Indholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2018 i MILIEU

MILIEU|Winter 2018

EDITOR’S SAY

AS A COMPANY based in Houston, we witnessed first hand the destruction and loss of thousands of homes in our area. Then over the following months, we watched as even more homes were destroyed by storms and wildfires elsewhere in the world. Amid crises, home becomes our actual and emotional refuge. Our rooms are where we wish to be, surrounded by family and friends. When home is taken away, it is devastating. It was the outpouring of support, care, and donations from around the world that brought hope into these areas hit by natural disasters. I admire and celebrate the people who came to the aid of others in need. I feel very confidant that homes will be repaired, communities will be rebuilt, and lives will become even stronger. With…

2 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

Crystal Clear

Entering the Baccarat Hotel New York begins a study in the art of crystal making. And just as in that ancient trade, it starts with fire. A single flame, encased in glass as to be seen from both the street and the foyer, recalls the fires of the clay forges in Baccarat, France, that burn all day, every day. Like the forge, where the venerable French brand has been producing exquisite crystal for more than 250 years, the foyer is dark and gray, alit with the flicker. Surrounding walls are made of blackened, charred wood. On the western wall, 2,000 Baccarat glasses in the brand’s oldest continually produced pattern, Harcourt, are suspended on their side and lit from behind by LED lights, hinting at this story’s end. And above, written…

4 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

Dream Weavers

Wicker. The very word conjures images of sculptural woven sofas and lacy high-backed chairs stationed along a wide porch. “Wicker has very romantic connotations, it’s incredibly relaxed,” says Lulu Lytle, an owner of the London-based company Soane, which is known for not only for its array of fabrics and wallpapers, but also its bespoke furnishings. “Wicker works in every environment. You can have it in the grandest drawing room or on a verandah.” People have an actual emotional response to the material, for wicker is an art, a craft, and an artisanal skill. To sit in a piece of wicker furniture is to remember its effect and texture, something that Lytle and her partner, Christopher Hodsoll, understand. Distinct skills are called for in the making of traditional rattan furniture—from the…

4 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

A LIFE IN LISBON

TASTEMAKERS WHO KNOW Victoria Fernandez well see her as someone who never follows fashion, but rather inspires it. “When I moved from London to Paris several years ago, I sold all my brightly colored clothes at auction at Christie’s, in what was referred to in the press as ‘the sale of the decade,’” says Fernandez of her legendary reputation for style. Since then, the peripatetic event organizer and design devotee wears only black as a counterpoint to her effervescent nature. “My spirit is colorful enough,” claims Fernandez, whose unique design sensibilities are evidenced in the residences she owns, notably her newest home in Lisbon, a two-bedroom apartment in an eighteenth-century building overlooking the Tagus River. Known for her innate panache, Fernandez has influenced the work of high-profile designers, such as…

6 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

On Calm Waters

For a new Alabama lake home, an architect referenced Southern fish camps from a bygone era as his design inspiration ARCHITECT JEFFREY DUNGAN remembers the design challenge. He was asked by a couple to create their vacation home on scenic Lake Martin in Alabama and when he took his first look at the lot, steeply cascading down to the water’s edge, he now recalls saying to himself, “‘How am I going to put a house on the side of this cliff?’ It was intimidating.” But the Alabama native, who grew up around lakes, came up with a local vernacular solution to make the home’s exterior and interior blend with the waterfront site: He tapped into Lake Martin’s culture of fishing. “This design takes its inspiration from those old, rustic cabins…

5 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

FEATURED DESIGNERS

Serge Castella Working in consort with his life/work partner, Jason Flinn, Serge Castella is known as a distinctive interior designer, product designer, and antiques dealer. Though born in France, Castella has long been based in Spain. His and Flinn’s projects are found throughout the world—New York, Israel, London, and beyond. Castella created the Port Lligat Collection of textiles for the Spanish fabric company Gancedo. Suzanne Tucker Suzanne Tucker is recognized as one of the country’s leading interior designers, known for her timeless style, elegant interiors, and passion for architecture and the decorative arts. She is a founding director of the Northern California Chapter of the ICAA (Institute of Classical Architecture & Art). In 1986, she and her husband/partner, Timothy F. Marks, founded their San Francisco– based Tucker & Marks. Victoria…

