Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2018 i Vogue Living

OBSESS: It’s a quantum leap from van Gogh to the digital age, but the NGV takes on the evolution via 200 works of art and design from New York’s Museum of Modern Art, including this beauty, No 3/No 13 by Mark Rothko. MoMA at NGV, 9 June–7 October. ngv.vic.gov.au SWOON: Creative director Stéphane Parmentier’s handmade leather creations for Italy’s Giobagnara, such as the Bivio console (left), celebrate the joy of contrasts, pairing heritage with a sharp graphic edge. beckerminty.com SCULPT: Made from 28 layers of topographically inspired Caesarstone, the steam-emitting White Attica 5143 is a conceptual take on the kitchen island. Showing at Milan Design Week in April, it forms part of the quartz company’s 2018 collaboration with New York design practice Snarkitecture. caesarstone.com.au EXPLORE: Melburnians rejoice. Exponent of fine Scandinavian design Fred…

When Alessandro Michele was appointed creative director of Gucci just three years ago, his bright, bold vision — seen across clothing, accessories and the new Gucci Décor line of homeware — felt like some kind of style revolution at the 97-year-old luxury house. Gone was his predecessor Frida Giannini’s penchant for sleek ultra-glamour, replaced by Michele’s flamboyant, youthful creations. Imbued with historical references, inspiration drawn from his own collection of antique furniture and art, as well as a passion for flowers and nature, it felt instantly modern, madly feminine and relevant. As part of his aesthetic overhaul, which has seen sales soar, Michele has turned his attention to Florence, the birthplace of the house in 1921. Following a three-year renovation project, the designer has reimagined what was formerly the Gucci…

The notion of the everyday has occupied the minds of artists since the dawn of time — Egyptians depicting the hunt; Vermeer’s milkmaid at work; van Gogh’s bedroom. And so it goes, all the way to Marcel Duchamp’s conception of the self-conscious Readymade — ordinary objects passed off as art — in 1913. Cut to 2018, and Sydney artist Julian Meagher is painting goon bags, the foil bag inside a box of wine, out of his Marrickville studio. “I’m not afraid of elevating the absurd — I think artists have a key role in doing that,” says Meagher. “And I love goon bags; they’re actually beautiful objects to paint. Once you start thinking about them as sculpture — their weightlessness but at the same time the heaviness to them —…

The sumptuous new Flexform Mood collection, housed on the top floor of Fanuli’s Sydney showroom in Cremorne, has found the ideal backdrop in the retailer’s elegantly redesigned space. The range features plush upholstered beds, sofas and armchairs as well as warm-hued marble dining and coffee tables. A highlight from the collection is the curvaceous Elisabeth armchair (pictured), designed by Roberto Lazzeroni. It’s a contemporary interpretation of the classic high-back style and is made for chic comfort, featuring a removeable headrest cushion and swivel base. fanuli.com.au…

NATALIE SHIRINIAN AND ELIZABETH Baudouin moved from Los Angeles to New York in 2015 and knew how they wanted to merge their home life with that of their design talent management company, NES Creative. “We wanted to do something interesting in a loft space that combined the antique and vintage finds we’d picked up on our travels and also featured pieces from the client roster we represent,” says Shirinian. She founded the company, which manages top global talent in art, design and culture, in 2010. “Basically, we wanted a white box like a blank canvas space, where we could hold pop-ups and one-day exhibitions and show our clients’ works in a living environment.” When a space became available in downtown Tribeca, the couple didn’t even need to set foot inside…

He may not exactly be an outright creative revolutionary, but Spanish architect, artist and designer Guillermo Santomà is a design industry outsider who prefers to run counter to accepted models and trends. In an age when the comforting caress of honed oak, soft leather and the wool upholstery of mid-century Scandinavian furniture enjoy an endless revival with myriad new iterations and interpretations, Santomà makes chairs out of cold, hard materials such as glass, metal, rock and moulded EVA foam lacquered with auto paint. His light fixtures blend variously shaped and coloured fluorescent tubes and bulbs with many other materials and have the haphazard appeal of Outsider mobiles and sculptures that light up. Whether his designs function as comfortable seating pieces or not, they maintain a striking sculptural presence that surprises…

