Fancy People in Fancy Dress

It seems that Halloween has become just as much a holiday for adults as it is for children.  Although I haven't celebrated Halloween since I was a child (and have no plans to do so this year), I know many people who do.  So, if your Halloween plans include getting decked out in costume, forgo the cheap plastic mask and take your cue from these swells, who took their fancy dress very seriously.


Image above: Christian Dior attired as the King of Beasts for Le Bal des Rois et Reines (King and Queens Ball), 1949.

 Elsa Schiaparelli dressed as a blackamoor. (Photo by Horst)

 Misia Sert in exotic fancy dress.  (Photo by Horst)

 Cecil Beaton in drag, dressed as writer Elinor Glyn.  (Photo by Horst)

 Elsie de Wolfe outfitted for Le Bal Oriental.  (Photo by Horst)

 A costumed Jean-Michel Frank, looking rather Fu Manchu.  (Photo by Horst)

 Daisy Fellowes, bewigged and bedecked in satin.  (Photo by Horst)

 Valentine Hugo dressed as a merry go-round at Le Bal des Jeux (Games Ball), 1922.

Emilio Terry (left) as Mme Fichini and Jean de Moulignon as General Dourakine, Le Bal Bibliothèque Rose (Pink Library Ball), 1929.

Coco Chanel at Le Bal de la Fôret (Forest Ball), attending as a tree. 1939.

Baroness de Almeida photographed as a sheaf of wheat.  1929.

Jacques Fath and his wife attending the legendary Bal des Masques et Dominos du XVIIIe Siècle (18th-century Masks and Dominoes Ball), hosted by Charles de Beistegui at his Palazzo Labia, Venice, in 1951. Fath was costumed as the Sun King, while his wife was Queen of the Night.

And last but certainly not least, Audrey Hepburn in a bird-cage headdress at Le Bal Surréaliste (Surrealist Ball) in 1972.

The Blues

Some people consider the color blue as too cold to be welcomed into a comfortable house.  Not so, said Dorothy Draper, who believed that, "Blue can be delicate and yet warm at the same time."  It's a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree. Blue, in all of its various guises, is not only my favorite color, it's the essence of my home, making appearances in every room of my apartment, which, I've been told, is warm and inviting.  (Draper also said, "Just as the main theme appears and reappears throughout a symphony, so you can carry one note of color through your whole house to beautiful effect.") Back in 1932 and 1933, the editors of House & Garden were likewise advocates of decorating with blue.  Look at the magazine's color photographs from this time period, and you'll see that blue is notably featured in most of them. In some interior photos, the color permeated a room, such as in the Manhattan living room, seen above and below, of Mrs. Robert A. Lovett.  Mrs. Lovett obviously had a yen for inky blue, because not only did she choose the shade for her living room, she used it in her bathroom as well.  (Seen in the third photograph, the bathroom walls were painted with a mural that shows a colonnaded view of the ocean.)

In other photographs, and in a few illustrations, too, blue appeared as an accent color.  Take, for example, the charming illustration of the living room of Richardson Wright, then editor-in-chief of House & Garden, and his decorator wife, Agnes Foster Wright.  In this room, the Wrights lived beneath a vibrant, bright blue ceiling.  A similar shade can also be seen in the illustration of Condé Nast's paragon-of-chic ballroom, where Elsie de Wolfe chose an 18th-century Chinese wallpaper with a splash of refreshing blue.

But perhaps no photo captures the beauty of blue better than the Edward Steichen photograph, seen below, which shows a woman seemingly enraptured by the blue Delphiniums that grew in Steichen's garden.  I understand the way that woman felt, because the spectrum of blues always dazzles me, too. 

The three photos above show the Manhattan apartment of Mrs. Robert A. Lovett, who decorated her home.

A photo by Edward Steichen, which was taken in his garden.

This illustration shows the living room of Richardson and Agnes Foster Wright.

An illustration of Condé Nast's ballroom.


All images from various 1932 and 1933 issues of House & Garden

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Forget Mr. Selfridge. Have you seen Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries?

