Models at One Arts Plaza

Yesterday was busy. After the presentation at Walter Lee Culp, I went to One Arts Plaza to see the models that my friends at Scott+Cooner did. Of course, they are flawless. But, what can you expect with architecture by Lionel Morrison, furniture from Scott+Cooner, art from Marty Walker and Holly Johnson, and rugs from Odegard? Both models had grand terraces big enough for dining tables and seating areas - just one problem. The noise from 75 made it hard to carry on a conversation. Oh well, I guess you could always pretend it was the sound of the ocean, or, as Laura suggested, have cocktails at 4 am.

Re: Pierre Frey and French Toiles

The charming Patrick Frey enlightened about 100 designers yesterday - covering French fabrics from the 17th century to today is pretty ambitious. I’ve been to hundreds of fabric presentations, so I didn’t think there was a lot more to learn - wrong. I loved the idea of toiles as photography - going back through the Pierre Frey archives from the beginning of the 1700’s, you can see what was going on in the world at the time. Workers were drying fabrics in the sun and moon in1760 when the printing technique was moved to the town of Jouy, so as to be close to the French royalty. The American Revolution was celebrated with a toile design dated July 4, 1776. Marie Antoinette liked pearls and swallows, and Napoleon celebrated the Empire look with documents and Egyptian elements. And so it goes. Here is a modern toile designed for Pierre Frey by an artist from Hong Kong that wanted to celebrate his own city - and the printed history through fabrics just keeps going.

Eric Prokesh Writes from Phnom Penh

Eric Prokesh and David Astudillo snapped this picture of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Phnom Penh, housed inside a wonderful old French colonial building.

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Baccarat’s Dark Side

Baccarat is old school, like 1764, circa Louis XV. Although I typically think of them in this sort of clear crystal variety, they’ve been producing small quantities of black crystal for years. Lately there’s been a black splash; you’ve probably spotted a black chandelier or two, but with the recent enlistment of Philippe Starck who’s reinvented pieces in the modern context, black is back. (Or as the Dallas store’s manager said, “Black is way in.”) The stems shown are not Philippe’s; they are the handy work of design student Stephanie Balini of the Ecole Nationale Superieures des Arts Decoratif. Using black and clear crystal, Stephanie created two stemware collections, “day” and “night.” I prefer the night glasses, but you won’t know what’s floating in your glass. Four custom decorated glasses, $2,500.