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Author Archives: Cristopher
A JAMAICAN JEWEL: ROUND HILL
Posted December 12, 2013. Filed in Angelo Donghia, British Colonial Style, Caribbean Style, Ralph Lauren, Understated Luxury
Fresh from a most non-traditional Thanksgiving vacation in Jamaica I am still dreaming of crystalline azure waters, balmy breezes, the friendly Jamaican people, and the understated traditional luxury informed by decades of British colonization. And the fact that Ralph Lauren has vacationed here for nearly as long as he’s been in business adds another layer […]
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Hunt Country Style
Posted November 17, 2013. Filed in Antony Childs, C. Z. Guest, Colefax & Fowler, English Country House Style, Gil Schafer, Hunt Country Style, Kerry Joyce, Michael S. Smith, Miles Redd, Parish-Hadley, Ralph Lauren, Robert Kime, Simon Blow, Suzanne Rheinstein, The Great American House, Vincent Fourcade, Ward Denton
The time-honored tradition of the hunt is in full swing, beginning as early as September, despite a 2004 law forbidding the actual killing of foxes in the UK, where it originated in the 16th-century. For true hunt masters and their servants (fellow huntsman, not personal attendants or wait staff) it is the thrill of the […]
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The Allure of Orange
Posted November 10, 2013. Filed in Atelier AM, Axel Vervoordt, Billy Baldwin, Bunny Williams, Charlotte Moss, David Hicks, Erin Lauder, Gil Schafer, Henri Samuel, Jean-Phillipe Demeyer, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Mario Buatta, Markham Roberts, Miles Redd, Nancy Lancaster, Orange, Richard Keith Langham, Robert Couturier, Scott Lamb, Stephen Sills, Steven Gambrel, Suzanne Rheinstein, Thomas Britt, Tony Ingrao
Orange as a color for decorating, or sartorial considerations for that matter, doesn’t often enter my design vocabulary for whatever reason. However, autumn is my favorite of the seasons and I practically become giddy with excitement at the first sign of autumn’s golden yellows, glowing oranges, and fiery reds. The color orange radiates warmth and […]
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A Taste for Tuscany
Posted November 4, 2013. Filed in Mark Hampton, Tuscan Style
If I were to show you an illustration of a villa (above) and a photo of that villa (below), with no previous knowledge of its location or who designed and built it, would you be able to suggest where it is, who designed it, and from what era it originates? Though the taste for Tuscany […]
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California Tuscan
Michael S. Smith is a designer who captures the essence of a particular place and time with insouciant, albeit studied, ease. For the interiors of a Tuscan-style vineyard estate in the Santa Ynez mountains in California Smith conceived the look and feel of an old Italian country house. Its owners, Francine and Neil Afromsky, owners […]
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Saladino Style
The Tuscan style gained great popularity in the U.S. in the 1990′s, and there is probably no single American designer or architect more associated with this style than John Saladino, known for his romantic-classical take on Italian and Spanish Mediterranean styles. From the Veneto to the Tuscan landscape Saladino has distilled classical villa-style and Italian country […]
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Palazzo Labèque
Axel Vervoordt imbued the Tuscan palazzo of the internationally famous Labèque sisters, Katia and Marielle, with his unique brand of elemental elegance in the mid-1990’s. Situated inside a fortified medieval city, the pianist duo’s sprawling residence is narrow but high. In the living room, above, Vervoordt mixed carefully selected pieces in unexpected combinations. As so many […]
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An Artist in Tuscany
Posted October 18, 2013. Filed in Italian Country Houses, John Stefanidis, Teddy Millington-Drake, Tuscan Style
It could be said that interior designer John Stefanidis is one of the first influences on the revival of the Tuscan farmhouse as dwelling and the ensuing trend of restoring these casas colonicas, beginning in the 1970’s, particularly among British and Americans desiring a holiday home in the unspoilt terrain of Tuscany. The late artist, […]
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Home Away From Rome
Posted October 16, 2013. Filed in Italian Country Houses, Renzo Mongiardino, Romantic Classical Style, Tuscan Style, Valentino
Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino Garavani’s busuiness and life partner, purchased La Vagnola, an 18th-century Tuscan villa in Cetona, in 1986 and enlisted the maestro of atmosphere Renzo Mongiardino to create enchanted interiors inspired by the surrounding lush, classical gardens. For twenty-five years he and Valentino vacationed here to escape the pressures of Rome and their […]
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Villa Cetinale
Lord Edward Richard Lambton’s 17th-century Roman Baroque Villa Cetinale in La Cerbaia, near Sienna, is set amidst one of the most spectacular sitings in Tuscany, with views spanning over miles of rolling hills. Designed by the architect Carlo Fontana, a pupil of Bernini, the villa was built in 1680 by Cardinal Flavio Chigi for Pope […]
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Villa la Rose
My survey of Tuscan-style architecture and interiors, beginning with Under the Tuscan Sun, continues into the hills above southern Florence. The 15th-century Villa delle Rose, an example of the classical Tuscan villa modeled after Villa Medici in Fiesole, was saved from obscurity by Ernest Boissevain and his wife Jean Tennyson, the famous opera singer, when […]
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The Tower of Peretti
Posted October 11, 2013. Filed in Italian Country Houses, Renzo Mongiardino, Romantic Classical Style, Tuscan Style
Elsa Peretti’s holiday retreat on the Tuscan coast was hardly your typical relaxed and breezy waterfront dwelling. La Torre was a ruin of a watchtower on the steep and craggy cliffs of Southern Tuscany built by Spanish invaders in the 16th-century as a military lookout between the Tuscan archipelago and the island of Corsica. Its […]
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