Photo: Pablo Zamora for AD España
A serene palette of earthy umbers and natural sand tones define the breezy Mallorca workshop of textile artist Adriana Meunié and ceramicist Jaume Roig. The pair's stark naturalism is a result of their devotion to raw materials. Identifying with the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, Meunié and Roig have created a rustic, elemental look that mixes industrial style antiques with organic and rough-hewn textures.
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When I think of John Saladino's work, I think of a classic, easygoing graciousness. I'm certainly not thinking Studio 54. It's come as a delightful surprise then to find, in these rare images of his 1971 Manhattan apartment, the designer's take on the disco era. A far cry from the look he's known for today, it's amazing to see the breadth and facility of his vision. With the same eye for scale and proportion we see throughout his later work, Saladino's swank Beekman Place pad is at once classically Saladino, and yet again, something else entirely.
Absent of the more rustic, romantic turns for which he's known, the apartment is defined by a sleek, Halston-esque modernism. Yet, with its spare opulence and feeling of understated luxury, one can sense the early workings of the young designer's ethos. I love all the fabulously '70s features abundant throughout the space he then shared with his wife, Virginia, and newborn. The sunken living room, for one thing, with its wall-to-wall carpeting and inset strip lighting has a sexy, if deliciously kitsch appeal.
Gutting the place entirely, Saladino renovated the apartment in the International style and, counter to convention at the time, juxtaposed its smooth, minimalist lines with antiques from different periods and cultures. Maverick from the start, the sensibility Saladino pioneered continues to remain surprising and fresh. I believe it is his unfailing commitment to simple geometries that allows him to make such bold and daring statements of contrast. A sense of rhythm pervades on the level of both texture and scale, and in this way Saladino harmonizes the inherent tensions of his materials.
And what materials they are. The paneled doors wrapped in padded raw silk, sumptuous modular leather sofas and space agey aluminum Rothko-like paintings are Saladino's own creations. Offset by orb-shaped Danish wicker chairs and a rare celadon Ziegler Sultanabad carpet, the living area has a spacious, zen-like feeling. Elsewhere, collections of clean-edged pieces complement the repetition of luxurious oyster tones. Massive fur throws, plush café-au-lait carpeting, woven Indian ottomans, and grisaille Renaissance etchings create all together a polished and peaceful effect.
Details aside, there's something absolutely thrilling to me about the chance to peer into the early imaginings of so unique and iconic a designer. One can see continuities and departures, trials and revisions. One can see, in essence, the spirit of a vision at work. I think that as concerns matters of style, we stand to remember that we needn't limit ourselves to any one particular "look" per se. Rather, by allowing our creative intuition to take over, we can explore and even radically reinvent our preferences, time and time again.
Photo: Graham Saladino for Frederic Magazine
Photo: Simon Watson for The World of Interiors
The light-filled Bloomsbury home of designer Erdem Moralioglu and architect Philip Joseph pays sensitive homage to the area's bohemian roots. With art by Cecil Beaton, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell, the pair conjures the spirit of the Bloomsbury Group aesthetic, yet in a minimalist key all their own. I love the way they've preserved the home's fabulous Georgian bones, and the rich contrast produced by all the midcentury and contemporary furnishings.
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Photo: Mattia Parodi for AD España
Studio Vedet creative director Valentina Ciuffi's light-filled Milan apartment is a breath of fresh air. But look closely--the devil's in the details. Her traditional Sheraton dining table has been given a glossy ebonized finish. Paired with minimalist midcentury accents and graphic light fixtures, the affect becomes sleek and modern.
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Every now and then I come across a home that hits like a jolt. So it was encountering the 18th-century Brittany farmhouse of Atelier Vime founders Benoit Rauzy and Anthony Watson. Airy and relaxed, the pair's renovated country home seems to me a vision of perfect retreat. With thick stucco walls, exposed lintels and deeply worn hardwood floors, the home's substantial bones make a perfect setting for the rustic whimsy Atelier Vime has come to be known for. Tying together centuries-old architecture with Modernist and contemporary pieces, the pair have created a look that's grounded in history, yet forward-looking.
Perhaps this stems from the duo's deep love for the ancient craft and art of wickerware. Their creations are celebrated for adopting traditional processes while transforming and expanding upon wickerware's classical design rhetoric. Atelier Vime is, after all, a play on the Latin vimen, a noun which means both slender woody shoot and basket, and examples of their passion can be seen all throughout the home. From wicker lampshades to wicker curtain cornice boxes, the pair's appreciation for this versatile and ecological material has led to a number of unlikely applications. Treating wicker as one would a fabric, for example, or a bit of wire, the pair finds seemingly never-ending ways of imagining wicker afresh. I believe it is this spirit of the fanciful that gives their visions such appeal--like true artists, they both honor their craft and reinvent its foundations, expertly weaving together past with present.
