-table books that evoke languorous summers on Long Island and New York in the roaring twenties. 768 Fifth Avenue. www.plazany.com

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK

The NoMad's Library Bar (above left) is one of the most beautiful spaces in Manhattan.

Other must-sees include Balthazar in SoHo (above right), Benoit, Caffe Storico, Harlow, Eleven Madison Park, and The Lion.

We'll also be visiting a few secret and extraordinarily beautiful rooftop hideaways with gorgeous views on our Gardenesque Tour. {www.gardenesequetours.com}

WHERE TO SHOP

Quite possibly one of the best sources of vintage Chanel in New York is Jewel Diva, situated within the equally wondrous New York Showplace. It’s a tiny stall, barely bigger than a Chanel earring, but the owner is clearly well connected when it comes to vintage designer jewellery—and clearly informed. You can tell she knows her stuff: the last time I visited she was carrying a lot of vintage Chanel pendant necklaces, which are very ‘in’ at the moment. She also stocks Dior and many other fine French jewellery pieces, some of which date back to the 1920s. Her tagline is ‘From deco to disco, Victorian to modernist, Haskell to Chanel’, which sums it up, really. 40 West 25th Street – but check hours, weekends are often closed.

Other great places to source gorgeous things include Ralph Lauren's Home store (above), where you can find elegant accessories to luxe up your flea-market finds, Anya Hindmarch’s new Upper East Side store (which now offers a bespoke handbag service), the D&D Building (a fabric lover’s mecca), and ABC Carpet and Home (a must for interior design lovers). {All details in New York book}

WHAT TO LOOK UP FOR

New York is mostly a city where you try and get high in order to look down, but here's one place where it pays to look up! A signature feature of the Fifth Avenue skyline, The Pierre's ornate Mansard roof (above, building on left) is an architectural treasure. It was once the most glamorous ballroom in Manhattan—and a place for high society to escape Depression-era New York. The ballroom was shuttered in the early 1970s and forgotten about for nearly twenty years. Lost to time, it was regarded by Pierre staff of as a kind of ‘grand attic’ to shove unwanted furniture. It was finally sold in 1988 to Australian heiress Lady Mary Fairfax, who converted it into one of the most opulent private residences in the city. (It included a 3500-square-foot ballroom, a Belgian marble double staircase, a 20-foot-high Palladian windows, a curved 23-foot ceiling and huge terraces overlooking Central Park.) It was later re-listed for US$70 million; at that time the highest price ever for a New York residence. It was such a symbol of wealth that the makers of the film Meet Joe Black cast the penthouse as the residence of Anthony Hopkins’ character. To locate it, look for the French-style Mansard roof on Fifth Avenue. 2 East 61st Street.

Hundreds more New York insights are available in the new book New York in Style out next week, or on our Glamour & Grandeur Tour –

www.gardenesquetours.com

Gardens, the Chelsea Flower Show, and Remembering Stuart Rattle

Posted by Unknown Posted on 7:54 AM with No comments

I'm in Asia at the moment for a brief stopover en route to Europe. More and more I'm realising how fascinating this part of the world is. There are so many lush, green, untouched-by-time corners to south-east Asia, and I'm ashamed I've never taken the time to explore the region in depth before now. In a few weeks time I'll be back here again and hope to show you some more of the secret places I've found.

In the meantime, another lush, green space that's making media headlines this week is the Chelsea Flower Show, which is once again illustrating just how many of us love our gardens. It was the second-fastest-selling show in Chelsea's history, partly in response to Alan Titchmarsh, although a relatively unknown 27-year-old, Hugo Bugg (great name) became the youngest ever gold medal winner when he took out the coveted prize. I'm hoping to catch the last day of the show this Saturday, so will post pix.

Of all the gardens, the small but glamorous Gucci garden (top two images) has been a clear favourite, showing that fashion and flowers really do go beautifully together.

Gucci has even brought out a whimsical series of handbags to match.

Fashion-focused gardens are very on-trend this year. The Fashion and Gardens Exhibition at the Garden Museum earlier this year was a huge success (perhaps not surprisingly considering it was curated by Nicola Shulman, sister of UK Vogue editor Alexandra). There's also a Vogue garden at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park, July 23–27.

Unable to afford the gorgeous new Ham Yard Hotel (Kit Kemp's latest venture), nor Number Sixteen, my usual favourite, I've opted to stay in the sweet Pelham Hotel in South Kensington, which is decorated in irresistibly pretty shades of pea green and peony pink. There are good specials on TabletHotels.com

While in London and Paris I can't wait to pick up some copies of this intriguing new magazine, Cabana, which everyone seems to be talking about. These covers were designed using vintage Pierre Frey fabrics. I love it when magazines do illustrated covers rather than the traditional (and somewhat cliched) model-in-a-frock ones.