I recently discovered the Australian television show, which is based on Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mystery novels, and now I'm absolutely hooked. Set in Melbourne, Australia in 1928, the series follows lady detective Phryne Fisher as she solves murders on what seems like a weekly basis. Phryne is a modern woman of independent means who drives a Hispano-Suiza, drinks dark liquor, flies airplanes, speaks Mandarin Chinese, and has affairs with some very good-looking men. And her clothes! Phryne is always decked out in the latest fashions (for 1928, of course) that make our twenty-first-century wardrobes look like a hodgepodge of casual separates.

If you live in the U.S., you can watch the first season on Acorn Online or purchase the DVD online. (If you like the first episode, beware of binging on the rest of them as I have.) The show is stylish, fun, a little lighthearted, and well-written. I have two remaining episodes to watch, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do once I finish them. The second season is currently being filmed in Australia as I write this, so I'm sure that means American viewers will have to wait until next Spring to catch new episodes. 

Considering that I'm on this big Phryne Fisher kick, I looked through my old magazines to see if I have any from 1928. I do, so I'm featuring a few photos below to give you a taste of what was going on when the fictional Phryne Fisher was sleuthing and having an all-around swell time.

A dressing room in a Greenwich, Connecticut home that was decorated by Elsie de Wolfe.

Actress Gloria Swanson's New York apartment

A bar designed for the Autumn Salon in Paris by Magazin du Printemps

Another bar at the Autumn Salon. Called "Bar sous le Toit", it was designed by Charlotte Perriand.

A foyer in Florence, Italy with a mural painted by Robert Carrere

The Staten Island dining room of designer Robert Locher

A vignette designed by Mary Coggeshall and Jeannette Jukes.

Lady Mendl's Invention

I was flipping through my copy of The Twenties in Vogue the other day, and I was reminded of how much I enjoy the book. (The Thirties in Vogue is also quite good.) It's fun to pore over the old photos of socialites wearing chic fashion as well as to read about the hijinks, the frivolity, and the trends of the day.

One of my favorite sections of the book is that which covers the food and cocktail crazes of the era. Back in the 1920s, of course, most people were cocktail mad, drinking such libations as the Corpse Reviver, the Between the Sheets, and, of all the crazy names, the Bosom Caresser. At least, this was what Vogue was reporting at the time.  And canapes were also starting to come into fashion, something that was also, evidently, covered by the magazine in great detail.  A canape that got an honorable mention in Vogue was one served at Somerset Maugham's home on the Riviera.  His canape consisted of "a green olive stuffed with a nut dipped into Gentlemen's Relish, wrapped in a strip of bacon." That sounds tasty to me, but finding Gentlemen's Relish in Atlanta isn't the easiest endeavor.

Of the five or six cocktail recipes that appear in this book, one in particular caught my eye: Lady Mendl's Invention. The book fails to mention the origin of this recipe, but a Google search identified this cocktail by another name, Pink Lady.  Did Elsie de Wolfe invent this cocktail? Or, did she adopt it as her own? I can't say, but I mixed one up over the weekend to see what the fuss was about.  The cocktail isn't really bad, but it did remind me of the pink penicillin I had to take when I was sick with strep throat as a child. If you liked that taste (and I didn't), you might enjoy this cocktail.

And if any of you know what exactly Lady Mendl's connection was to this cocktail, do tell!

Lady Mendl's Invention
*Recipe is based on a 1 1/2 ounce measure. Shake well with broken ice and serve while frothy.

3/4 gin
1/4 grenadine
juice of half a lemon
1 white of egg

This Hoyningen-Huene photo shows the Cubist bar that was designed for home of the Vicomte de Noailles, c. 1928. How dashing was that?


Hoyningen-Huene photo and Fish illustration from The Twenties in Vogue

Fabric Hall of Fame: Chinese Leopard Toile

Thank goodness for those great old prints that keep on keepin' on, and we have Brunschwig & Fils to thank for many of them. There is Le Lac, Les Touches, La Portugaise, and another print whose name does not begin with a le, la, or les: Chinese Leopard Toile. I've long admired this peculiar print, one in which in Chinese scenes are surrounded by intertwining red garlands, all set against a backdrop of leopard spots. I think that this eccentricity is what makes the print so charming.

