Joan's Way of Life

Have you ever watched a Joan Crawford movie and noticed that inevitably, one of the film's characters- with a straight face, mind you- will describe Joan's character as being "a fine looking woman", "beautiful", even "gorgeous". Well, it always leaves me thinking "Really?...Really?". Because let's face it, Joan really wasn't very attractive. Oh, I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think that describing Joan as beautiful is pushing it. Really pushing it. But, Joan was a real piece of work, so if Joan asked (or even demanded) that her character be beautiful, well, who dared argue with her? I sure as heck wouldn't. I'd say whatever she wanted me to.

This observation of mine- made at 5:30 yesterday morning while trying to sleep- led me to my bookshelf where I pulled down one of my all-time favorite works of high camp: Joan's 1971 how-to guide My Way of Life. Don't let the price dissuade you from buying it. It is totally worth it to read Joan's advice on raising children (yes, child rearing advice from the woman who beat her daughter with a wire hanger), beauty (I think I covered that in the first paragraph of this post), housekeeping and decorating, and taking care of one's husband. I say husband rather than man or male companion because in Joan's world, a woman had to have a husband. You had to close the deal and make it to the finish line of marriage or otherwise you were, God forbid, not a "complete woman". And speaking of husbands, did you know that you should "never let your husband see you exercising. No woman rolling around on the floor looks really adorable after she's passed her third birthday." I didn't realize that either.

So seeing that this is a design blog, I'm going to extract some of Joan's decorating tidbits from the book. Taking decorating advice from a woman who covered her furniture in plastic slipcovers is a bit risky. (Carleton Varney, Joan's decorator in the 1960s and 70s, once wrote "Joan had more plastic on her furniture than was used at the meat counter in an A&P supermarket.) Still, I have to admit that much of what she said makes sense to me. I think that she was more down to earth when it came to her home than she was with her beauty tips: "Organize a beauty club. The best thing about the club is getting down on the floor with half a dozen other women...and seeing if you can improve faster than anyone else." Now that sounds like Joan to me.

Joan's Take on Decorating:


A good marriage deserves a lovely background.

I think the first gay, happy things I ever bought for myself were chintz curtains. But the place got so damned busy that it made me dizzy- too many patterns have the same effect on me as those very tiny mosaic tiles you sometimes see in public places, especially in airports. Judy Garland used to get so seasick looking at them that she had to be carried out of the area with her eyes shut tight.





I feel that [bedrooms] should be very feminine... I think men feel much more masculine walking from a brown or green dressing room into a lovely feminine bedroom.




I think one of the most important things in decorating is that you should like every room in the house or apartment. If you find yourself always avoiding one of the rooms, something's wrong.




People who have good taste are bound to make a mistake now and then, because they're human, and when they do it's a horrendous one. It's so ugly you can't believe it. On the other hand people who have terrible taste are bound to make a mistake and buy something exquisite- and you can't possibly understand how that could happen!



(Image #1 from My Way of Life by Joan Crawford. Images #2 and #5 from Celebrity Homes: Architectural Digest Presents the Private Worlds of Thirty International Personalities. #3, #4, and #6 from Houses in My Heart: Carleton Varney: An International Decorator's Colorful Journey by Carleton Varney.)

Avedon, Stars, and Style

I think that I'm predisposed towards interiors, fashion, food, celebrities, and the cognoscenti of yesteryear. Perhaps it's genetics, or maybe I was born in the wrong era. I don't know, but it really does seem that style- an individual sense of style, that is- was more prevalent "back then". Seeing an actress today, for example, schlepping her Starbucks cup while wearing Uggs just kind of ruins it for me. You know what I mean?

A book that seems to drive this point home is one that a photographer friend gave me recently- Performance: Richard Avedon, a compilation of his photos of performers. Noel Coward is in it as well as Diana Vreeland (if blog posts are any indication, we still revere this woman today.) Hepburn (both of them), Porter, Nureyev, and Capote also make appearances.

So, without further ado, here are a few images that caught my eye. And as I couldn't resist adding a design twist to this post, I'm also including a few images of their respective homes- just to help prove my point that these luminaries did have quite a sense of style.

Was there anyone with as much flair as Cole Porter?


Well, yes, but it wasn't a "who" but rather a "what": his Billy Baldwin designed apartment in Waldorf Towers.

If there was anyone who could give Porter a run for his money in terms of wit and a way with words, it was Noel Coward.


One might have expected his London home (shown here in 1937) to be frothy, but instead it's a bit rustic around the edges.

We all remember Edward G. Robinson as the cinema's ultimate mobster.