We're still working on the first issues of our new magazine but hope to include a lot of stories about illustrators – particularly garden illustrators. (I'm shooting a few stories for it in England and Paris this week.)

Speaking of gardens, it's incredibly sad to hear that Stuart Rattle's glorious country estate, Musk Farm, has gone up for sale. For those of you outside Australia, Stuart Rattle was one of our most-loved interior designers (an interview featuring him is here), and it was a shock to many of us when he was allegedly murdered by his partner last year. I won't elaborate as the details will undoubtedly come out in court in July, but if you have $1M (a surprisingly modest sum for such a beautiful place), the auction details are here. Musk Farm is a testament to what can be achieved with a dusty country paddock, an old schoolhouse and a lot of horticultural love. No wonder the BBC decided to include the property in a documentary about outstanding international gardens. [Image is mine.}

Oh Stuart, we will miss you.

Inspiration From A Writer's Library

Posted by Unknown Posted on 3:53 AM with No comments

Writer's libraries are always scarily messy affairs.

At the moment, my study is overcrowded with piles of research for new book projects, plans for our forthcoming US Garden Tour in May, tax receipts to reconcile, a huddle of watercolours to be used for the page designs for the New York book, an overwhelmingly – I mean frighteningly high – pile of archives, notes and interviews for the Picnic at Hanging Rock book (almost as high as the rock itself!), a smaller pile of ribbons and other passementerie for a new Paris book, a medium pile of bits and pieces for the new magazine, and an almost hidden cluster of clippings and ideas for a new company I'm working on. (Which is a pile that keeps getting pushed to one side, so I may have to remove it from the others altogether.)

And in between all these terrorising, intimidating piles, are books. Piles and piles of books.

I tell you, this study is not a safe place to be.

(NB I'm not showing you as I'm quietly ashamed of the chaos. It's organised chaos, but nonetheless, there is an element of alarm at the sight of it all)

But what I wanted to write about was the curiosity we have for other people's studies, libraries and private spaces.

An ex-boyfriend once told me that when he started dating a girl, he would look in her bathroom cupboard for clues, but I think you'd find out a lot more about someone by looking in their library.
Books are revealing things. I'm sometimes ashamed when high-brow literary friends come over because we don't have many high-brow literary titles. (Have you ever done the bookshelf shuffle when you've had guests? It's such panic, isn't it?) First editions are another sign that someone has a fine mind. (We have a first edition that's worth $10,000+, but it's the only one I have and I've hidden it so well I can't find it. That says volumes about us.)

Anyway, this post was inspired by another writer, the brilliant Australian-New Zealand author Diane Dorrans Saeks who's now based in San Francisco.

A former staff writer for Vogue Living and Vogue Australia, Diane has written more than two dozen coffee-table books on design, architecture and style (above).

Her blog www.thestylesaloniste.com [link] is always fascinating: a curious compendium of travel, design, ideas, books and style. It's like walking into a bookshop and finding the owner is one of the most interesting people you've ever met, full of sage advice about people to read and places to go.

She's rather well-known but she's also endearingly humble. (Anyone who goes to Luang Prabang is not pretentious.)

This week, she did a post on her library. It was astonishing. I wish I knew her better so I could email her. Do have a peek: book lovers will go ga-ga.

It gave me dozens of ideas for new and vintage books to buy. It also made me think: Why isn't there a blog that shows pix of people's private libraries? It would offer such wonderful inspiration for new book buys, don't you think?

And so here, in something of a confessional, are some images of our book 'piles' around the place. I hope it offers you all some bookish inspiration for 2014. We all need to buy more books – new ones, old ones, vintage and classic ones, bestsellers and small sellers, high-brow and low. Thank you Diane for showing me the beauty of books again.

INSPIRATION FROM A WRITER'S LIBRARY

TOP OF THE PILE

This is one of the best books. Ever. If you love gardens and particularly French gardens and their design, buy this new tome on Le Notre, the talent behind Versailles. It's surprisingly inexpensive. How they put it all together, with the garden plans, illustrations and text, for this price, I'll never know. It's an extraordinarily beautiful volume of work.

Le Notre: In Perspective

(Published to coincide with the current exhibition at Versailles.)

CLOSE TO THE TOP OF THE PILE

Audrey: The 60s

This was a Christmas gift, along with Le Notre. (I was so lucky. I received lots of beautiful books from family.) This is one of the most beautiful books about Ms Hepburn that's ever been published. And the 1960s fashion is sublime. (Especially on her.)