2 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

Maison Mignon

Kimberly von Koontz designs things that grow. Dahlias, carnations, daisies, and varieties of meadow grasses are just some of the many things she cultivates and lives with— and shares with others for whom she designs. After years of working in women’s fashion, architecture, and storefront design in Europe and Asia, she tired of the obsession with “the new, new, new,” especially in the world of clothing and accessories. “I got to a place in my life where my values shifted,” she says from her home in upstate New York, a 1713 stone cottage she has dubbed “Maison Mignon,” or what translates as “Petite House.” She now refers to herself and the work she does as that of landscape designer. Her passion for authenticity in design and materials is embodied in…

4 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

MILIEU in Atlanta

MILIEU’s contributing photographer Miguel Flores-Vianna is a man who travels and who does it well. For years, he’s been flying around the world photographing the interiors of lush homes—with many of his best projects featured in our magazine. In celebration of his new book, Haute Bohemians (Vendome), which brings together his most revealing photographic work, MILIEU hosted a discussion with him at the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center (ADAC) on September 28. MILIEU’s Interiors Editor, Leslie Newsom Rascoe, led a spirited discussion with Miguel, in which he spoke about his life behind the camera—and in front of it. After the presentation, Jerry Pair Showroom hosted a reception where Miguel signed copies of his book and where guests experienced Jerry Pair Leather’s new fall collections. For more images, visit milieu-mag.com…

1 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

Balancing Act

A couple from different cultures and parts of the world relied on designer Suzanne Tucker to establish a balance that pleased them both SUZANNE TUCKER FOUND the perfect project. For her clients in San Francisco, the second home she has created for the husband and wife couple, she was allowed to do what pleases her most professionally. “I’m passionate about architecture, and so, for me, to take a home down to the studs and build it back up again is just heaven,” she says from her San Francisco office. “It’s a wonderful privilege for a designer to be able to start with a completely blank canvas. I brought in everything for this project and we gutted the entire place down to the studs.” For this undertaking, a spacious apartment in…

7 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

Treasured RETREAT

THE HOUSE IN THE HILLS of northwestern Connecticut is a picture of New England rectitude—white clapboard siding, slate roof, stone chimneys, dormers, and fanlights. It’s all genteel and proper. But the interiors of the spacious home present a much different story. The rooms are a cornucopia of vibrant colors and Asian art and European decorative pieces. The weekend home of a Manhattan-based rare books and prints dealer and his wife, who specializes in arranging exotic trips to Asia, it came together by a combination of luck, gut feelings, and serendipity. “My clients acquired the home almost by accident,” explains the New York architect Gil Schafer, who did the architecture, landscape design, and interiors. “They had bought a large farm, and then purchased the adjacent house, with the idea of living…

5 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

Elizabeth Chambers Hammer

WHAT CAN’T YOU RESIST AT YOUR BAKERIES? It’s always a tie between our carrot cake, lemon squares, and banana pudding. In terms of savory foods, I love our California turkey and the pimento cheese with crackers. BEST ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN? From my mom: “Never, ever, ever give up.” WHAT MAKES YOU MOST PROUD TO BE A TEXAN? Our food and the appreciation for food. There’s nothing better than our Texas Queso with a margarita. I love our Tex-Mex, I love BBQ, and I love the pride Texas has for their steak. Knowing that my dad, a seventh generation Texan, is so proud of where he came from makes me love Texas even more. A GRANDMOTHER’S RECIPE YOU CHERISH? Her boiled custard. If we were sick, it was hot custard,…