But did you know that he also had a renowned collection of Impressionist paintings, shown off to great effect in his Beverly Hills home? His home, by the way, was the handiwork of Samuel Marx and Frances Elkins. I bet that Little Caesar would never had had such elegant digs.

Rex Harrison. Leave it to "Sexy Rexy"...


...to have such a sexy dining room courtesy of Keith Irvine.

They say that Marlene Dietrich was the ultimate hausfrau. You certainly would not have known that by looking at this photograph.



You wouldn't have known it by her palatial Beverly Hills home, either.


(All portraits from Performance: Richard Avedon. Porter home photo from Billy Baldwin Decorates; Coward home photo from a 1937 issue of Arts & Decoration. Robinson home from UltraModern: Samuel Marx Architect, Designer, Art Collector; Harrison dining room shot from Keith Irvine: A Life in Decoration. Dietrich photo from House Beautiful, 9/2001.)

Orange is the Happiest Color

Or so said Frank Sinatra. Frank loved his orange. Me? Not so much so. However, there are certain shades of orange that I find to be stunning. I wouldn't say that these particular shades are necessarily happy but rather moody. Moody in a good way, mind you. Not moody as in tedious. More Paris than Palm Springs, the place that Frank called home. You know, orange without all of that Vitamin C.

You know who else must have liked orange? The late (and still great) Henri Samuel. I flipped for the photos of his Paris apartment that were featured in the 1989 book The Decorator by Florence de Dampierre. It was a refined home and yet that Hermes shade gave the room a sense of vigor. This, to me, is orange the way that it should be.

Interestingly, when asked what his favorite color was, Samuel responded that it was mauve. OK, so I'm not sold on mauve, but I'm sure if anyone could successfully use the color, it was Samuel. Now I just need to find some photos to back that opinion up.


Of course, an orange room looks that much better when one owns a Giacometti table and a Balthus painting.




Samuel's sitting room. The fireplace was Empire "in the Egyptian taste".


(Photos from The Decorator by Florence de Dampierre, Antoine Bootz photographer.)

Grant K. Gibson is a Tastemaker!

Well, we already knew that. It's no surprise that One Kings Lane tapped him to be the curator of tomorrow's Tastemaker Tag Sale. There are so many great items that Grant has chosen for the sale: architectural prints, framed intaglios, antiques, and objets galore. I've spent more than a few evenings in Grant's stylish dwelling drinking champagne and secretly coveting many of these items. Now's my chance (and yours) to actually get my hands on something! Then, perhaps, my apartment will look as pulled together as Grant's. Check the sale out tomorrow on One Kings Lane's website.

A sampling of the goods:









And the way some of them looked in Grant's apartment:



(All images courtesy of One Kings Lane)

Like Sands Through the Hourglass...

...so are the Days of Our Lives.

Am I the only person who thinks of that intro when the topic of hourglasses comes up? (I've never even seen that soap opera before but I certainly know that theme music..and I know that Macdonald Carey spoke the words. Scary.) But back to hourglasses. I actually haven't been thinking of hourglasses themselves so much, but rather I've been really drawn to the hourglass shape. Perhaps that pinched middle reminds me of a nipped-in waist, something which has also been on my mind as of late because of my recent birthday. Another year older and fortunately my waistline is still trim- and it better stay that way. (I say this, of course, after having a dinner of pasta and vino. Someday, it's going to catch up with me.)




It all started with Chris Spitzmiller's Hager lamp about which I wrote last week. I ordered a navy one with a gold base from Chris' Seconds Sale . I'm showing the matte white version above, but I am very excited about having a navy lamp. And the shape is so pleasing.





Then, I was at Pieces the other evening for a party honoring Jonathan Adler. He was signing his pottery, and he was so nice and charming that I just had to buy something so that he could sign it. (Did I say he was nice and charming?) So the piece that caught my eye and that I ended up purchasing was the Cyclone Vase. Perhaps it looks a bit more like a nuclear reactor than an hourglass, but once again, it has that skinny middle.

A few days after that, I was on a plane reading Town & Country when I saw an ad for the new Balenciaga fragrance. See the hourglass to the side? A sign that I needed to write this post! What I like even more, though, is that gorgeous perfume bottle with that craquelure stopper. I need to go check it out at Neiman's.

I haven't a clue as to what my next brush with the hourglass will be, but I believe it will happen. After all, it's these kind of things that I look for during the days of my life.

(Image of Hager lamp courtesy of Christopher Spitzmiller; vase photo taken by Jennifer Boles.)

