TWENTY-TWENTY-FOUR STARTER PACK
MANY THINGS: TUSCANY DÉCOR SUCCESS TO EXPERIENCE IN PERSON; ANN DEMEULEMEESTER AND DEGREDATION; LONDON'S MOST IMPORTANT VASE
Dear Snoops,
We are BACK (barely; limping). Are you?
We are not one for trends, let’s say – but we do care about Observations, and we have a few.
Today, we set out a few recent observations in a first-issue-of-the-year ombinus. They include:
→ 1. Things that continue to enrage us
→ 2. Novel ideas and best new places for your consideration (Importnat vase; forthcoming Tuscan décor pilgrimage)
*REMINDER: The only path to a satisfying décor, we maintain, is forged through your failures and successes. TREND = blind participation. It might encourage experimentation, but more than likely it will distract you. WIDE AND ACTIVE OBSERVATION, instead, is part of building your own set of references. And is a much clearer route to knowing good sh*t that suits you.
1. ENGRAGED ATTITUDES; i.e. DÉCOR CRITIQUE FROM A PLACE OF FURY
There is a valid creative approach that suggests we work, in part, from a place of PURE AND UNDILUTED FURY. This is advanced by Jony Ive (most significant designer for Apple), as hinted at in the manifesto of his creative agency LOVEFROM.
The idea here is that when things are kind of crap or totally f*cking awful, one should not be neutral. These things should make one furious and, ideally, determined to improve matters. (But, in our case, simply just be rude about them.)
Here are matters we feel particularly rude about:
1.1 MIS-USE OF DÉCOR ENERGY (i.e. IGNORING “TOUCH”)
There is an unfortunately reality, particularly within the décosphere of “The Influenc*r”, where great effort is placed on those things which absolutely do not (or only minimally) improve one’s domestic context. And or look fine in video but its really absolute cr*p from Amaz*n.
In part, this is the “JOSH AND MATT” effect (Influenc*rs of particular mind-busting extravagence): visually arresting and cacophonous furniture and a ton of other CR*P is assembled to serve serious dopamine addiction or, in severe cases, for the viral approval of mass audiences. Dedicated readers will remember this as a major downfall of the home of Debby Ryan and Josh Dun.
The point is: décor success is not i) “completion”, ii) “cool” stuff, or iii) attention-grabbing stuff. (It CAN be those things, but it is not about those things.) True Décor is really much more than the world “décor” probably suggests: it is habitat, which is not just a visual experience, it multisensory.
Areas in which we believe MORE ATTENTION SHOULD BE PAID:
Light switches
Door knobs
Faucets (that are properly calibrated with sinks; we request some kind of international system to easily determine what faucet and sink combo won’t splash back or be otherwise dreadful to use)
Rugs
In the first three instances, it is because these are EXTREMELY HIGH-TOUCH bits of décor – frankly you probably touch them one thousand times more than [insert most things]. They should, ideally, be places of investment (of thought, if not of money). TOUCH IS THE BODY LANGUAGE OF DÉCOR.
This contains a very fundamental décor philosophy, which is that you should décor for yourself (considering touch and use, etc.) and not simply for others (visual focus only).
RUGS: In this case, many are attracted to PATTERN. Hence the success of Rugg*ble, who react very swiftly to décor trend including participating in Barbie film promotion. Rugg*ble, however looks cheap in person and also are “washable” but absolutely cannot fit into a washing machine. (The perpetual human obsession with “ease”!)
And, this is NOT an ad (sadly), but: we ask you to get your bare feet onto something like a Beni Rugs rug and you won’t f*cking care what that rug looks like - even though they are very, very DELIGHTFUL, if your preference is a high pile. Because: TOUCH.
And, a real rug such as that will offer you the added smugness of not having been lied to.
1.2 HOME STAGING AS AN AESTHETIC; GASLIGHTING BY DÉCOR MEDIA; A NOTE TO FURNITURE ADVERTISERS
There are two décor forces associated with the Death of Décor. They are: Airb*b and Zill*w. (As ever, this digital ‘magazine’ of course is blaming the digital world for humanity’s woes.)
Etc. etc: they are generic. But the problem is less that they are staged for sale or rent, it is that the aesthetic they advance causes many inhabitants SELF-CENSOR in anticipation of “A GOOD LISTING,” “NOT OFFENDING LANDLORDS,” or “FUTURE RESALE VALUE”. These are toxic habits.
They also represent a major tension in current late capitalism where we are DEMANDED to “buy” in order to “personalize”, and yet we are equally CONFINED to strict, ultra-neutral artistic criteria so that economic value can be maintained or created. HOW DULL.
Break free.
TANGENT: EDITORIAL GASLIGHTING
We are all familiar with HOME TOURS. And, they can cause great anxiety, because the majority of décor - and frankly, the majority of GOOD DÉCOR – isn’t deemed “magazine-worthy”, but we are made to feel we should be striving for “magazine-worthy”.
Yet, there is a DÉCOR version of “photoshopping off the cellulite”, which is that stylists are used to zhoosh décor so that what we see isn't a home as it is used, it is (in part) an imaginary home.