1 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

Architecture as Art

Two kinds of architecture prevail in the Massachusetts Berkshires—the manmade and the natural. The skyline profile of the forested namesake mountains undulates for many miles, with the range culminating in North Adams at Mount Greylock, the state’s highest peak. But there is an equally dramatic and nuanced architectural presence at the very center of the New England town. The twenty-eight redbrick buildings that make up the complex of MASS MoCA, the acronym for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, are so emblematic of America’s past industrial might that they are listed on the National Historic Register. What now functions as the nation’s most cutting-edge venue for large-scale conceptual art, as well as musical, theatrical, and dance performances, is so dense and complex in its configuration that to wander the sixteen-…

4 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

Holiday Traditions

ISABEL LÓPEZ-QUESADA For her Madrid home, designer Isabel López-Quesada always wants the décor to be, as she says, “lavish, happy, and full of life without any of it lessening the importance of the Christmas tradition.” Every year, she incorporates natural elements she feels relate directly to the rooms she’s created. “One of my favorite motifs is to use metallicred paper pinwheels, all handmade, because they symbolize the energy that flows when you show your love to family and friends. They make for good vibes throughout the house.” On her home’s staircase, López- Quesada combines magnolia branches, red amaryllis, red euphorbia, wild rose branches and flowers, holly berries, pineapple, fir, and ruscus. “These flowers not only allude directly to nature,” she says, “but they also reflect a contemporary touch.” SUZANNE KASLER…

3 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

BY THE SEA

THE FIRST THING a father’s two teenage daughters said upon his buying a dilapidated century-old-plus fisherman’s house as a weekend retreat was, “We will never go there.” But once the work by designers Serge Castella and Jason Flinn was complete, the daughters have been heard to say, “We will never leave.” For years, Castella and Flinn, partners in design and in life, had passed the dwelling, which sits high on its site along a particularly dreamy stretch of Spain’s Costa Brava, not far from one of their own homes. And while the designers admired the house and saw its potential, even they were a bit reluctant to commit to a project that would require such extensive work. Their client, however, who is also a friend, was looking for a retreat…

6 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

Open House

SOME INTERIOR DESIGN DECISIONS are not just about color and pattern, texture and treatment. They can be about something as mundane as having clients who sneeze too much. But a good designer must respond to all of the variables of a project to make it a success. “This home is minimalist by design, because all of the family members who live here, a couple with twin daughters, suffer greatly from allergies and asthma,” declares Mara Miller who, with her design partner and husband, Jesse Carrier, created the interiors of this home for their clients in Greenwich, Connecticut. Those health issues dictated only part of the resulting interior design. “Everything in this home needs to stay clean and modern and be easily maintained. Fortunately, though, the homeowner and her husband are…

6 min

MILIEU|Winter 2018

GO SHOPPING

COVER Ballgown: Chaparral, W01025/03, Color: Antique Brass, JIM THOMPSON, jimthompsonfabrics.com. Trim and belt: Cable Chain Border, ADELPHI PAPER HANGINGS, adelphipaperhangings.com. OFF THE WALL Written by: David Masello. Photography: Simon Brown, simonbrownphotography.com. Page 6 Necklace: Sirius, W7144-04, Matthew Williamson for Osborne & Little. Wire mannequin: Michaela Ahearne, wiremaiden12@gmail.com Page 22 Culottes: Agiasos, WR1006/02, JIM THOMPSON, jimthompsonfabrics.com. Collar: Narina, 109/10048, COLE & SON, cole-and-son.com. Page 24 Skirt and necklace: Berså, Item 1753, Scandinavian Designers II Collection, BORASTAPETER, borastapeter.se, EZ BY FLORENS, ezbyflorens.com. Page 25 Necklace: Berså, Item 1753, Scandinavian Designers II Collection, BORASTAPETER, borastapeter.se, EZ BY FLORENS, ezbyflorens.com. Page 26 Skirt: Rheinsberg, Color: Noir, P533/05, DESIGNERS GUILD, designersguild.com. Belt and necklace: Apiary, WR1019/07, NO. 9 THOMPSON, no9thompson.com. Page 27 Skirt: Palace Maze, 98/14057, COLE & SON, cole-and-son.com. Belt: Tented Stripe, ST1388, FARROW & BALL, farrow-ball.com. Collar: Queens Key Border, 98/9039, COLE…

11 min