![]() ![]() Thank you for sharing photos of the Apfel's apartment. I love my sepaarte dining room because no one has to stare at boring appliances or look at the kitchen sink! Ugh!! I don't know about you, but when I entertain, I do not want guests looking at a messy kitchen while I am cooking (and I am actually a fairly neat cook). So with this design concept, the great room contains the living room, the dining area and kitchen. ![]() There are absolutely no walls on which to hang any artwork at all. I have a growing art collection, and I cannot imagine trying to find a new home in my area of the country (the Southwest) because all of the new construction has completely open floor plans with one giant great room. I feel fortunate to have found my townhouse that was built in 1984, and still has a formal dining room and living room, separate from the kitchen (I purchased it in 2003). Jennifer, I so agree with you and srb's comments. Just look at what the major to-the-trade showrooms are showing - it could easily be HGTV, just more expensive. I fear for companies that sell such gorgeous things - the market must be horribly limited. Bored with it all? Reinvent yourself with an entire new decor, including a new kitchen and baths! Do this every 5-7 years. We are a disposable society and that has moved on to home decor as well. But trimmed and beautifully made? Hardly! How does that fit in with the exquisite fabrics and trims of Old World Weavers? The only positive thing I saw on HGTV was the use of curtains instead of California shutters. "Open concept", "sight-lines" are what everyone wants these days. This is what influences American taste, even at a very high budget. This summer, I spent some empty evenings binge-watching HGTV. Easy to accomplish - just go for outrageously expensive "pro-look" appliances and choose the most expensive. Today's wealthy person decorating a home is more interested in a kitchen that starts at $100,000 even though no food is prepared in it. We had people using heavy valances, dripping with trim in rooms that had 8 ft ceilings (which in reality are 7.5 ft!). A typical suburban subdivision house - even one that cost millions - just doesn't do that. It takes a certain degree of grandeur of architecture to use such things. Americans never really understood that look - their designers absolutely did not, for the most part. I think the reason we so rarely see them used today is due to the overkill in the 80's and early 90's of the English Country House look. Chinese porcelain, braided tassels, blue opaline glass.how often do we see these now-underrated furnishings presented in such exalted light? The answer is, unfortunately, not often enough. In fact, that description could also be applied to Apfel's lauded fashion sense, too.īut really, what excites me the most is how an advertisement manages to capture most everything that I- and likely many of you- admire about traditional decoration. Luxury, abundance, and a flair for the dramatic characterize their home as well as their advertisements. I assume that the ads were photographed in the Apfels' Manhattan apartment, because if you compare the ads to more recent photos of their apartment, you'll see they have much in common. A maximalist streak runs throughout them, with layer upon layer of sumptuous fabrics and trims (by Old World Weavers, of course,) porcelains, singerie, and antique furniture. The advertisements, which I have included below, are quintessential Iris Apfel. ![]() So, in addition to being a fashion maven, Iris Apfel is also an authority on textiles and the decorative arts, an expertise that seems to be humorously suggested in the photo above. Although now owned by Stark, Old World Weavers remains a to-the-trade source for traditional, dignified fabrics, such as crewelwork, embroidered silk, and damask. As you know, Old World Weavers, the luxury textile firm, was founded by Iris Apfel and her late husband, Carl, in 1950. ![]() A recent windfall of late Seventies issues of Architectural Digest and Southern Accents provided me with another windfall: a clutch of Old World Weavers advertisements. ![]()
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