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| Miles Redd and Valorie Hart in New Orleans at the Ogden |
Miles gave a great talk showing slides of things that have influenced his work, touchstones from art and fashion, and classic designers Jansen, Billy Baldwin, and David Hicks. He showed his own work, explaining his thought bubbles behind each project. He is now a New Yorker, though Southern born, so it was a cool stretch for the Ogden to include him in their nod to Southern Style.
He endeared himself, not only with his conversational speaking manner and his spiffy Nantucket style garb, red trousers, no socks, and a sharp blue blazer, but also with his humor and honesty. He coughed a bit and told us not to worry, that he always coughed when he's nervous. Someone brought him a cocktail to sip and soothe. He also quipped that, "if the writing wasn't already on the wall", as a ten year old he had asked his mother for a birthday gift of book called "Hats in Vogue". He also begged her to add just a touch of chinchilla to her wardrobe.
The room was swell, set with a bar and munchies. The only glitch was that no one knew where the light switch was to turn out the lights for the slide presentation. No one could see the colors Miles was enthusing about, though his descriptions made you "see" them anyway.
He was preaching to the choir of youngish decorators in the crowd. I don't know if the Uptown ladies who were present are ready to give up what he called "their tea stained pale walls" for taxi cab yellow, but they loved him nonetheless.
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| Miles Redd and Valorie Hart |
Who I saw: Shaun Smith, Mario Villa, Chad Graci. Evie and Phillip Clinton, Pam Dupuy, Linda Merrill (visiting NOLA on a sponsored junket for some bloggers). Mitchell Settoon, Taylor Eichenwald, Linda Flynn, Kathleen Sanchez, Heidi Shirrmann, Sue Strachan, Sabina Lewis, and many, many others.
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| Miles Redd signing books in New Orleans |
Miles sold out of all of his hefty books, The Big Book of Chic, and signed every copy with a smile and gratitude.
Here are 5 tips from his talk:
1. It is okay to be a “maximalist.”
2. Don’t be afraid to use color, including on the floor.
3. A bar can be very welcoming.
4. Don’t forget about antiques.
5. You can always make a boring piece a chic one.
You can read the whole recap in an article at My New Orleans.
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It was great to meet you, and to have you and your wonderful friends and raffle winners at the event last night at the Ogden Museum!
ReplyDeleteSue Strachan
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
...it was a fine evening and many thanks to you VV for this lovely experience...i enjoyed the humor MR naturally exuded and very much enjoyed meeting you as well...best, Kathleen
ReplyDeleteHe really was every bit as fantastic a speaker as I had hoped. I am planning to repaint my connecting living and dining rooms. I am no Uptown lady, but I was thinking of a tea-stained neutral. But now,I'm inspired to banish the beige, and I think I am going for Forsythia blossom yellow. No chinchilla, but maybe some zebra...He and his work really are inspiring.
ReplyDeleteI've loved being introduced to him through you here on the blog. I'm going to buy his book.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the synopsis of "tips." I can never be a minimalist. If I had to live in a mid-20th century, aerospace-looking, minimalist home, I'd shrivel and wither. My husband could easily live in an industrial loft of black leather, chrome, granite and grays with maybe some mirror accents. I'd last one day in a (cold)place like that (you can imagine how not-easily we two opposites co-exist in the same space). I have a neighbor who's all about the shabby chic look in every room of her house (ivory, sage, rose; white furniture; really pretty). It got to her husband ("too frilly") so she turned one of the bedrooms into a man cave for him. It's two worlds. He's got his big, black TV widescreen; the metal boxes to hold other "media" or sound equipment; sports images on the walls (the only color in the room) and, yes, the black sofa. It is so dark in there, it truly is a cave. He's happy as a clam while we girls shrink in horror (sorry, guys). See? In this case, a decorator could help so much, so that you could actually let air into the room and not always keep the door shut.
My cousin lived in Metairie; I talk about him a lot. (His house was destroyed by Katrina, some years after he'd sold it. He saw its destructed state and said it made him throw up on the spot.) He has such a good eye; enjoys putting together a nice home. Even though he lives in Dallas now, his home is very much "NOLA"-inspired because he loves New Orleans. I'm from California where things are Spanish/Mediterranean or beachy-cottage a lot of the time, so I was so intrigued with his "French Quarter" decor...LOVED his gilded bar cart with sparkling crystal liquor bottles there in the parlor (sold on the idea, hands-down, from that moment forward...LOVE a bar cart!), the burgundy-painted walls with creamy shutters on the windows of the room; bedroom walls painted a dark blue-green teal with a marvelous paisley sateen comforter on the four-poster reflecting that awesome greenie-blue. So refreshing and rich; sumptuous. Sheltering, serene house but also a bit decadent/edgy...rooms like heavily-lidded eyes; languid; can't explain it; a refuge from the Texas heat, muted light through the shutters and the ceiling fans gently stirring the potted, lacy ferns. It was some weird hybrid of high society-Victorian and masculine-modern; he used darker woods on the furniture. I'd always heard that saturated wall colors closed in/closed down a room (whereas whites open it up) but, nope, not at all; it was stunning home.
I love my lawyer's office. It's in her vast 1901 home...slate roof, three stories, big porch columns (wrap-around porch); huge entry/exit doors, fireplaces in many rooms, high ceilings and hardwood floors of course, grand pocket doors separating very spacious rooms with floor-to-ceiling, wide and deeply-silled windows; just a beautiful old home here in Southern California, built by the early, wealthy, town pioneers. Anyway, she is a zippy 63-year-old who could pull off age 43, thin and leggy, very stylish with a mane of long blonde/red hair. The chairs in her office are covered in leopard, the window seats are cherry pink velvet; the furniture is vintage with dark woods (I love that a huge, HUGE, glass-fronted armoire holds her legal volumes).
ReplyDeleteWhen I last visited, her bright Barbie-pink handbag sat on a black, glass-topped end table. Fun. Pure fun. Why not.