Anatomy of a Window

It seems these days I'm never without a bag full of faux ivy* and this morning was no exception.  Armed with said ivy from Center of Floral Design, NYC's best source for silk botanicals, I sped up to Archivia Books to dress a window a la Castaing.

This watercolor of a Castaing installation by Alexandre Serebriakoff was one of my inspirations.  It is the quintessential Castaing room, perfectly pairing blue and green to form an indoor-outdoor room, and fusing the refined Neoclassical with the overupholstered romanticism of Napoleon III.  

Nineteenth century wicker furniture was a favorite of Castaing as seen here in one of her storerooms located a short walk from her shop.  When I found this untouched gem at Marika's (a fantastic source) on Shelter Island for $10, I jumped.

On the Jitney it went to await the magic touch of Claudine who returned it newly dressed in forest green silk velvet.  Through gritted teeth and with hands red from picking out the thousand or so original rusted upholstery tacks, she told me how much she enjoyed working with the chair.  Professional to the end is Claudine.

 

Castaing was master of the art of the vignette.  She took endless pains in arranging furniture and objects so that it looked as if someone had just stepped away.  As Charlotte Moss recalled, one felt like an impostor walking into her shop because it seemed as if one had trespassed into someone's home.  This was what Castaing called breathing life into a room - and a room was nothing without love or life, as she said.

Accordingly, I gave my imaginary occupant a Limoges teacup and a booklet on Chaim Soutine, the painter Madeleine and her husband Marcellin patronized exclusively.

I was given free reign to curate the wall adjacent to my window with books related to MC, including the dishy Cafe Society.  Stay tuned for my complete recommended Castaing reading list.

For a good time and beautiful books, visit Cynthia and Will at Archivia Books.
993 Lexington Avenue
between 72nd and 71st
Tel: 212.570.9565

*Why the ivy madness?  Castaing's son Michel recalled his mother at Leves, constantly clipping ivy and artfully training it around statues and other architectural elements.  Inside, she preferred "make-believe" vines (they didn't die which saved her the depressing sight of the real thing wilting and turning brown) which she wrapped around epergnes and drain pipes alike.  Like Sleeping Beauty's overgrown forest, the untamed ivy (or simulation of) conjured up a place of enchantment, of fairy tales.

Living with Castaing: Irene Lievoux

Busts of Josephine and the Duchesse de Berry watch over the Grand Salon

One of Mme Castaing's most faithful clients was Irene Lievoux.  The pair traveled to England, the United States and Italy together on shopping trips during which Lievoux was thoroughly inducted into the high priestess' style.  While Castaing offered her advice freely to Lievoux on the decoration of her neoclassical chateau de Vauboyen (which MC claimed to have once tried to buy for herself), most of the rooms were done by Lievoux herself a la Castaing. 

My friend John Woodrow Kelley shared this article with me from a 1987 issue of Vogue Decoration dedicated to Le Goût Russe which showcases White Russian Mme Lievoux's Paris flat.   

Red, blue and green - MC's favorite colors - dominate and each reminded Lievoux of her native land.  Red evoked the work krasnie "meaning both red and pretty", blue the color of the eyes of the Prince Youssoupov, and green the domes of Orthodox churches.

Castaing's fourth favorite color was black, which she boldly used as her neutral as David Netto points out here, where he further dissects le style Castaing.

Photos by Pascal Chevalier

Living with Castaing: John Woodrow Kelley



Madeleine Castaing has inspired so many people and what I find fascinating is how different all these people are and how each one resonates to something quite different.  Charlotte Moss brought to life MC's retailing skills, Jacques Grange gave me an entirely new lens when he said it was all about architecture, and my new friend John Woodrow Kelley, a classicist through and through, surprised me completely.

The Allegory of Classical Architecture, 1998, by John Woodrow Kelley

After training as an architect, John continued on to become a painter whose work is a contemporary interpretation of the Classical tradition.  It can be no coincidence that he hails from Tennessee, whose capital Nashville is home to the only full-scale replica of the Parthenon in the world. 

MC's bath in her Paris apartment

 When John heard of my MC book, he didn't enthuse over the coffered vaulting above her bath reminiscent of the Baths of Caracalla or some such Classical detail. No - what John astonished me by saying was that Madeleine Castaing gave us permission to be romantic!  Indeed the creation of a mood, of atmosphere, is just as important in the experience of a space as pleasing proportions and scale are.  So for those of you who think Classicism or Classical architects are hardened to the possibilities of the picturesque, think again.

