April 06, 2012

RED AND GOOD FRIDAY

Bright colors are fun and a pair of serious assertive colors is all you need.

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(Used to neutrals like this dark corridor? Go electric one piece at a time like this brightly colored door in turquoise.)

Yes, it is pretty obvious I love my reds and you do not have to be on the beach or a yacht to get colorful.

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(Crank up the brightness on Good Friday! Red shorts and bengal shirt in blue by Ralph Lauren, tan loafers and hat from a flea market in Florence, Italy.)

In fact, here I am doing my penance in red on Good Friday.

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(climbing a few floors up in this heat - talk about penance!)

April 05, 2012

HITTING THE BULLS EYE

Michael Bastian outdid himself again this year.



His latest fall collection had models with a degree of facial hair sporting fusty-cool updates on American classics - lean, tan pinstriped suit over a gingham shirt and popped collar plaid underneath country cardigans. Yes,Michael Bastian is all about good taste done subtly.

April 03, 2012

BASIC MATTER 34: GOOD DESIGN, PAISLEYS AND BEING PREPPY ALL THE WAY

It irks me every time I see a badly designed space. Yes, blame my parents for teaching us young. At 5, I already knew what looked bad and what didn’t.

I didn’t have an awful plastic lamp on my bedside table but instead, a huge vintage brass lamp that looked like an Arabian jar with a huge canvas shade. Again, blame mom!

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(Maximilian Sinsteden in pink trousers in his preppy dorm room.)

My sisters and I weren’t allowed to have tacky, bubbling lava lamps and yards of awful linoleum to mask our cracked marble tiles. Mom always had rolls of rugs from her trips hidden in the storage. Instead of posters of celebrities taped on the wall, we had framed paintings and black and white photos of ourselves hence the same treatment in our city apartment.

I chanced upon a photo of Maximilian Sinsteden’s college dorm room when he was a senior at Drew University. Definitely not minimalist – his space is a mix of all things preppy and pure eclecticism.

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(Maximilian Sinsteden and friend)

Instead of clean line, his floor is masked with layers of oriental rugs , the walls—painted in Ralph Lauren’s Tapestry Green, brass chandelier, a thrift find screwed into the ceiling, Chinoiserie paper lampshades and paisley bolsters and his cable-knit sweaters all perfectly folded and arranged from light to dark in his vintage dresser. Pretty tidy, huh! Right, anything for cashmere!

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(Slipper shoes from Stubbs & Wootton)

I mean, for someone who has a love for Stubbs & Wootton slipper shoes and melon-colored pants, don’t expect a space with clean lines.

April 02, 2012

I HAVE BEEN DOODLED

Yes, all my life, I've honed a talent for being able to fill up a blank canvas with oil and acrylic but never with watercolor and pencil.

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(Buddha Banana, Illustrated! Illustration by Mikhail Douglas Ong Quijano)


Mikhail’s doodles are pretty impressive – the resemblance is uncanny!