The Neighborhood Bang & Olufsen.

Located just across from the "Shirt Laundry" with its blue paint peeling sign, will soon be the home of Bang & Olufsen, Logan Circle, Washington, DC. This area of the city has certainly seen amazing development over the past few years. New restaurants, a Whole Foods Market, an upscale opticians a Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams store, etcetera, have all come to the area. It is with great surprise that I encountered the sign below - announcing the soon to be Bang & Olufsen store. I do think Bang & Olufsen is Most Excellent. Their video and audio products are top notch in terms of function and design. They really are just beautiful. I have Bang & Olufsen telephones throughout my home and while I don't think they are drastically different than a standard telephone in terms of function, they certainly are prettier.

The decision to place this super exclusive audio and video retailer in Logan Circle is either one that will be successful or a complete disaster. My guess is there will be some problems. While Logan Circle has many new condominium developments and a young, hip, upper middle-class demographic, Bang & Olufsen is not the type of store that you just stroll into after shopping at Whole Foods and pick up an $8,000.00 television. Bang & Olufsen is a retailer with stores on Rodeo Drive in Berverly Hills, CA and Madision Avenue, New York. I am puzzled as to why the retailer chose to open Bang & Olufsen 14th Street. It just does not seem logical to me. It does not feel congruent with the area, even though the area has been in a state of upward development.

On a positive note, maybe the addition of this store to the once very run down 14th Street, will encourage other power retailers to the area. It certainly is going to take an improving economy to support a store that sells telephones starting at $150.00 and CD changers and loundspeakers that can easily run well over $5,000.00. This is not the neighborhood Radio Shack. This is Bang & Olufsen. I only wish them the best of luck in Logan Circle.

Coming soon. Bang & Olufsen Logan Circle, DC.

A Bang & Olufsen telephone.

The Shirt Laundry just across the street from the new Bang & Olufsen store.

Bang & Olufsen television and home speaker system.

Not So SMART.

The SMART fortwo

It is not a Matchbox car. It is a real automobile. A "Smart" Car... and Mercedes-Benz is responsible with a little help from the inventor of the Swatch Watch!

Without counting any European sightings, I encountered my first Smart Car or "Smart fortwo" in the United States two weeks ago while walking through DuPont Circle. I immediately took a great disliking to the car. SmartUSA uses the tag line, "Open Your Mind" in promoting the automobile. I'm afraid that I am having quite a difficult time with this one. My mind remains closed.

While the manufacturer boasts that the Smart car is safe and gets terrific gas mileage, I, of course, am looking at the car from a design perspective and I just don't think it is pretty. It's not even whimsical or fun. It's just plain dumb. What bothers me even more is that my favorite car manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz or Daimler-Benz AG, is responsible for producing these Smart cars. Mercedes is also responsible for producing Maybach! Talk about going from heirloom apples to kumquats.

I am certainly not an autophile and I really could care less about the favorable media and press reviews of the car. I just don't like it. Plain and Simple. I think some ideas are better left in Europe. I hate to be such a downer, but if I am going to buy a car that resembles a Matchbox car, I am either going to buy a real Matchbox car and slide it all around my hardwood floors or I'm going to buy a MINI Cooper which is the child of automobile giant BMW. I do think MINI Cooper is cool.

My favorite and final tidbit about the Not so Excellent Smart Car is how it came to being. Preparations for the Smart fortwo began in the early 1990's with a Joint Venture between Mercedes-Benz and Swatch, the makers of Swatch watches known for their wide array of colorful designs. Nicolas Hayek, the inventor of the Swatch watch brought his ideas for an "ultra-urban" car to Mercedes-Benz.

In 1998, production of the car began in Hambach, France. That same year Smart became a fully owned subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG. The Smart Car arrived in the States in January 2008. If you are interested in purchasing one, you are likely to encounter a four month to two year wait for the car. Go figure!

Not the car I want to be driving in the snow.

The First Lady of Interior Design: Dorothy Draper

Dorothy Draper

In his book, "In the Pink: Dorothy Draper -- America's Most Fabulous Decorator", Carleton Varney explores the life and design style of Dorothy Draper. Has there ever been an American decorator as famous as Dorothy Draper? Like Martha Stewart, Draper was a preacher and teacher whose how-to books and Good Housekeeping columns provided middle-class housewives with affordable ideas for making their homes more functional and comfortable.Thanks to her originality as a stylist and her daring as a businesswoman, she became one of the most respected career women in the United States. She shocked the design world in 1937 when she decorated the thirty-seven-story Hampshire House apartment hotel on Central Park South in New York City, delivering a project that became indicative of her signature touch - 'baroque fantasy'.

"In the Pink: Dorothy Draper, America's Most Fabulous Decorator", Carleton Varney, lavishly illustrates for the first time Draper's most important projects. From the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia and Quitandinha in Brazil to her important fabrics for F. Schumacher & Co. and her automobile and airplane interiors of the 1950s

While Dorothy Draper's style may not be synonymous with mine, it is difficult not to appreciate her influence on the interior design industry and all she did to promote the design profession.

Born to a wealthy and privileged family in 1889, in one of the most exclusive communities in American history, Tuxedo Park, Dorothy Draper was the first to “professionalize” the interior design industry by establishing, in 1923, the first interior design company in the United States, something that until then was unheard of, and also at a time when it was considered daring for a woman to go into business for herself.

