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Friday Fun With Jim Williamson

By Laura Kostelny |
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It’s Friday. That means it’s time to hear from our friend, ID Collection’s Jim Williamson. I launched Style Bastard last fall with little fanfare. The cocktail party, e-blast, and luncheons galore to drive traffic to the site—somehow all that keeps getting rescheduled thanks to work, my three children (all with four legs), a new spouse, and a new house. When your head is busy calculating drapery hardware, creating schemes for clients, configuring custom dining tables, and tracking orders that should have been delivered months ago, it just kind of zaps the writing area of my brain.

But I digress as usual, giving you my excuses for not being able to handle my life in a Kelly Ripaesque manner. Since every day brings a new challenge, I thought I would share a recent story involving the wife for of a VIP client that required a private Saturday opening with the designer and security personnel present. I have only opened the showroom on a weekend on a handful of occasions in the past 14 years, and it’s either been for a celebrity or the possibility to appear on a reality show. You know how I’m just itching for that two second of screen time.

Anyway, I can’t get too descriptive about our guest, as we certainly don’t want to insult our VIP in any way—especially since selections are not final. What I can say is that the couple lives primary abroad and has a direct connection to royalty. Budget is pretty much a non-issue, and you get very few of those these days. And they shopped at many of the showrooms, not just ours. Anyway, I did not look up the proper protocol for handling such a situation as they literally just walked in. I have provided design services for the charities of at least one First Lady, who was very gracious and funny. She even let me ride in the elevator with her. But this was just a different situation altogether. I had lots of things going through my head as I made suggestions for achieving this look or that look. Should I bow, curtsey, or do a tap dance to “Super Bass”? How do I address you? Should I wait to speak?

Days in, the couple was looking at a very large mirror for their foyer. When I say “very large,” I mean the size of my last living room. The wife wanted to know if the finishes were real gold and silver, and I told her yes, that they were indeed real karat gold and silver leaf. “I cannot do these finishes,” she said. I explained that a solid gold or silver frame was going to be a problem. I mean, can you imagine a solid gold, 11-foot-by-11-foot frame? It would weigh tons. Anyway, once I did some explaining, all was okay. Did I get some massive orders for this interesting project? The verdict is out. But cross your fingers for me.

Speaking of royal connections, it just so happens that our dear friend from across the Pond, William Yeoward, sent me a few sneak peek images of his Kings Road shop all done up in his new Spring 2013 collection. More on that later. I hope you have a happy Friday!

 

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