John found this pair of lamps complete with Coolie shades a la Castaing at a flea market



A mantelpiece arrangement in Castaing's rue Jacob shop - in the center is a photograph of a young Madeleine looking adoringly at her husband Marcellin; photo by Jean-Francois Jussaud 



Click here to visit John's Brooklyn residence courtesy of New York Social Diary.

A view of John's sitting room where he is magically able to arrange 6 people for dinner around the center table

Top photo with John sitting next to a Castaing blue shade found at Just Shades and bottom photo by Jeff Hirsch courtesy of nysocialdiary.com

Living with Castaing: Charlotte Moss



Charlotte Moss in her Upper East Side garden - MC would have adored this indoor/outdoor space; photo by Mark Heithoff

A few years ago, I sat behind design doyenne Charlotte Moss at a screening of a Madeleine Castaing documentary and by her expression, it was clear that Moss was a Castaing devotee.  Ever since, I have been dying to hear CM's thoughts on MC and by the end of our conversation,  I was left inspired and energized by this intrepid traveler of style. 

EEE: When did you have your first Castaing experience?

CM: Oh my gosh. It was probably on one of my first trips to Paris in the early 80s. I nearly stumbled on her shop. She was in there, in the store sitting in a corner. 
 
There were some things I was interested in and I introduced myself. She acknowledged that, we chatted and that was that. And then I probably saw her a couple of other times when I was on trips. For me, she was such a goddess and her store was like being in a temple.

The Bibliotheque at Leves: Moss carried off the Napoleon III X-form chairs and the reading stand in the archway

Castaing chic for everyone!  Moss  had this quintessentially Castaing chair reproduced

She was famous for refusing to sell things. 

There were no prices on anything. Remember, she was the first one who ever did a shop where – it’s tough to even call it a shop – it doesn’t do it justice...  It was if you walked into someone’s salon and it felt like you were intruding. It was almost like you had gone to someone’s house and you got busted opening the medicine cabinet or caught opening a drawer, you know what I mean?

And she would have a fire going and a tea cup perched here and there...

She was having tea in some mistmatched number – fabulous – I thought – oh my God – my grandmother did that! And French women do it too. All these things start to line up for you. When your grandmother did it, well of course that was your grandmother and when your parent tells you something, you think yeah, yeah, yeah – but when you see someone else do it, it’s immediately validated.

Were you able to buy things from her?

I don’t remember if I actually bought anything – maybe a pair of candlestick lamps with shades. I remember I was interested in a screen one time and she had some fabulous ceramics… that would have been the kind of thing I would have bought. I wouldn’t have bought any upholstered furniture because the prices were crazy. But years later I did end up buying things at the auction.

One of a pair of stools embroidered with Madeleine and Charlotte's initials by longtime Castaing employee Laure Lombardini who pretty much did all of MC's needlework; photo by Francis Hammond

The thing that I wanted but I had with good sense to stop in the bidding was the pair of stools with the blue checkerboard needlepoint with MC in the middle – those are the opposite of my initials.

Some people look at her style today and see a zany grandmother, maybe a little fuddy duddy....

You have to look at everything in its period and in its time and then to understand how a person may reflect their time. And sometimes they might be ahead of their time.  

There’s no fuddy-duddy grandma about Castaing. She was an original.  She first said that everything has to have heart in it. She had courage, she wasn’t going to work for anyone she didn’t like.

She set her own rules….

Yes, she set her own rules. I know a lot of decorators who think that is heresy. They think that if they’re on the other end of the phone and someone calls them, they have to work for them – well, how could anything of beauty come from that? She just said no. She had a mind of her own. There’s no fuddy duddiness. She put no price tags on things because she didn’t sell things to people she didn’t like.

Did she influence you as a retailer?

Oh yes.  You learned that it was all about atmosphere, seduction, selection, and details.



A pair of opaline cachepots from the Castaing sale in Moss' bedroom; photo by Pieter Estersohn


Your Townhouse really had that in spades.

It's about setting the mood. Those little moments you can create, those little vignettes – I don’t care if it is a tabletop vignette inside a bookcase - every surface, vertical or horizontal, was an opportunity to inspire, to entice, to make people stop, and think – take note. Engage them. And that to me is 90% of retailing. Because when it comes right down to it, the stuff is coming from the same places, so it’s what you do with the stuff that distinguishes you.

You’re inspiring me right now!

Right now everyone is over in France at Maison Objets looking at the same objets – what are they going to do with it all once they get it?

Why is the person going to buy it from you instead of someone else….

Because someone’s going to give them an idea. Someone’s going to tweak it, put it with something.  A a customer, I'm going to keep going back to the store that keeps giving me ideas.