When Melbourne designer David Flack had finished “Flacking” his most recent project — the renovation of a 19th-century homestead at the heart of a northern Victorian nursery for thoroughbred horses — he received an email from the client eulogising its outcome. It was a declaration of love for a scheme first gleaned “as a big mess of materials” in Flack’s Fitzroy office. And it was a radical departure from the usual diatribes about building defects, “of which there were none”, says the designer, remonstrating against the use of “that awful word”. The praise starts with a macro-to-micro regard for the framing of the picturesque and the impact of a perfect cutlery drawer insert — a must at double the $$$ — before streaming into random thought. The colour of everything…

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With our new editor Rebecca Caratti joining the team this month, this is the last of my editor’s letters for the magazine. I step into the role of editorial director of this beautiful title knowing that Rebecca will bring her formidable talents, vision and energy to steering Vogue Living forward and continuing the rich 50-year history that has made it so beloved worldwide. This month, we’re inspired by artists and artistic designers who have crafted wonderful living spaces that reflect their creativity and passions. The home of Spanish architect, artist and designer Guillermo Santomà, is beautifully described as ‘visual poetry’ (page 114). His sumptuous pink room, which adorns our cover, is the perfect balance of faded, old-world glamour meets modern, sculptural design. Vogue Living’s style editor Joseph Gardner and creative…

Jodie: I moved to LA from Australia 10 years ago. We’ve just opened our flagship store in Beverly Hills. Australians are similar to Southern Californians — their aesthetics are both dictated by climate and a relaxed lifestyle. Sally: Jodie and I design all the collections together. Based in Adelaide, I am surrounded by natural beauty and this definitely informs our work. Jodie: We match our artisans [in India] with the designs and weaves. If we’ve designed a soumak rug, we’ll seek out someone trained in that field. I have a deep love of India and its people. We’ve built up quite a close-knit community. armadillo-co.com ILLUMINATE: British designer Lee Broom’s celestial lighting arrives in April, exclusively at Space Furniture. His new collection, Observatory, launches at Milan Design Week and will…

For anyone wondering how Versailles might look had Marie Antoinette economised and not lost her head to the guillotine, look no further than Schloss St Emmeram in the Bavarian city of Regensburg and its current matriarch, Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. The ancestral palace of her late husband, Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis, is an architectural melting pot of Romanesque–Gothic, neo-Renaissance and Rococo architectural styles — and, with more than 500 rooms, one of the largest private residences in Europe. According to the princess, the sprawling schloss “makes Buckingham Palace look like a hut”. The pop myth surrounding Gloria — dubbed ‘Princess TNT, the dynamite socialite’ by Vanity Fair’s Bob Colacello in 1985 — since her marriage to Prince Johannes in 1980 is almost as large as the…

“THE IDEA BEHIND KARAKTER COPENHAGEN WAS TO DARE WHERE NO ONE ELSE WILL”— CEO, CHRISTIAN ELVING FOR 20 YEARS, furniture retailer Cult has brought visionary design to Australian shores. To celebrate this milestone, along with a Sydney showroom expansion by Design Office to house its own brand, Nau, the company is also introducing a truly pioneering Danish brand: Karakter Copenhagen. Individually, the pieces in the collection aren’t tied to any one style, nationality or even time. Some are current designs by international heavyweights, such as Aldo Bakker and PlueerSmitt. Others are forgotten gems from the 1960s by the Castiglioni brothers and Joe Colombo. All, however, are finished in familiar Danish materials, such as white-soaped and blacked-stained oak, which makes for an unexpected yet cohesive range. Christian Elving, Karakter Copenhagen’s CEO,…

WHEN HUGH LANE first landed in Los Angeles in the late 1990s, he deemed it “an absolute dump”, but incongruously determined that he wanted to live there. “It was a city of gritty romance and robust optimism,” the Melbourne-born designer now recalls. “There was the wonder machine of Hollywood, all that unknown Victorian history and of course the climate — I haven’t had a cold in four years.” Self-describing as a late-bloomer with a box-ticking agenda of first buying a home in Melbourne before moving to California, Lane took a lengthy 15 years to realise the desired relocation, but when he finally did, in 2013, the young designer landed right in the LA dream. “I have just come from a Lautner house, one of his masterpieces,” he says of the…