One thing that particularly struck me was the home's devotion to natural light. The abundant deep-set French windows invite nature's beauty in, flooding each room with a breezy sense of spaciousness and warmth. Perhaps an extension of the pair's appreciation for the natural world, the way each room is energetically anchored around its window seems a constant reminder of the scenic beauty all around. I love the way the old wood beams have been painted white, heightening the ceiling and giving it a greater feeling of levity, while the French windows are accentuated with a pop of cheery blue.
Embracing items with a raw or natural patina, the pair infuses their home with a charming singularity. Each item feels personal, lived-with, and cherished. The selection is at once spare and eclectic; Rauzy and Watson curate and design with an admirable lightness of touch. One might even call them today's masters of sprezzatura; their flair for color and sense of utility allows them to create environments defined by a feeling of unstudied rustic ease. Deeply informed by their Provençal roots, the pair draws on the creative wellspring of inspiration the region has to offer, beyond just its legacy of exceptional wickerwork. From Vallauris ceramics to paintings by Breton artists Max Jacob and Michel Jamar, the pair effortlessly blend styles and periods by sticking with a regional focus. Indeed, in achieving that layered, lived-in mix, it might be a strategy worth considering...
Photo: Joanna Maclennan for The World of Interiors
Photo: Yann Monel for AD France
Overlooking the sea, the Normandy home of legendary landscape architect Pascal Cribier pays homage to its lush environs. Treating a semi-outdoor patio as an indoor living space, the iconic designer integrates the two spaces in the form of a majestic covered pergola. His appreciation for nature's dramatic architectural properties can be seen in its picturesque framing; like a painting or scrim, the room is enlivened by a vivid backdrop of the gardens just beyond.
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Situated some miles from the coast, in the small village of Jornets, the Mallorca home-studio of artist Grason Ratowsky is a remote paradise. The sparse, rugged island terrain makes an ideal setting for the artist's bold and energetic creations. A meshing of art and life, most of the walls are devoted to Ratowsky's dynamic paintings, and much of the furniture he designed and built himself. The spacious, open floor-plan invites a commingling of movement and light, while the emphasis on raw materials gives the home-studio space a rustic and industrial personality.
Photo: Grason Ratowsky for AD España
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Whenever I need a jolt of inspiration, I often find myself returning to images of Elsa Peretti's breathtaking Casa Grande in the 11th-century village of San Martín Vell, Spain. Known for her embrace of minimal, organic forms, the legendary Tiffany designer acquired the dilapidated estate in 1968, when the surrounding town, just north of Barcelona, was no more than a cluster of ruins. This was at the height of New York’s disco-fueled Studio 54 era, when Peretti, then working as an in-demand model, was becoming increasingly desperate for a quiet retreat.
Photo: Alvaro Bujons
Photo: Solvi dos Santos
It was thus that Casa Grande became her salvation. With a few thousand dollars scraped together from her modeling career, Peretti purchased the main house based largely on a photograph her friend had shown her. Working with local albiñes--specialty bricklayers--along with other craftsmen and artisans, she began slowly to give the town a distinctly Peretti touch. Indeed, what began as a village in disarray soon became the total extension of her vision. From the local chapel to the village water tower, Peretti oversaw all renovations with her signature flair for the bold yet minimal, yet with scrupulous attention paid towards preservation.
Peretti's appreciation for the forms of nature and deep commitment to questions of scale and proportion are wonderfully manifest throughout Casa Grande. The cavernous ceilings and myriad windows keep the thick, sand-colored stone walls from feeling heavy, while the earthy, sculptural furniture elements draw on their surroundings. The emphasis on raw elements--stone, wood, concrete, and iron--reflects Peretti's interest in simplicity and purity of material.
Photo: Alvaro Bujons
While for the most part, the home is limited to an earthy color palette, Peretti couldn't help incorporating elements of her favorite color, blue. Cool and refreshing, the shade of pale indigo-lilac she used to paint the stuccoed walls and ceilings seems to glow. Peretti carried the color into the knave of the local chapel, and also painted some of the exterior walls of Casa Grande the same shade. This sense of rhythm and counterpoint I feel is key to Peretti's magic.
As to the overall decorative schema of Casa Grande, it feels to me a perfect blend of brutalist and biomorphic elements. Filled with her most cherished mementoes--keepsakes picked up on her travels, or given to her by friends--her spare, yet eclectic curation resonates. Each item is rich with personal history, and in-keeping the personal, informal spirit of the house. An utter labor of love, Casa Grande and the now thriving village of San Martín Vell feel rooted in an ancient past, yet fresh with Peretti's singular creative vision.
Photo: Benedetta Pignatelli for Interiors Magazine; Alvaro Bujons; Vogue, March, 1986