I did a bit of digging, and thanks to a 1966 New York Times article, I found out that Chinese Leopard Toile was not only a favorite of Elsie de Wolfe but of Billy Baldwin too. (In the article, Mrs. Brunschwig said that Baldwin used "lots and lots" of this fabric.) I have consulted all of my books that contain de Wolfe and Baldwin interiors, and unfortunately I can't find a single photo which shows their use of the fabric. I did manage to find a McMillen Inc. designed interior in which the fabric was used on chairs and curtains, and I also uncovered a photo from an old House & Garden book.

According to the Times article, the original colorway for Chinese Leopard Toile was shades of red and blue, though a version with a yellow background was later added. Fortunately for us, both are still available. In both the McMillen and House & Garden photos below, it appears that the colorway used is different from what Brunschwig currently offers.

While I get that this print isn't for everybody, it has such an interesting history that it should be admitted to Fabric Hall of Fame- if there was such a thing. Oh, and cost of Chinese Leopard Toile in 1966? $5.80 a yard!


Chinese Leopard Toile as used by the designers at McMillen Inc.



Designer Rhoda Bright chose the print for window shades and a mattress cover.



You can see a close-up of the two colorways currently available. I pulled these two samples at the Brunschwig & Fils/Lee Jofa showroom at ADAC.

Say What?

It dawned on me over the holidays that I'm partial to stationery, cocktail napkins, and other "stuff" that have quotations or phrases emblazoned on them. It might be a gentle reminder to "Don't Forget", or perhaps something cheeky like "We Don't Care How You Do It Up North!" (The latter was printed on paper cocktail napkins that I once had.) I've always admired the needlepoint pillows with witty sayings on them that Mario Buatta seems to be able to find. (Where, oh where, do you find these, Mario?) And then there is the needlepoint pillow that a disgruntled girlfriend once gave to famed Hollywood producer Robert Evans that read "He knows where you've been sleeping." That took guts, no?

I decided to take a quick tour around my home and snap some photos of the notepads, napkins, and matchbooks which feature quotes. And no, no "He knows where you've been sleeping" pillows around here.

My friend Louise seems to be a fan of quotations too. She owns monkey notecards printed with this quote by Edna Woolman Chase- " Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess." Chase certainly had a point. Louise was kind enough to give me one which I display on my bookshelves.




Another gift from Louise were these matchbooks with the immortal words of Cicero (the quotation had to be shortened because of the size of the matchbook)- "A room without books is a body without soul." Truer words were never spoken.








Didn't we all go crazy for Charlotte Moss' fabulous notepads and cocktail napkins that celebrated the spirited words of Diana Vreeland, Tony Duquette, and other style icons? I would argue that it takes a cup of strong coffee to get out of bed in the mornings, but what do I know. Why argue with Diana?


And for the grand finale:

Yes, an actual piece of paper from Albert Hadley's famous "Don't Forget" notepads. To me, this is the equivalent of owning a vial of Elvis' sweat. It was stuck in a copy of "Decoration" that was once part of the Parish-Hadley library. I found it late one night around midnight, and I was positively dying to call somebody, anybody. How many people, though, want to receive a call in the middle of the night saying "Oh my Lord, I just found some of that Albert Hadley "Don't Forget" notepaper!"

All photos taken by Jennifer Boles, copyright The Peak of Chic.

A Great Way to Spend a Weekend

Well, the weekend absolutely flew by thanks to two straight days of being completely engrossed online. No, not on Facebook which, in the words of Betty White, can be a "huge waste of time." Instead, I got wrapped up in the Museum of the City of New York's website. Thanks to Curbed National, I learned last week that the museum had recently uploaded about 50,000 New York related photographs to its website- just part of the museum's amazing collection. Of course what I got sucked into were the photographs of interiors, especially those by noted photographer Samuel H. Gottscho. The photographs are a real treat for those of us interested in 1930s design, old New York apartments, and the homes of William Odom, Elsie de Wolfe, and others. There is just so much to look at! I've downloaded a few images that caught my eye, but trust me, there is a lot more where these came from. If you have time over the holidays, you should visit the MCNY collection portal. Just be prepared not to come up for air anytime soon.