In her day, Dorothy was the prima donna of the decorating business – her name was synonymous with decorating. She gave decorating advice in her regular column for Good Housekeeping Magazine, designed fabric lines for Schumacher, furniture for Ficks Reed, Heritage and, other than her hotel and restaurant decors, she also designed theaters, department stores, commercial establishments, private corporate offices, the interiors of jet planes (Convair & TWA) , automobiles (she did a “line” for Packard and Chrysler in the 1950’s – including a pink polka dot truck!) – even packaging for the cosmetics firm of Dorothy Gray – on top of her residential designs for the houses and apartments of prominent and very wealthy society figures. She also designed her very own exclusive fabrics for her clients – such as her Romance & Rhododendrons and Fudge Apron which she used at the Greenbrier. Much of her work survives to this day, in the lobbies of apartment buildings, hotels (The Carlyle in New York and Hampshire House until recently) and of course, the legendary Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, specifically in The Victorian Writing Room – once called the most photographed room in the United States).


This is a short list of some of the prestigious projects completed by Draper:

HOTELS:

The Greenbrier (White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia)
The Carlyle (New York City).
Hampshire House,New York City)
The Essex House (New York City)
The Quitandinha (Petropolis, Brazil).
The Fairmont (San Francisco, California)
The Mark Hopkins (San Francisco, California)
The Arrowhead Springs (California)
The Beverly Hills Hotel (California)
The Drake Hotel (The Camellia House, Chicago, Illinois).
St. Anthony Hotel (San Antonio, Texas).
The Plaza Hotel (New York City)
International Airport Hotel (Idlewild – now JFK ) (New York City)
Gideon Putnam, (Saratoga Springs, New York)
Hotel Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah)
Barclay Hotel (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Cherry Hill Inn (Haddonfield, New Jersey)
Mayflower Hotel (Washington D.C.)
Robert Treat Hotel (Newark, New Jersey)

PRIVATE RESIDENCES:

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor
Mr and Mrs. Albert Lasker
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Winchell
Hope Hampton
Mr. Ben Sonnenberg
Frank Weil

The Greenbrier, West Virginia

The Dorothy Draper Style

"Didn't Your Mother Ever Tell You?"

Now that Labor Day has come and gone there is one traditional fashion rule that is commonly known and many believe should be followed: White shoes and clothing should not be worn after the holiday.

Unless you are a winter bride or strolling through Gustavia in St. Barth, or another warmer climate, the wearing of white after Labor Day is typically considered a no-no. In John Waters' Black Comedy, "Serial Mom", the main character, Kathleen Turner stabs to death a woman in one scene when she discovers that she is wearing white pumps, (like the pair pictured above), after Labor Day. While that is just a bit extreme, it is important to note some details and history on this subject. Then make your own decision. I, for one, place my white linen shirts and other summer garments deep in my closet for use the next summer.

In many parts of the United States, a rule about not wearing white after Labor Day, which takes place on the first Monday in September, is heavily ingrained. The roots of the idea that people should not wear white after Labor Day appear to be shrouded in mystery, and the rule has been greatly relaxed since the 1950s and 1960s, when it was more heavily enforced. People who choose to wear white after Labor Day are no longer heavily criticized for the choice, and are sometimes embraced as fashion forward trendsetters.

The most common confusion about the rule which forbids people to wear white after Labor Day is what garments, exactly, are involved. Originally, the restriction applied only to white dress shoes and pumps, which are unsuitable for winter weather anyway. At some point, the rule was extended to white clothing, but it was in fact always acceptable to wear “winter white” clothing in cream and other off-white colors.

There are several theories about the the rule which governs people who wear white after Labor Day. The first and most sensible is that it reminded people not to wear summer weight clothing during the Winter. It may be tempting to don a pair of light pumps in the crisp weather of early fall, but changing weather can make it an unwise decision. By not wearing white shoes after Labor Day, people can ensure that they don't end up with soiled, cold shoes. It is also conceivable that the the rule not to wear white after Labor Day was adopted as part of a larger movement to “educate” the nouveau riche. Older society families were concerned about the fashion etiquette of more recent additions, and established a complex code of fashion rules to guide them.

Whatever the origins of the idea, restrictions on people who wear white after Labor Day appear to be outmoded except in very traditional society. Many fashion designers offer white as part of their fall and winter lines, often in stunning pieces. In warmer areas of the United States such as Hawaii and Florida, white is also a more acceptable color to wear year round, since unfavorable winter weather is not as much of an issue.

Like many other seemingly idiosyncratic fashion rules, the reasoning behind the ban on wearing white after Labor Day has probably faded somewhat from the public mind. For most people, it is safe to wear white after Labor Day, although they may want to consider wearing the color in moderation. But please, think twice before wearing any pumps that look like the pair above. I think they are simply unattractive and should not be worn at any time of year.

Design Detail: A Touch of Baroque.

Cheyenne reclines on a Crushed Velvet Baroque settee.

It starts with one distinct piece of Baroque furniture. Refinished in a silver antique finish.

Settee refinished in gold leaf and re-upholstered in Black Vachetta Leather

Baroque frame with a mirrored inset is remixed in purple.

King size bed in distressed ebony finish with gold leaf trim