The Secret is out: Fabulous Dead People is back

One of my favorite reads by one of my favorite writers has found a new home.  You can now find Christopher Petkanas' "Fabulous Dead People" online at W magazine.  While clearly I resonate to Petkanas' (or better known as Monsieur du Panier by his intimates) subject, it is his fearlessness to tell the unvarnished truth like it T-I-is that is a rarity in these days of PR puff pieces.

Click here to read about his latest FDP, Hélène Rochas, the inspiration behind several of her husband Marcel's fragrances and a client of Mme Castaing incidentally.  Then visit the Christie's sale happening right this minute to view the grand goût français contents of her rue Barbet de Jouy flat.

Rochas' dining room, with one of six trompe l'oeil panels of famille verte Chinese porcelain painted by Alexandre Serebriakoff, lot 20, visible.

Update: Designing Women Lecture Series

Dear All,

I am pleased to invite you all to attend the 2012-13 Decorators Club lecture series Modern Women: Visionaries of Design.  With this series, we celebrate five pioneering talents of the 20th century that continue to influence and inspire.  We tried to select women who were undersung, worked in different areas of design and represented the entire century.  Our biggest challenge wasn't finding women to illuminate but in editing down a list that went for miles and miles.

Our first and earliest visionary is Vanessa Bell.  Dr. Alexandra Gerstein from the Courtauld Gallery and who organized the recent Omega Workshops exhibition will be speaking on Wednesday, October 3 at the New York School of Interior Design.  For more information about the series and to purchase tickets (which benefit interior design scholarships), please click here.