One of the things I appreciate about you is that you find inspiration from past style setters and celebrate them… who is on your radar at the moment?

The large porcelain covered urns in the dining room at Leves...

are now in Moss' study

I can’t think of anyone in particular- I’m closing my latest book and there are women in the book that are always  resonating in my work…more than anything, it is the red thread that connects these women - -  their spirit, energy, curiosity, adventure, generosity is also a big one....

I just had a big discussion last night at a dinner party about the women who traveled in the Middle Eeast, about the Gertrude Bells of the world and a lot of others who are more obscure… My next fabric collection for Fabricut is being named after these women because for me it’s really important that history lives on. And that we keep bringing it forward and find a way to bring it forward in a fresh way.

So these women from the past who were intrepid travelers have nothing to do with my fabric collection at all! But they have something to do with me. And I admire them so this is my opportunity to bring it forward – so when someone asks me why I named it "Florence" or "Isabel", I can say, "Isabel is a woman that…" and I can give them this 2 minute trip down the Amazon….If that inspires someone to pick up that book, then I feel like I did my job, to get someone interested in history.



Moss in her study surrounded by inspiration

As someone who teaches design history, it seems that many inherently find history boring, or even a dirty word!

History is only a dirty word if you're stuck in it.  What people forget oftentimes is that history informs us and that every decision we make today about tomorrow is a better decision with the knowledge of yesterday.  


I've told this story a hundred times:  I had an interview with an editor and they were talking about the line on the legs of a chair – it was a sabre leg. And they went, don’t you think this is incredible? Don’t you think he's the smartest designer? And I said, "have you ever seen the klismos chair?"

Of a thousand years ago…. Wow.

Before you write that one, you need to pick up a history book. But that’s the problem – they all think it’s new. And the same thing in fashion too.

There’s nothing new under the sun.

That’s right. If you really want to learn about construction, study a Balenciaga sleeve, and they just don’t know about that. Without trying to be schoolmarmy, there’s a way to bring the past in – in a soft way – and I hate to say commemorative - but I’ve got to name those fabrics after something!

It seems that in many design schools, the emphasis is on New – and that to call work "beautiful" is almost a put-down - which I find sad.  What's wrong with aiming for beauty?

That’s interesting. Creating beauty, seeing beauty is what I built my business around and I'm not giving up any time soon!

We just put up a couple of articles from my old magazines on charlottemoss.com. The opening line to one is "Nothing of beauty was ever created by anyone afraid of making a mistake." It’s so true.  "What makes a house romantic?" is another article done by Joseph Hudnut who was the Dean of Architecture at Harvard.

Pretty impressive credentials..

Yes, but also responsible for bringing Gropius and Breuer [founders of the Bauhaus] to Harvard! This was a guy with a different aesthetic and here he is talking about romanticism and beauty. I have the 1920 through 1979 issues of House and Garden – I’m up to 1929, going backwards all summer. I totally bonded with the 70s. That was the era when I was in college so I had a little walk down memory lane.

What?!  Are we going to see Charlotte Moss shag carpeting coming soon?

No!  But you will see ikat carpeting this fall.

Can't wait.

A thousand thank yous to Charlotte for sharing her thoughts and enthusiasms. To see what else is on Charlotte's mind and what other vintage articles she's archived, visit her here.

Life after Castaing: Chez Harry Heissmann

Harry Heissmann's living room, featuring a pair of Castaing brackets, photo by Russell Gera

Madeleine Castaing didn't buy Important or Fine French Furniture, but rather what charmed her.  This pair of brackets in the form of tree branches captured her fancy and found a home at her fairy-tale Leves.  Years later when her estate was sold off, they also captured dashing designer Harry Heissmann's and here they are in installed today in his Brooklyn Heights flat. (That he lives in the most fabulous neighborhood in the city is enough evidence of his excellent taste to my mind; Harry also spent years working for the master of the refined, Albert Hadley.)

another view, photo by Russell Gera

Madeleine's quirky side would no doubt have found his snail table very amusing. 

As installed by Madeleine in the dining room of Leves - do you think the plant is plastic? I do.

Many thanks to Harry for giving us a glimpse into his personal world.  And another big thank you to Habitually Chic for including MC and EEE in her Fall Book Brigade.

Castaing Outtake: Nina and Robert Ricci on the Champ de Mars

While scouring French decor magazines from the 1950s and '60s, I came across a feature on the first lady of couture Nina Ricci's Paris flat. There was no mention of Castaing, but the print on the walls (which you will see A LOT of in the book) and the pink striped tenting of the entrance, below, made me pause.