Rick Vintage, co-founder and creative director of the Amsterdam-based wallpaper brand NLXL, is the first to tell you he’s got a lot going on inside his head. “It’s a mess!” he exclaims. “I tidy it up a lot, just like I am always tidying up my apartment. I’m allergic to stress, so that’s quite a challenge with a messy head, but my head — just like my apartment — is at a very good balance.” The apartment he’s talking about, housed in an ornate 1830 Louis XIV-style building, is located in The Hague, the vibrant medieval-era city in the Netherlands also known as the epicentre of global peace and justice. Since its launch in 2010, NLXL has gained a global reputation as the boldest in the business, deriving inspiration for…

There is nothing quite like the moment a peacock fans its feathers. One hundred and fifty eyes in azure, emerald and teal all rising up in colourful and dramatic demonstration. It is intended to be a display of intimidation — however, it fails miserably. Still, we are enchanted, mesmerised and willing that the moment will last. If Jaipur, the capital of India’s north-western region of Rajasthan, were an animal, it would be a peacock with its feathers on full display. Known as the Pink City for its dusty citywide hue, this home to three million people some 270km from New Delhi has historically been a draw because of its gems, craft, textiles and monuments. But in the 21st century, Jaipur seems to have taken on, and revelled in, a strutting…

Laura Jones Sydney artist Laura Jones drew on her background as a florist when creating her artwork Space Dahlias (page 40). “My work has grown from a desire to express a love for nature — the process of painting beginning with the physical act of arranging flowers,” says Jones. “With this piece, I loved responding to a still life by transitioning the colour and form of the flowers and objects into a more abstract interpretation.” The holder of a master’s degree in art from UNSW Art & Design, Jones declares herself “inspired by Mother Nature” and is passionate in her efforts to impress a love of the environment onto her audience. Her most recent work engaged with climate change’s impact on coral and the mass coral bleaching of the Great…

In an interiors landscape still loitering over the concepts of Minimalism, it’s refreshing to see a designer intent upon richly intricate design. Melbourne designer Louise Jones has made a career of it, creating meticulous botanical motifs teeming with movement and life. “At the moment, design feels very Minimal,” she says.“I have an appreciation for Minimalism as well, but I also love a splash of pattern.” A former graphic designer, Jones began focusing on pattern full time in 2014. One of her early designs, Tropical — a medley of vines, staghorn ferns, strobilanthes and green foliage — would become her Layla: the work everybody wanted. It has been featured everywhere, from cushions to wallpaper and furniture, and printed onto glass for her 2017 collaboration with Italian lighting company Torremato and designer…

For Swedish-born artist and illustrator Liselotte Watkins, life imitates art and art imitates life. In the apartment she shares in Rome with her husband, fashion communications director Jonas Falk, their young children, Wim and Ava, and the family dachshund, Hundis, the mood is a mixture of streamlined elegance and playful vibrance — just like her boldly abstract, hand-painted, one-of-a-kind ceramics. For more than 20 years, Watkins’ black-and-white drawings of wide-eyed, generously lipped gamine girls, splashed here and there with colour, and more recently, her 1970s-style collages in paint or paper of abstract bodies and faces, have made her the go-to girl for brands like Prada (two of her illustrated patchwork faces were used for the house’s handbag collection last season), Diptyque and Marimekko. This same sense of Pop Art meets…

In light of the statistic that 8 out of 10 businesses fail in the first 18 months, Nexus Designs is a taut little anomaly that has triumphed in the Australian interiors industry for 50 years. It has survived half a century of unparalleled change on the simple platform of listening to clients and learning from them, which is not to sideline the intuitive genius of its founder, Janne Faulkner, who died in February at 84. Faulkner was a formidable talent, without formal training, whose impeccable sensibilities were gleaned by Merchant Builders (the building company that made project housing cool) and matched to the modernist architecture of Graeme Gunn. She springboarded their regard for ‘real Australia’ into Nexus Designs in 1967, fleshing out a practice that is now prepping for its…

Where the fuck am I?’” exclaims Mark Dundon, recalling the time he woke up in a hotel room somewhere in America’s Midwest. “I looked around the room and there were no hints.” It’s one of the experiences that drove Dundon, the owner of Paramount Coffee Project, to develop Sydney’s new Paramount House Hotel. “It was about this place having a personality and an interaction with its urban environment.” Located in Surry Hills, within the former Paramount Pictures Studios building, the hotel is co-founded by Reuben Hills cafe’s Russell Beard and property investor Ping Jin Ng, and it couldn’t have more of a sense of place. “The hotel needed to add to the life of Paramount House and to life on the street,” says architect Jeremy McLeod, the director of Breathe…