Hello, party people. I was out and about all day yesterday. The lovely and amazing Jim Williamson turned in his copy on time, but I was unable to post it while running the roads with Jamie Laubhan-Oliver. The good news? We found a bunch of cool stuff that you will soon see in the magazine. The bad news? I’m late on this. So without further ado, I turn it over to Jim. I have not had a spring break, and if I build up any more stress, I could break. I have been so wound up and under so many deadlines; I think if you touched me, I could break like a porcelain cup dropped on a concrete floor. I am so stressed people ask if I am visiting from New York.
But my spring break will come soon enough, and it also happens to coincide with the third anniversary of the first time I met my mate. If you ask my mate how we met, he will most likely say, “He just happened to walk into my living room one day. And I’ve been trying to get him to leave ever since.” Indeed that first part is true but it wasn’t like I was just randomly walking into the living rooms of attractive men I had never met. (With the right outfit, that idea could work.) We also celebrate our first actual date, the second date, the third date, and the anniversary of our engagement. We pretty much just like celebrating. Typically, we would hop on a flight to Malibu, but since the Malibu house is no more (Please wait while I wipe my watering eyes so that I can see the keyboard and erase the urge for a fried clam sandwich.), we will be joining our Malibu family in Lugano, Switzerland, which is the location of their new home. I’ve been to Switzerland but not Lugano. I hear it is lovely. Can’t wait. Then we will travel to other points along the way including Lake Como, and even spend a few days in Venice. Don’t worry, you will read all about it—and then some.
Spring has also inspired me to address the daunting piles of memo samples, finish samples, and schemes that need my attention and final approval. We actually knocked out a few things yesterday—one of which was a selection of some crazy new wallcovering for the office. Let’s see if I can describe it. It either looks like a close-up of the ripples in a water lily pond at Giverny, exotic book-matched stone from some faraway land (I’m thinking Jupiter), the shroud of Turin, or a high-end retirement home from 1982. I’m going for the ripples or a stone look. And no, I did not type “nipples” or a “stoned” look. That is for my other blog.
I have also been branching out in the color department by actually doing color on large pieces of furniture instead of just pillows. It all looks super chic on the design board, let’s hope what we are seeing in our head translates in real life. As you well know, when I type these blogs and read them a zillion times, my head perceives them as grammatically perfect. We know how that turns out.
Here is someone that really knows how to turn out a look, Sacha Walckhoff, creative director at Maison Christian Lacroix. We have shown our love for Sacha in seasons past, and this season he doesn’t disappoint. His inspiration for his new collection is the French Riviera, which explains the name of the collections, Belles Rives. I love those beautiful shores, too, having spent a summer there with friends. I even tried to recreate a scene from To Catch a Thief, but unfortunately, it was more like the scene with them eating a chicken leg and a warm beer and not the iconic scene of Grace Kelly in the black-and-white swimsuit. But now thanks to Sacha, you don’t have to go to the Riviera for inspiration because he has plenty for you with the Belle Rives collection. From the dense graphic forest of palm leaves on the Eden Roc wallpaper (way on-trend) to the digitally printed velvets soaked in color, you can mix it, blend it, or frappe it. Pretty much anything goes. And I love the black with this blue-and-white combination. It makes it super chic and edgy.
Speaking of edgy isn’t about time for happy hour? I hope this weekend you can take the edge off, too.
