The Brighter Side of Donghia

While doing research over the weekend, I came across two 1968 photos of Angelo Donghia's work that caught my eye. Are you surprised that Donghia decorated these rooms? If the answer is yes, then you're not alone. For years, I only associated Donghia with his work from the mid- 1970s and 80s- rooms that were contemporary, at times sleek, frequently neutral in color, and that really embraced the spirit of the 1970s. But if you go back and look at his work from the 1960s, he captured the zeitgeist of that era too. When I started collecting vintage 1960s magazines a few years ago, I found that the rooms that captured my attention tended to be those by Donghia.

Take, for example, the room at top. House Beautiful declared that in this room, "The Thirties return with a Sixties flourish." There's that loop chair again, although that's not what I noticed first, nor was it that graphic black and white rug (so 1960s). Instead, it was that gray silk slipper chair. How beautiful is that? Normally, I'm not a bun feet kind of gal, but these silk covered ones are kind of weird and kind of fetching at the same time. And I love the shape of the sofa and those punctuations of chartreuse.


And then there's this shot of Donghia's own foyer. Try to look past that unfortunate clipped hedged green carpet, because the story here is Donghia's use of color. You've got that pretty blue and white floral paper in the foreground and the soft blue and red portière. And look in the background- I've never thought mixing lavender and bright red. You know what? It actually works.

(Both images from House Beautiful, October 1968)