Saturday 11 October 2008

Dear God,

I am not fourteen years old. I am not, and never have been, a good girl. Regardless, maybe you can still give me a sign letting me know what in the hell is happening around me.

It seems they are moving on from all things mid-century and will be embracing boho chic. Gag. Not because the style is repugnant, but because of how they, as is their wont, will bastardise and cheapen it.

In the latter part of the 20th Century only two people have been able to successfully capture the Bohemian spirit:




The first being the multi faceted Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper, as seen here photographed by Horst P Horst from Horst: Interiors. For more on Mrs Cooper and her New York apartment, visit An Aesthete's Lament.


The second is the transplanted Dutch designer Koos Van Den Akker.


Not from Celie

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Now playing: Shug Avery - Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)
via FoxyTunes

11 comments:

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

The boho chic tutorial television show. Really? Yikes.

I loved this bedroom of Gloria's and kept a photo of it in my files for years. Actually, I hve loved just about every incarnation of her many rooms.

HOBAC said...

PT&E- if that show were viewed in space, aliens would think North America only shopped at Ikea and Pottery Barn...

Pigtown*Design said...

Sienna Miller certainly isn't one of them, even though she thinks she is.

Visual Vamp said...

Amen Sister!!!!
You named two of the greats.
And I love your sentiment.
Decor is firmly lodged in clone world, even when it's using an amusing this or a clever that.
I was the boho girl who wore an Indian bed spread turned into a long flowing dress to art school. When I got home I put it back on the bed.
Gloria and Koors were the rich boho hippies. Even Lee Radziwell had an Indian print covered living room then. And the people who owned the Quilted Giraffe (their names escape my sorry hippie brain cells that fade in and out) also had great PERSONAL style.
And my mother had a purse in the same leather patchwork as Gloria's coat.
What's your house like?
xo xo

Mrs. Blandings said...

Quite a legacy.

HOBAC said...

PD - I don't get the whole Sienna/Scarlet generic ingénue thing. I never recognise them and the films are all less than memorable. Except for what's her name - Ricci something or other - I quite like her.

HOBAC said...

VV - the whole idea of buying the Bohemian look from some generic store just gags me. Instead of boho chic it should just be called boohoo.

Re our house, it's like the set from Sanford & Son, only worse.

HOBAC said...

Mrs B - something to aim for, if one is so inclined.

Seraph + Splendor said...

Thank you so much for saying this! And please say it again and again and again... (Also, the Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper photos are truly sublime.)

An Aesthete's Lament said...

Um ... not to complain but The Errant Aesthete posted (and gave credit to me for) my earlier Gloria Vanderbilt post, which can be found here: http://aestheteslament.blogspot.com/2008/03/gloria-in-excelsis.html

HOBAC said...

AL - Oops. A thousand apologies, I was just so excited with my new discovery I completely missed the credit.