Editors: You want to tell me these people have “great style”? Then don’t f*cking style it. We’re sorry. The slavish obsession with DÉCOR IMAGE-PERFECTION is warping us, which is why Apartamento REMAINS a breath of fresh air. And why we’re most aroused by POSTS LIKE THIS from HOOD CENTURY:
If you can appear to have “style” and “taste” WITHIN the context of “living your life” then you’ve really got it. For example: you can have style AND disorder; you can have style AND kistchy or so-called out-of-place objects; you can have style AND something is falling apart. Some might even suggest you have style because of those things.
A NOTE TO DÉCOR BRANDS: You want to sell me some Cassina sofa? Show it to me in dump, and if it still looks good, then we’ll f*cking talk.
2. NOVEL IDEAS; BEST DÉCOR
2.1 VASE
We would like to present London’s most important VASE, found in the offices of ASK US FOR IDEAS on Eastcastle Street:
This is a BALUSTER at the top of a very hazardous but steely-excellent spiral staircase. And, it is one of very, very few truly novel ideas that has emerged from the décorsphere in recent years, and one can certainly imagine this as valuable to a domestic context.
Why this vase resonates: these life-at-risk perilous yet thrilling-energizing stairs are best matched by an equivalent: the cut flower - a combo of death and beauty. Stuck down in the prime of their life, and yet the source of great delight and welcomed flourish. We see the stairs and the flowers as spiritually very connected.
But also, it is SUBVERSION OF DÉCOR CEREMONY:
A very middle-class-Martha-Stewart domestic routine: The act of placing a vase full of flowers gently in the center of a table, giving them a little arrangement-twist, cocking one’s head and giving oneself a kind of satisfied smirk knowing you’ve “beautified the room”.
Here - with twist-on vase - you’re is basically shoving flowers in a pipe, and it’s BETTER.
2.2 DISTURBINGLY GOOD DÉCOR BY STAINLESS STEEL VIRTUOSO HARRY NURIEV
We are enormous fans of Harry Nuriev who really seems to operate on his own wavelength, living in Paris in what seems to be a corporate expo booth for a stainless steel company (can be viewed here).
That level of commitment is impressive, if also a little much.
But it is in TUSCANY that Nuriev has both slightly scaled back and also completely recommitted to his own aesthetic through the décor of LA TERRA DI NEENA – a home in the hills of Tuscany that for all the linguistic vague-ery around it, seems like we will all be able to sleep over in.
Generally when folks approach an “indoor-outdoor” décor, which we think is happening here it is by making outdoor furniture look as much like it couldn’t withstand ‘the elements’ as possible. (Truly the plague of upper class Los Angeles, by the way!)
Here, Nuriev instead shows us what a kind of camo upholstery can do for really merging “sofa” to “boar hunt” in a way that still communicates “shoes off” interior (even though the Italians are shoes-on people). He also did a La-Z-Boy for Miami in this same dead-forest fabric. The fabric, we should be clear, is a super-sized print of some old French tapestry of some rural and/or garden scene – but, you know, we read it as a kind of a bougie camo.
2.3 FOOD FIGHT AS AN AESTHETIC
Nuriev also did some DINNER PLATES that look like they are messy with food, for the current “Only Caterers That Matter”, We Are Ona. (As, they are printed with smears of food.) But, there is something far too self-concious and controlled about them.
The fun of the food is not in the meal’s end, as Nuriev and W/A/O propose, but in the chaos of plenty and the radical act of “waste”. Per Mick Jagger 1968 “BEGGAR’S BANQUET” album launch:
There are, thankfully, many options to evoke the joyful chaos of dining. For example: CY TWOMBLY IN THE DINING ROOM
Here, Cy is found in the home of interior des*gner John Stefanidis, shot for VOGUE in 1972. Do you not feel this begs diners to replicate?
We would also accept artwork by HELEN FRANKENTHALER. Also, a great role to be played here for childr*n’s art.
NEXT, plates we do approve of:
Though, honestly, this is not “FOOD FIGHT” as you’d expect it so literally – but as always we ask you to think laterally about these things, BUT we believe that Ann Demeulemeester is among humanity’s greatest plate artists and, in particular and exclusively, we mean her “DÉ” set for SERAX.
DÉ is short for “dégradé” i.e. DEGRADED. You can see why below.
And, is a food fight not to degrade food? Is this not a DEGRADED DINING EXPERIENCE to disrespect the nutritional value of a meal and instead use it as physical catharsis?
We throw tomatoes to degrade. And, here Ann throws her own, a middle finger at the binary of “matching” and “mis-matching”. These are both.
(Now that we see it like this, also very celestial?)
Until next time. LOVE AND GOOD LUCK,
this newsletter brings me so much joy never stop roasting us
Was watching The Princess Bride last night & thought of this post when I spotted the stunning orange-red tubular chair in the Fred Savage / Peter Falk kid’s bedroom scene. It’s surrounded by wonderful, personality-filled clutter & half obscured by a t-shirt slung across the back, but there it is & once you spot it, that chair is a real scene stealer. Ticks a lot of the boxes you’ve mentioned: from bachelor pads to beautiful furniture actually getting lived with.
Spy it at the 13 second mark here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9kxYApOPnW8