Lunch With The Boys

Shall we dash off for lunch with the boys today? They have invited us to their Portofino home for a little nosh.

The dining room
Flower murals by Michael Lin
Antique French chairs with Laviani table
Swarovski crystal waterfall chandelier
The only other one I've ever seen is in New Orleans HERE

We could have lunch in the dining room, or maybe in the kitchen, or even out of the terrace. The boys take their entertaining seriously. When they are at this holiday house, they regularly host a cast of rotating celebrities like you and me.

The boys in the kitchen
Venetian lanterns echo the colors of the mosaics
The tile pieces cover the walls and the floor

After lunch we could have a tete-a-tete, or maybe stretch our on the banquette for a little siesta in the poetry nook in the living room.

The poetry nook has walls covered with hand painted snippets of poems
I think there are at least three black Murano chandeliers
I die! Those leopard banquettes are divine!

Maybe if it gets too late, the boys will offer one of their guests rooms to us so we can spend the night in this paradise.

The zebra guest room
The walls are hand painted to match the chair and rug

The red silk covered room is referred to as "the Chinese room"
The pillows are silk screened with a portrait of Jim Morrison
"He's sexy", says one of the boys

You can put sexy Jim on your throw pillows too!
Go HERE

We'll have to arm wrestle for the gold bedroom
It's the room were all of the guests want to sleep

Time to say goodbye. We can stroll through the beautiful sea side garden and bid a fond farewell to our hosts, who tell us, " Growing up, my family never had much money. We are so grateful for all we have, but we don't live for this. There are houses that you enter, whether they belong to a young person or the rich, and there is a feeling that's bellissima. You say to yourself, In this house there is amore, love. It doesn't matter if everything is real or fake, or the furniture is from the flea market or designed by a famous decorator".

Stone pathways in the garden designed by Giorgio Fornari

The boys, if you haven't guessed are Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. This is their Portofino home, "Villa Olivetta" featured in the current September 2010 issue of In Style magazine.

Their runway to room style is noted. It seems so many fashion designers segue into interior design effortlessly.

A new book is coming out: The Council of Fashion Designers of America and Assouline are publishing "American Fashion Designers At Home.' Written by Rima Suqi, a contributor to T and The New York Times.

Diane von Furstenberg's home
Featured in "American Fashion Designers at Home"

"The coffee-table book ($65, which benefits the CFDA Foundation) looks at the homes of 115 CFDA members, from heavyweights like Diane von Furstenberg and Kate Spade to relative newcomers like Band of Outsiders’ Scott Sternberg. The interiors, which range from luxurious — like Eva Chow’s gold-leafed Los Angeles living room or Tory Burch’s opulent, surprisingly conservative Manhattan apartment — to industrial-funky, like Rachel Comey’s Long Island weekend house." Read more HERE

Heavyweight Diane von Furstenberg at home

Very few interior designers venture into fashion design. You would think it would flow both ways, decorators doing fashion, and fashion designers doing decor.

Jonathan Adler jeans

Jonathan Adler did jeans, not much of a fashion design really.

Adler tells us HERE the collection--which includes three looks for men and three looks for women--was inspired by "my favorite destinations, especially Capri, Palm Beach, and Big Sur. I wanted to create the looks that I would want to see a girl rock in any of those locales." His signature bright color palette and whimsical prints adorn tunics, polo shirts, and skinny jeans, which the designer admits isn't too far a cry from wallpaper and ottomans: "Honestly, design is design. I took some of my signature motifs and patterns and thought about how to make them work in fashion. It was fun and easy."

Is design design as Adler says? What kind of fashion design would Gerrie Bremermann do? I could see Kelly Weastler doing fashion, and maybe Phillipe Starck. What ID would you like to see design a line of fashion apparel?