Tabla de contenidos para September/October 2020 en Flower

“I’ll light the fire; you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today.”—GRAHAM NASH  THIS SIMPLE QUOTIDIAN INSTRUCTION IS SO evocative. I see Joni Mitchell (Nash’s love interest at the time of his penning the song “Our House”) in their Laurel Canyon garden cutting a poetic mix of California blooms and arranging them in a pretty bohemian hand-thrown vase, as Graham, his rail-thin self, kneels down before the fireplace tossing crumpled-up pages of Rolling Stone magazine into the logs for kindling. At this moment in America and most likely everywhere else, we’re all still experiencing the joys and, for some, the monotony of home more than at any other time in history. This season in our culture has done nothing if not given us a renewed interest in…

INTERIOR DESIGN S Is for Style: The Schumacher Book of Decoration (Rizzoli, 2020) takes readers on a deep dive into company’s archives, featuring iconic fabrics wielded by some of America’s best designers over the last century. Part decorating guide, part inspiration, part personality profiler, it’s proof of why this 131-year-old company remains a vanguard of good taste. While S Is for Style celebrates a range of what great design can look like, Glamorous Living (Abrams, 2020), designer Jan Showers’s third book, illustrates the unique imprint of one person’s point of view. Jan’s particular alchemy of shine, shimmer, curves, and confidence shows that every space looks better with a little glamour. ENTERTAINING As a child Héloïse Brion shuttled from her American life in Florida to summers at her French grandmother’s home…

Andrea Filippone now knows that the landscape shapes a lifestyle. But as a young architect, she didn’t always have that perspective. It was autumn 1994 when she first saw the abandoned barn brimming with old auto parts that eventually became Jardin de Buis. At the time, she was just looking for an affordable rural New Jersey property, knowing that she could salvage even the saddest structure. And the scene, including its six hardscrabble acres, was pitiful. Somehow, Andrea saw promise. For six long years, she worked on the structures in snatched moments between client projects, renovating the barn and creating attached living accommodations for her family. In 2000, she was ready to move in, even though one wall was still under construction. Perhaps fittingly, Andrea and her family had company…

We have long admired the handcrafted jewelry created in Italian ateliers. Fortunately, a group of companies is determined to keep the traditions alive. The family-owned jewelry firm Vendorafa, founded in 1951, along with other Italian designers have created the Mani Intelligenti (Smart Hands) Foundation, devoted to the preservation and development of hand crafted skills with a goal to find, teach, and place 1,000 students over the next three years. After training in gold-smithing, stone setting, and finishing, the graduates will be employed by Vendorafa or other members of the foundation. “We believe that the preservation of these arts comes only from exposure and education and the promise of opportunity,” says Daniela Lombardi, creative director of Vendorafa. vendorafa.net and maniintelligenti.it/en…

Hardware has always been known as the jewelry of a home, so the new collaboration between Kravet Furniture and jewelry design firm Addison Weeks feels like a natural match. “We follow the same principles that we have always used to design our jewelry—uncompromised craftsmanship and timeless design—when creating our luxury hardware. Kravet Furniture follows those same principles, which made partnering with them so easy,” says Katherine Mulford, Addison Weeks’s chief creative officer. “For this collaboration, we focused on how we can help designers unleash their creativity, and we can’t wait to see how designers use these pieces in their projects!” kravet.com…

A native Southern Californian, Josh has been a crafter all his life, studying painting in college, gravitating toward sculpture and fabrication, and eventually working at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, where he designed and built exhibits for over 10 years. He ended up working with 2-D and 3-D software, but it removed him from the tactile joy of design. “I explored clay as a new medium, and that was it—loved it as sculpture, as painting, raw, fully analogue, intimate, and expansive,” explains Josh. “The accumulation of skills is routinely drawn upon for inspiration and execution in my ceramic work.” Josh’s camping and hiking experiences in California have inspired his use of texture, form, and color. “I have a keen interest in materials and processes, along with a strong…

Beloved hotels are opening up new locations this year. Nantucket’s iconic White Elephant debuts a new spot in Palm Beach, bringing its legendary hospitality to a more Southern clime. With only 13 rooms and nine suites, each with a private outdoor space, the reinvented landmark property on Sunset Avenue feels intimate and estate-like. Their signature restaurant, Lola 41, will focus on local seafood and globally inspired cuisine. Opening in November; whiteelephantpalmbeach.com The Quirk Hotel in Richmond, a favorite of Flower editors, is expanding its rhapsody in pink with a Charlottesville location on Main Street, the first boutique art hotel in the beautiful college town. Like its sister, the hotel features a rooftop bar, among other dining options, and an art and gift gallery with rotating exhibits, trunk shows, and lectures.…

The rose is celebrated for its scent, its medicinal qualities, and, of course, its beauty, so we want doses of it every day. We have fallen back in love with the classic chintzes from Rose Cummings, the New York City decorating doyenne who introduced the fabric and paved the way for its popularity with designers like the late Mario Buatta. There is comfort and cheer in each print, and with new ownership by Lauren Hudson of Wells Design in Houston, Texas, we can expect to see more of the archives go into production. Another lover of chintz, designer Richard Keith Langham welcomed the news: “I am thrilled this wonderful line will be preserved and celebrated. Carisbrook is one of my favorites—long live a bold chintz.” wellstextiles.com We also like to…

Flower: Tell us about your background. I understand you studied fine art and interior design. Do you find that the two feed off of one other? Alexis Walter: There’s a distinct difference in mediums but, to me, interior design is a form of art—the room is the canvas and the decoration is the paint. I’ve always been fascinated by the relationship between the colors and textures in a room, and I get to explore that through my paintings and textile designs and particularly when working on commissions for interior designers. I love the fresh perspective I gain when looking at a room through their lens, and I find gratification in helping them express their vision for a space. Your paintings are mostly comprised of pastel palettes, yet they exude so…

SINATRA’S SIGNATURE COCKTAIL Looks just like this: 4 ice cubes, 2 fingers of bourbon, and a splash of water. He called it “a gentleman’s drink.” SET THE MOOD Listen along to our gentlemen’s playlist inspired by these finds at flowermag.com/playlist.…

JAMES FARMER PROUDLY WEARS HIS BORN-AND-BRED Southernness on his sleeve. If you happen to miss the more nuanced signs—perhaps a crisply embroidered monogram on the plaid or gingham shirt that has become his sartorial signature—you’ll immediately detect it in his affable Perry, Georgia, drawl and see it in the sure hand with which he decorates. Consider him a young man with an old soul, one who embraces brown furniture, antique rose medallion porcelain, and classic chintz as enthusiastically as a gracious host welcomes in guests with a pitcher of sweet tea and a platter (blue-and-white, of course) of homemade cheese straws. It may seem surprising, then, that as James pulled in the driveway of a rambling stone-and-wood house in Litchfield County, Connecticut, for a meeting with prospective clients, he felt…