Thanks to Jessica and Joe...

... this post is not about entertaining like every other Tom, Dick, and Harry. I'm sure most of you have read Joe Nye's terrific new book Flair: Exquisite Invitations, Lush Flowers, and Gorgeous Table Settings. It's been by my bed for months now, and I realized that reading it before bedtime ensures sweet dreams of beautiful china, bamboo flatware (in black, no less), pink carnations- basically, my kind of dreams. The book's gorgeous table settings positively beg for good food as well. I think that Joe would agree that the right menu goes hand in hand with all of the hard work that you put into your tables.

So, that leads me to another book that I've been perusing lately- Jessica Daves' The Vogue Book of Menus and Recipes. (That's Daves, above, in that black and white photo.) The 1964 cookbook and menu planning guide is, well, a bit dated, but food dates about the same way that curtains and lamp shades do- not well. That said, I do think it's a shame that Chicken in Tarragon Aspic is no longer a favorite on today's party menus. It sounds delicious to me.

I decided to plan a few pretend parties using photos from Joe's book and matching them to a menu from the Vogue book. I could have gone really retro with the menus but rather chose the ones that seem appropriate for today's palates. I realize that many of you will never make aspic, but cucumber boats with crab and mayonnaise doesn't sound too terribly difficult to make. What do you think?

Cocktails

Menu
Eggs Stuffed with Red Caviar

Roquefort Pecans

Finger Sandwiches of Smoked Turkey on White Bread

Cucumber Boats filled with Crabmeat and Mayonnaise

Tiny Hot Finger Rolls filled with Bacon Crumbles

A Ladies Luncheon

Menu

Cold Cucumber Soup

Vitello Tonnato

Cold Rice

Sliced Tomatoes and Herb Dressing

Peach Ice Cream

Hot Macaroons

The Wine: Either white or red with the veal-claret or California Zinfandel for the red; Pouilly-Fume for the white.

A Buffet Dinner

Menu

Low-Country Oysters with Mushrooms

Hot Baked Ham

Ring of Red Rice Filled with Green Peas

Escarole Salad with Roquefort Dressing

Hot Rolls

Pears in Orange Juice with Orange Liqueur

The Wine: Chablis has been called the "oyster wine", and it is good with the rest of this menu too.

A Seated Dinner

Menu

Curried Crab Soup

Savoury Roast Veal

Green Peas, French Style

Gratin of Potatoes

Meringues Glacees

The Wine: A vin rose, or a white Burgundy

(Images from Flair: Exquisite Invitations, Lush Flowers, and Gorgeous Table Settings by Joe Nye, Edmund Barr photographer)

Spousal Support

Remember these?

via Amazon



I say "remember" because these funny pillows used to be quite popular. As a teenager in the late 1980s, they were really rather de rigueur. Of course, the idea was that they provided the proper amount of back support while one was studying, reading Herodotus or Homer, and, for some of us, devouring a Judith Krantz novel in bed.

via PBTeen

I had one that was actually pretty cute. It was white linen with embroidery on it and it went quite well with my Colefax & Fowler chintz curtains and Ralph Lauren wicker bed. (Remember how popular those Ralph Lauren wicker beds used to be??)

via Bed Bath and Beyond


Some people refer to them as bedrest pillows, but the more popular term is "husband" or "boyfriend" pillow. As a 17 year old, I didn't call my pillow my husband because that sounded ridiculous. Actually, I didn't call it a boyfriend either, although at the time, the closest I came to a boyfriend was that darn linen pillow. And now you know why I was home at night reading "Princess Daisy".

via Cuddledown



Sometimes I think about how great it would be to have one of these pillows again because how perfect would it be for blogging in bed? But then I snap out of my reverie because quite frankly, I don't like how a husband would look on my bed. (You can read what you want to in that last statement.)

But lest we think these pillows are tacky, we should remember that Elsie de Wolfe was a fan of them. There she is, below, at her home After All in 1950. It looks as though she and Blu Blu were getting ready to play a round of cards in bed. Study the photo closely and you'll see Elsie's pillow covered in a floral fabric.

In fact, Elsie was a big fan of them. So much so that she sold "Elsie de Wolfe's ingenious BED REST" and even had a patent pending on them in 1934. They were covered in twill sateen (cream with brown piping and tufting) and had pockets on the arm rests. Elsie's husband was obviously very chic. I don't know about you, but if someone made something comparable, you just might see one on my bed someday soon.





(Image of de Wolfe in bed: Tony Duquette by Wendy Goodman. de Wolfe advertisement from House Beautiful, March 1934.)