I Was So Raggedy, Folks Used To Call Me, “Patches” - What Do You Think?

Forgive another What Do You Think post coming so soon. I am working on something else, but I want to let you know I'm still here. And this photo is priceless.

What do you think? This look is currently coming down the runway - "I was born and raised down in Alabama,
On a farm way back up in the woods I was so raggedy, folks used to call me, “Patches” - remember that song?

Patchwork comes and goes. My mother used to have a patchwork leather purse, and she loved it because of all the colors. She said it matched any and everything.

Gray patchwork overdyed rug

This room was done by interior designer Peter Dunham

Overdyed patchwork rugs are hot right now

Gloria Vanderbilt was the queen of patchwork in the 1960s and 1970s

Truman Capote rocking patchwork in his New York apartment circa 1960s

So what do you think? Would you wear patchwork, or rock it in your home decor? Or carry a patchwork purse?

My mother would have loved Jessica Simpson's Dolce and Gabbana patchwork purse

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The Modern Victorian

Coming from the heyday of the 1960's and 1970's, the era I call The Modern Victorian, I see a tremendous influence currently steering today's design choices. Back then there was an exuberance and fearlessness, where color and layering and mixing furnishings was done without much angst. Most people decorated on their own, but even the professional decorators of the times embraced a certain joie d'vivre that matched the times that were "a-changing".

The 1970's - Look at this Mommy and son! Love the pattern and the mirror looks like my big girl glasses!

Much like the Victorians one hundred years before, the Modern Victorians mixed patterns and collections of possesions with a certain abandon. Many pieces of hundred year old Victorian furniture appeared alongside of plastic blow-up furniture and art work by a new artists like Andy Warhol. Victorian furniture was cheap then (as it is now having fallen out of fashion to the newer mid century modern "antiques"). Old granny pieces got a face lift with a bright coat of paint on the frame, and a reupholster with some groovy fabric.

Designers and home decorators today have embraced the Modern Victorian look once again. One of the best is Emily Henderson, who deftly shows the inner workings of her free wheeling stylist's mind on her HGTV show "Secrets From A Stylist".

Emily Henderson is a Modern Victorian

Emily loves things from the 1970's and tirelessly shops the flea markets and vintage shops for pieces to mix in and layer with modern furnishings. The effect always reflects the client and their taste and quirks, and the rooms are never boring, and often pretty and inviting.

Modern Victorian Truman Capote at home in the 1970's

Having come of age in the golden era of The Modern Victorians, my touchstones were people like Gloria Vanderbilt, Truman Capote, Lee Radizwill, Bonnie Cashin, and places like the 1970's furniture department at Bloomingdales, The Factory, and swinging London.

Modern Victorian Gloria Vanderbilt at home in the 1970's - Do you think she and Truman discussed quilt patterns?

Another view of the Modern Victorian living room of Gloria Vanderbilt

Bonnie Cashin's studio back in the heyday of the Modern Victorian

Modern Victorian Bonnie Cashin loved making Graffiti walls

Modern Victorian Lee Radziwill - circa 1970's

Lee Radziwill circa 2009 as seen in Elle Decor

A Mod Vic straight from the pages of the new book Undecorate

Hello. My name is Valorie Hart and I am a Modern Victorian - I recently covered a wall with fabric HERE

I have these sweet mannequin heads bookmarked, and they make me think of the the heyday of the Modern Victorian.  You can buy them HERE.

Couldn't you see these in your Mod Vic home now?

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Gloria Vanderbilt Turns Back Time

Gloria Vanderbilt has done a room for the 2009 Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York.

She has recreated the bedroom she had at age sixteen.

It's a fascinating read in today's New York Times HERE
There is one thing that puzzles me: Why do so many writers describe the Swedish Mora/Moro clock as a Swedish grandfather clock?

We love Gloria, who always has a child like approach to decorating, and in the art work she creates.

Her signature style of the exuberant use of pattern and color gives her design work energy and verve.


Do you remember your favorite bedroom as a child?


Mine was one my mother decorated for me when I was around nine or ten years old.
The walls were pale pink, the ceiling silver. One accent wall had wallpaper with ballet shoes printed on it. It had a white background with pink and yellow and turquoise in the print.
I had a canopy bed all tricked out with sheer white ruffles.
The curtains were crisscrossed organdy Priscillas that blew ever so gently when a summer breeze caught them.
I had a four foot long ballet barre attached to a wall with a full length mirror behind it.
I also had a portable TV, a big deal then. It was pale yellow.
There was also a silver dresser, a white desk with a white antique ice cream parlor chair, and a skirted vanity and skirted bench in the same print as the wallpaper.
Mama could decorate!
I have often thought of recreating this room, much in the same way GV recreated hers.