Samuel H. Gottscho, " Herbert Sondheim [residence]. Bar. Located at 146 Central Park West, NYC." 1930. From the Collections of the Museum of the City of New York.



Samuel H. Gottscho, "Bruce Price Post [residence]. Hall. Apartment of Bruce Price Post, 39 East 79th St." 1927. From the Collections of the Museum of the City of New York.




Samuel H. Gottscho, "Benjamin Wood (residence). Linen closet." 1925. From the Collections of the Museum of the City of New York.




Samuel H. Gottscho, "Mrs. G. Fuller [residence], 41 Park Avenue, NYC. Nursery panel." 1930. From the Collections of the Museum of the City of New York.





Samuel H. Gottscho, "Faris R. Russell [residence]. Terrace from door." 1931. From the Collections of the Museum of the City of New York.


Image at top: Samuel H. Gottscho, "Mrs. Radcliffe Romeyn [residence], 25 East End Avenue. Living room mantel detail, 2.". 1935. From the Collections of the Museum of the City of New York.

Mad About Maugham

I just finished reading Syrie Maugham, Pauline Metcalf's new book on one of the twentieth century's most innovative designers. It was high time that Syrie got a book of her own. Actually, Richard Fisher wrote a book on Syrie back in the late 1970s, but that one is both hard to find and quite expensive. I had to resort to photocopying the Fisher book at my neighborhood library. At least I own Metcalf's book.

Like so many of the Acanthus Press books that I've read, Syrie Maugham is very much a catalogue raisonne of the decorator's work through the decades. There were some Maugham rooms that I was familiar with, but many were new to me too. Of course, Maugham's famous Kings Road all-white drawing room is featured in the book (it's on the cover, too); after all, this was the room that got Maugham noticed by the press and the public on both sides of the Atlantic. But what many people don't realize is that Maugham also used color- vivid color- in much of her work, and this is a point that Metcalf drives home with such examples as the living room of Ina and William Wallace and even Maugham's later residence at Chesham Place. In addition to color, other Maugham hallmarks include tufted upholstery (Syrie never overlooked comfort), sleigh beds, mirrored screens, fringe, and fabulous window pelmets, all of which are seen throughout the book.

Another interesting point made by Metcalf is that at times, Maugham's work "overlapped" with that of Elsie de Wolfe, Frances Elkins (someone with whom Maugham occasionally collaborated), and even Dorothy Draper. Look at photos of all four designers' work and you'll see the influence that each one had on the other.

I know that there are those of us who are fascinated by the history of design and those who are only interested in photographs of gorgeous rooms. No matter which camp you're in, I think this book will be well received by both. After reading it, you'll realize that Syrie Maugham was not just a one trick pony. Although she'll be best remembered for that white room and pickled furniture, she did so much more than that. Thanks to Metcalf for showing us that.



The famous all-white party room at Maugham's Kings Road home c. 1932. Once this look ran its course, Maugham was smart enough to go in a different direction and decorate her home in a whole new way:



Vogue Regency in the Entrance Hall at Chesham Place, Maugham's address from 1937 to 1939. If I didn't know better, I might think that this space was decorated by Dorothy Draper.



Rose wallpaper struck a colorful note in the entrance hall at yet another Maugham home, this one at 24 Park Lane.



And one more example of rich color, this time in the living room of William Wallace and his wife, actress Ina Claire. This space dates to the early 1940s.



I find this Maugham decorated drawing room so charming, and I just had to include it because this home belonged to Lady Rose Leveson-Gower and her husband; she was the older sister to the late Queen Mum.



The Manhattan apartment of Grace and Harry Payne Bingham. If only I had traditional windows in my apartment, I would copy that pelmet in a heartbeat.


(All images courtesy of Syrie Maugham by Pauline C. Metcalf, Acanthus Press publishers.)