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Norman Ambrose’s Intelligent Elegance

Posted on January 8, 2010
Filed Under Around Town, Men | 1 Comment

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting designer Norman Ambrose at Neiman Marcus. It was a random weekend day, I was there as part of errand-running, but I knew his work from last year’s Spring preview, where I saw one of his impeccable hand-beaded gowns for the first time. Aside from being enormously talented (he’s not yet 30) and sharply-dressed (he prefers the trad-but-slim-cut stylings of Tom Ford suits…for now, til he ventures into menswear), he’s wonderfully gracious and funny.

His line is so fantastically ladylike and classic, reminiscent of the days when women dressed for lunch, dinner and cocktails. Fittingly, he imagined an heiress making her trans-Atlantic voyage for his Spring collection.

Such shameless romance and fantasy! His off-white silk gown was inspired by what he called the “intelligent elegance” of Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief. Designing with glamour in mind is in his DNA: after fleeing Europe during WWII, his grandmother came to California and worked for silver screen designer Irene Lenz.

Norman asked a model to slip into this dress while we talked. The lining on this incredible party dress is just one example of the thoughtful details that set his pieces apart – the drape falls away from the body just so, and the coral lining creates a flattering pink glow on the exposed skin. Built-in lighting. Genius (I might add that Dorothy Draper often lined her curtains in pink to, I assume, achieve something of the same effect).

With a classy outfit or with something more casual and surprising, I love love love this “peony” evening jacket.

I’m so ready for Spring, can you tell (and look closely, the merchandise is already hitting stores)?! Since we are still in the throes of the cold winter months, though, I’m loving this iteration of the iconic YSL Le Smoking.

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Do the Draper

Posted on January 4, 2010
Filed Under Everything Else | 5 Comments

Hello! Yep…I think this thing’s still on.

Over the break I was back home in Lexington, and between reading, cooking with my new food processor (I want to slice EVERYTHING now) and milking my sister’s cow, Maybelle, I took a day trip to the Greenbrier in tiny White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, decorated by legendary interiors maven Dorothy Draper. I’m not sure how I made it this long without ever going, but it was, in a word, inspiring. The interiors are colorful, bold and large in scale. She loved red, big florals and major window treatments. Lady Draper did not believe in boring, or sad, or safe. Instead, she believed in taking risks, following your gut, and surrounding yourself with what makes you happy. More than a few of her words of wisdom are inspiring me now, at the beginning of this new year:

There seems to be within all of us an innate yearning to be lifted momentarily out of our own lives into the realm of charm and make believe.

Have you ever stopped to think what fun this business of living can be? If you haven’t, and if you are one of those who insist upon believing that life is humdrum, grim and boring, then I’m afraid this department is not for you. For I don’t believe any such thing. I know that we can all free ourselves and live our lives fully, zestfully and joyfully!

I’ll always put in one controversial item, it makes people talk.

Birds are so much wiser than we! A robin builds a nest for robins. A seagull builds a nest for seagulls. They don’t copy each other – or build themselves nests as described in The Birds’ Decorating Magazine.

why, oh whyyy does my bathroom not look like this?!

This room is just off the upper lobby, where live music and complimentary tea & cookies is served up every afternoon in true Southern hospitality style.

Sparkly chandelier above….

…and reflected below huge black and white tiles

Such a wonderful way to spend an afternoon (if you go, make sure to have lunch in the Draper Cafe!) and then on the way home, I was treated to another stunning display, perfectly executed by life’s most fabulous and fickle decorator….

UPDATE – Check out the fabulously colorful photoshoot for the Meredith Wendell line at the Greenbrier, just posted on New York mag’s The Cut!

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