The next time you and your designer are checking fabrics at 38,000 feet . . .
Say what?
January Architectural Digest’s “Designer Secrets” has fun revelations, such as Juan Pablo Molyneuxrecalling “doing an airplane” and initially reminding his clients about light being brighter at times, as well as flying in clouds. That prompted a three-hour flight over New York just to look at the darn fabrics!
Mario Buattasays our biggest mistake tends to be “scale, scale, scale,” such as never scaling furniture correctly (“it’s usually too small”). Mark Boone says the color he keeps using again and again is Benjamin Moore 177, peach blossom.
Elissa Cullman says the most unusual request she’s received was to create a set of steps for a dachshund to reach a client’s bed. Jennifer Post says her favorite dining chair is the Rialto dining side chair from J. Robert Scott. Geoffrey Bradfield says if you want to look big on a small budget, use mirrors for a sense of grandeur. Michael Schaible holds that a classic print or fabric that will never get passe is black and white stripes from Perennials.
Mariette Himes Gomez predicts the most important design change in the next decade will be “sadly, probably more technology, less style” (though Craig Wright answers same question by saying, “Faster deliveries”).
The last thing Harry Schnaper bought for his own home is the Kohler Kathryn bathtub.
And Thad Hayes concludes that there are many rules designers should keep in mind, including, “To break the rules.”
Quickly: Dueling Kaplans: A heavy dose of skepticism about the nexus of Iraq’s elections and future democracy is found in Slate.com’s “Elections Aren’t Enough” by its smart military affairs writer, Fred Kaplan. He cautions that “depending on the character of the regime and the society that it reflects, democratic elections without democratic institutions might worsen the prospects for real democracy — and even worsen our own national security. Meanwhile, Lawrence Kaplan in the online version of the New Republic concedes “milestone fatigue” in our assessments of Iraq but concludes that these elections really are a truly positive milestone. . . . Dec. 26 Fortune’s “When Sallie Met Wall Street” explains how students get creamed as shareholders make huge returns via the major domo of the student loan business, the Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae), now independent after being government-sponsored until this year. Since 1995 its stock has been golden, returning over 1,900 percent, with its dividend rising at an 18 percent rate the past decade. But with nearly $82 billion in student loans on its balance sheet, it also hits students with as much as 28 percent annual interest on those loans. . . . And, somewhere wedged among a conversation on love between Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek, tips on getting a great body and a guide to foreplay, January Glamour includes an editorial on wife killers too often getting off easy (with heavy reliance on the wisdom of the hanging judge of cable news anchors, Nancy Grace of CNN). . . . December’s left-leaning Progressive chronicles the lockout by Celanese Corp. of 200 employees of an adhesives manufacturer, National Starch and Chemical, in Meredosia, Ill., west of Springfield. . . . Dec. 26 Forbes includes its collectors guide (Chinese ceramics and female abstract expressionists are big) but also takes a look at a hedge fund that may have been one of the largest fund frauds ever (investors in the Lancer Group included ex-Sotheby’s boss Alfred Taubman, the Dayton family of department store fame and Britney Spears), yet is still stumbling to trial nearly three years after the government shut it down.
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jwarren@tribune.com