Castaing's grandson Frédéric confirmed that the Riccis had indeed been clients and so here for your pleasure are the photos which sadly didn't make the final cut. Nina was well into her seventies and had already set aside the reins of her maison de couture when this was published in 1961. However there are several touches which speak to the client's fashion background which veer from the classic Castaing canon, such as the abundant use of silks, grey carpeting, and general restrained use of patterns.

A mahogany bookcase and writing table cut a bold profile against the grey walls and black-bordered white carpeting in Robert’s masculine study.

In contrast to Robert’s sleek space, Nina’s bedroom was layered with flowers, books, and her collection of glass. The carpeting is mouse grey over which is layered an "Eastern" carpet which MC expressly disliked. Love that long fringe!

All photos from Art et Décoration, April 1961

Shazaam!

Now we're talking.

MC Book OUTTAKE #2: an early view of the same room, c. 1952
My opinion is that Madeleine chose the ruby red velvet on the walls and banquettes to complement the verdant green foliage outdoors. It wasn't long before the red was replaced by her signature blue trimmed with her Pompeian frieze border (renamed "Lola Montez" by Edmond Petit). The borne also received a similar make-over as you can see.

Castaing Outtakes - Take #1

There have been a few whisperings as to whether The World of Madeleine Castaing will have any unfamiliar material in it - after all her country house Lèves has been profiled dozens of times. I believe there will be more than a few surprising moments in the book, but the verdict, of course, will rest with you. Here is the first of a few or several posts with photos that weren't able to make it into the book.

One of the most important and first client relationships Madeleine had was with Mme Alec Weisweiller. While her husband was off watching his prized stable of horses win blue ribbons, Francine assumed the mantle of patroness, with Jean Cocteau as her prime benefactor.

Madeleine collaborated with Francine on all her residences, including the Paris hotel particulier pictured here. Francine's husband Alec preferred the established elegance of the eighteenth century to Madeleine's Balzacian romance, so the society decorator brothers Barroux were called in to fit out the main reception rooms, including the dining room and salon.

But elsewhere, Francine and Madeleine went wild. The top photo shows Francine posing in her red silk velvet bedroom. Don't miss the "borne" off to her left.

courtesy Maison et Jardin, February 1956

Here is the fumoir where guests repaired after dinner or stopped off on their way to the double-height bar below. The mouflon-head snuff box on the tray table terrified Francine's young daughter Carole.

Who says Facebook is a time sink? I found this photo, credited to Mark Shaw, c. 1960, on Fashion Images of the 20th Century - a great place to while away an hour or two.

The Blooms of May and Madeleine

As the MC book is in the final editing stages, the bloom is slowly returning to my cheeks. In this world of instant gratification, thank you for your patience and for returning to a dark house over the past several weeks.

EEE is back home -BUT only for a few days as I'll be tripping down South to check out Sotheby's spectacular Kluge sale in person with a full report.

P.S. The cover and book design were done by Sam Shahid who also did the Valentina and Jeremiah Goodman books. I think he and his team did a superb job at capturing her romantic and evocative essence.

Villa Bettencourt: Less is More when it's only the Best

On the few occasions I venture out of my monastic cell, invariably I'm asked what I think about the Banier-Bettencourt Brouhaha. For those of you not familiar with the current court case involving the photographer François-Marie Banier and the billions of the richest woman in Europe (and heiress to the L'Oreal fortune) Mme Andre Bettencourt, read here.

This isn't the first time Banier's friendships with older women have stirred controversy. In fact, it was reported in the French press that Madeleine Castaing's family were asked to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Banier befriended MC in the '60s and they became inseparable - forming what her biographer Jean-Noel Liaut called a Harold and Maude relationship. In her last moments, Banier captured MC, who was always very particular about her appearance, sans perruque - ruffling many feathers.


This summer while trolling the Strand, I came across photos of Mme Bettencourt's villa outside of Paris in the Architectural Digest book International Interiors. I don't know about you, but I was more than a little curious to see what the wealthiest woman in Europe's residence looked like.


The villa, conceived in the Classical style, was built in 1951 - a rarity in a time when the wounds from WWII were still healing and few had resources to expend on residential architecture.

Besides the priceless sculpture and paintings we would expect to find in such an exalted domain, sumptuous furniture commissioned by Mme Bettancourt's father from the Art Deco maestro Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann enrich the cooly elegant and restrained interiors created by interior designer Serge Royaux.

The Rotunda: Even the piano is by Ruhlmann! Royaux, whose disdain for superfluity much appealed to Madame, designed the large semi-circular sofa.

Photos by Pascal Hinous