Table of contents for Fall 2015 in MILIEU

Curiosity opens the door to creativity. Every designer and every artist working in whatever chosen medium possesses curiosity. That state of wonder makes us question how something was made and what the original ideas and sources of inspiration might have been. In this, our 3rd anniversary issue of MILIEU, we feature four incredible women who were considered the best of the best in the world of magazine editors. Their work and visions continue to inspire their successors and everyone involved in the realm of publishing, myself included. These women embody a creative nature, they possess an innate curiosity that is a necessary trait for a magazine editor. One of the reasons I launched MILIEU is because I know that people who read magazines are curious. The pages of a good…

In conversations with editors of leading shelter magazines, one name always pops up: Min Hogg. The founding editor of World of Interiors has instant ID status, as an icon should. “She’s my hero,” her counterparts in rival publications chorus in unison. Hogg’s versatility and originality have dazzled since the first issue of the cult British magazine was introduced in 1981. She remained editor in chief for two decades and still collaborates with the magazine. Early interest in design took a singular form. “At age six or seven, I was always making museums in the nursery with things from the house,” she recalls. Later, art school courses in interior design and furniture produced a desk and a coffee table. “I often wonder if I will see them in a junk shop,”…

Marian McEvoy is a versatile talent equally at ease in both fashion and decoration. Her editorial career began as a scintillating Paris fashion correspondent with an enviable personal style. The second act took place in New York, where she was editor in chief for Elle Décor and House Beautiful. McEvoy was born a fourth-generation Californian. “My grandmother went through that big earthquake in San Francisco,” she says. Studying art at the University of Southern California did not go as planned. “They had a terrible art department,” she says. She majored instead in party girl and later dropped out. A summer job at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner gave new direction. “I got bitten by the journalist bug,” she says. “It turned into a lifetime job.” Almost like magic, she was…

Old World Europe has come back to the New World. For generations, fine European fabrics and patterns dominated in American households. Such materials and designs were the standard mark and measure of good taste. Now, some of those patterns and motifs — though freshened, modernized, reinvented — are returning. Splashy stripes, delicately rendered florals, vigorous checks, paisleys, and more are again defining rooms. MILIEU welcomes these new patterns from some of the best designers working today. LISA FINE PENNY MORRISON NICKY HASLAM NATHALIE FARMAN-FARMA…

Although this grandly scaled house is in Buenos Aires, crossing the threshold is like being transported to a Mediterranean locale in Europe. The Argentine capital is famous for its European-style energy and architecture and this house perfectly reflects those dynamics. Built in the early part of the twentieth century, the home is evocative of an Italian residence, but it had been abandoned for decades and was in complete disrepair when a couple purchased it for themselves and their four children. Noted interior designer Laura Ocampo, along with architect Juan Bautista Firpo, both based in Buenos Aires, undertook an intense restoration, keeping in mind Andrea Palladio, the great Italian Renaissance artist and architect, as inspiration. Firpo infused the home with many of the ideals and proportions made famous by Palladio. He…

DARRYL CARTER Washington, D.C.–based designer Darryl Carter has long been known for creating interiors that manage to be highly restrained yet dynamic. He has authored two books, The New Traditional: Reinvent, Balance, Design Your Home and The Collected Home: Rooms with Style, Grace, and History (both from Potter Style), each of which reveals his design philosophy. In 2012, Carter opened a full-home retail boutique in Washington, D.C., adjacent to his residential/commercial design studio. ELIZABAETH ROYER Elizabeth Royer established her namesake Paris art gallery in 1985, and works she has represented have found their way into the permanent collections of the Louvre, Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and British Museum, among others. While she is an expert in nineteenth-century French paintings, she also deals in works of the…

As editor in chief of Travel & Leisure, and then Town & Country, Pamela Fiori has blazed a trail in the masculine powerhouse of New York publishing. Growing up in New Jersey, Fiori “read every magazine I could get my hands on,” she confides. Her fast-forward editorial career began at Holiday, the once visionary American title. “I started as a lowly fact checker in 1968. It was a perfect way to climb up the ladder to associate editor, then senior editor.” In 1971, she went to Travel & Leisure, American Express’s brand new magazine, with a base of 3.5 million readers. Four years later, she was editor in chief. For fourteen years, Fiori invented and reinvented Travel & Leisure’s innovative coverage, introducing millions of readers to memorable experiences. By the…

“When I arrive in Venice at my apartment, I drop my luggage inside and go down to have a coffee at Paolin,” says French art gallerist Elizabeth Royer. “Already I have the impression that everything is perfect. I don’t ask for anything more than to just sit and watch the passersby.” The gallerist fell under the lagoon city’s spell twenty years ago. “I rented a small apartment — mezzanino (mezzanine) — under the grand upper floor piano nobile apartment of friends in a seventeenth-century palazzo,” she relates. “When they moved later, I took over that apartment.” Near the Ponte dell’Academia in the San Marco district, the palazzo is between Campo Santo Stefano, one of the most elegant Venetian squares, and the Palazzo Grassi, home to French magnate François Pinault’s contemporary…

COVER Interior Design: Darryl Carter, Darryl Carter, Inc., darrylcarter.com, 202-234-5926. Photography: Miguel Flores-Vianna, mf-v.com. Wall color: Bancroft White, DC-01, Darryl Carter Colors by BENJAMIN MOORE, benjaminmoore.com. Light fixture: ManOMan, INGO MAURER, ingo-maurer.com. Artwork on wall: From the “Target Series”, Jack Sanders, DESIGN BUILD ADVENTURE, designbuildadventure.com. LIFE PATTERNS Written by: David Masello. Photography: Peter Vitale, petervitale.com. Pages 30-37 Christina Kim, DOSA, dosainc.com. INDUSTRY ICONS Written by: Jean Bond Rafferty. Photography: Miguel Flores-Vianna, mf-v.com. Pages 42-43 Min Hogg, MIN HOGG DESIGN | WALLPAPERS AND FABRICS, minhogg.com. Pages 44-45 Pamela Fiori, Hair by: Edward Zakin and makeup by: Mauricio Ramos at THE JOHN BARRETT SALON, johnbarrett.com, In the Spirit of… books written by Pamela Fiori, published by ASSOULINE, assouline.com. Page 46-47 Lisa Newsom, Swedish armoire on page 47 and other designs of furniture…

Growing up on the 2,400-acre River Creek Plantation that her father managed in Thomasville, Georgia, Lisa Newsom, future founder of Veranda magazine, was already fascinated by interior design. In her playhouse, she arranged and rearranged “whatever my mother would let me have, furniture outcasts from the house,” she relates. As a teenager, Newsom was influenced by the gracious lifestyle of neighboring historic plantations. “I was exposed to all the fine furniture. Seeing those plantations was part of my education, as well as devouring every magazine and design book I came across and later studying art and design in California.” Furniture and decoration were her passions, particularly the work of designers Billy Baldwin, Michael Taylor, and T. Gordon Little, the Atlanta decorator. “But my father didn’t think design was then a…

One might think Joe Valentine and Paula Hunter would approach autumn’s arrival with trepidation considering what is in store during a typical New England winter. Instead, they bask in the surrounding awe of fall foliage blushing garish shades in the fiery spectrum. At Juniper Hill, their home in New Hampshire, autumn is a time to celebrate the garden strictly in the present tense. Come September, they do not lament the bygone sizzle of summer or fear the loom of winter. Instead, fall is when they lay down their plows and shears, shoulder their backpacks, and go take a hike. “Autumn draws you out,” Valentine says while lacing up his hiking boots. Whereas other times of year find the couple wound up in “the scramble,” autumn is too late to tackle…