Dear Reader
Good Taste
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I recently interviewed a long line of job applicants for a couple of editorial positions. You meet a lot of nice people that way, but it is also a serious challenge. Once it is clear that a candidate knows grammar and is obsessed with accuracy, I have to make a more difficult assessment: does she – or he – have good taste?
Good taste, in our business, is shorthand for having an intuitive sense of aesthetics. It’s not a matter of learning what’s hot and what’s not. Or knowing that God – even God – did not think it through when He created gladiolas. Nor is good taste, in our business, a matter of personal taste. In editorial meetings, the refrain is often: It’s not my taste but… When we are sifting through a huge pile of projects and press releases, we are not looking for houses we wish we could live in, or the biggest or most expensive homes, or specifically modern or traditional houses, or even houses decorated by the most legendary designers in the city. We are looking for houses that represent an enlightened aesthetic and reflect, in a powerful way, the people who live in them.
With one exception. In this issue, we feature a house that was built just for our readers. You! It’s the D Home 2005 Showhouse, which has been a year in the making. As you tour the house photographically, you will see a fantastic mix of styles, unified only by the fact that they each reflect a distinctive aesthetic. During installation, when showrooms were delivering super-modern custom furniture from Italy, and decorators were unrolling Tibetan rugs, and stylists were arranging antique china just so, the editors had tears in their eyes. We were actually crying. Possibly we were just exhausted. But watching designers with beauty, daring, and wit pour their hearts into a single project was like watching the pages of D Home come alive. I cannot wait for you to see it.
I am happy to report that our editorial staff has bloomed; we found people who are good at grammar, obsessed with accuracy, and prone to weep at good design. You may well get to know them personally – our whole staff will be in and out of the showhouse to meet and greet visitors during the five weeks it will be on tour – September 28 through October 23 – and I’d love to make your acquaintance. If you are a regular D Home reader, please identify yourself. Enjoy this issue, and let me hear from you.
Cordially,
Christine Allison
Editor and Publisher
[email protected]
P.S. Preview Week starts September 21 and runs through September 27, open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m., benefiting the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas.
The four-week tour begins September 28 and runs through October 23. It will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 12 to 4 p.m., and proceeds will benefit Children’s Medical Center, Dallas.
You can buy tickets online or at the door. They are $20 and $25 respectively. Visit www.dhomeandgarden for more information.
