It’s (late) Friday and a holiday at D Magazine Partners. However, the trusty D Home staff is working to get the March/April issue out the door. And our even trustier Jim Williamson is here with some thoughts about his recent trip to NYC. Since meeting my spouse almost two years ago, we have experienced some rather unusual weather events. We’ve begun to think Mother Nature might be trying to tell us something. We’ve been in, not one, but TWO freak snow events in NYC. We’ve been forced to take shelter from a tornado at Eddie V’s. And we just missed getting pummeled by that hailstorm last year.
So it was of little surprise that I had meetings scheduled in NYC just as Nemo was about to blow in.
I was in town to see the new spring collections from Osborne & Little, which also encompasses Nina Campbell, Manuel Canovas for Lorca, William Yeoward, Tricia Guild, and Sacha Walckhoff for Christian Lacroix. That, my friends, is an enormous amount of new product. (It’s all available right here in our fair city, by the way.) Also on hand were the designers who created this massive collection of must-haves. Getting that much talent in once place at the same time could also be considered an unusual and unlikely event. I’m pretty certain than when Sir Peter asks people to do something, people do it.
So what was it like being with so many iconic designers? Let’s see if I can sum it up rather quickly. William Yeoward was and is the consummate charmer and a masterful presenter. Sacha wove a positively dizzy story about a Parisian girl—his muse for his collections—as she negotiates love and life through Paris and Spain. Honestly, I think I got lost somewhere on the way to Seville, but the collection is awesome.
Nina’s humor is dryer than the Sahara. If you will remember from past posts, I’ve meet Nina on many occasions all over the world. Each time, I’ve had to reintroduce myself. It has almost become my meme. But when you count the Queen of Denmark among your illustrious clientele, some guy from Dallas probably doesn’t rank up there on the “remember me” barometer. Obviously, she has never heard me belt out “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” or seen some of my more creative dance moves. (They could be described as part Fosse, part Twyla, with a mix of tilting my head to the side not unlike when I say “squirrel” to the dog.) All that. She would remember. But it’s fine. My own mother can’t always remember my name, often calling me by my brother’s name first before quickly adding mine at the end. For years, I’ve answered to “BillyJimmy,” which is better than “Rufus” unless that’s followed by “Wainwright.”
Anyway, here’s something that may help people remember your name—or at least your home. Created by Nina, Elcho is an all-over, small-scale, stylized leaf pattern. The scale is perfection. It comes in six unforgettable colors and coordinates just perfectly with the entire collection. In fact, Nina stays true to certain color combinations, making it easy to pull pieces together from all of her collections.
Did Nemo dampen our fun in the city? Not really. With the help of some new snow boots, some extra-large blister pads, and a few mangled umbrellas, we did it all.
Happy Friday!
