Nicky and I wolfed them down recently but not before pausing to admire their swirling stripes. I’m a bit of a stripe-a-holic, personally and I’ve been swapping stripe inspirations with my colleague Lucy recently…
Here are just a few, including Pearl Lam’s madcap kitchen in groovy bands of red and white.
If you haven’t stumbled across Pearl yet, she is known as the ‘Auntie Mame of Shanghai’. I rather long to be the Auntie!
Here at NH Design we’ve done our fair share of stripes too. What do you think?
He is the architect of that fabled Welsh village Portmeirion which musician Jools Holland covets, and he was also the architect for all the additions to my parents home Great Hundridge Manor as mentioned in my autobiography ‘Redeeming Features’.
I wish I had been old enough to have known him, and to see for myself how chicly dressed he was with his white ‘slip’ waistcoat and spotted handkerchief.
An almost forgotten decorator, Paul Anstee died at the end of August.
I knew him when he had a shop in Pimlico with Adrienne Allen, the ex-wife of actor Raymond Massey, and his clientele were very much stage and movie stars. Dainty good taste for the likes of Vivien Leigh and none the worst for that.
I’m getting really stuck on this fashion vs interiors conversation…not surprising since I’ve been saying for years I want us to be the first designers to start our own fashion line. Oh so little time!
So having adored this summer’s Christopher Kane gingham collections, when I stumbled across this Diana Phipps interior this week it got me thinking.
Now, at the risk of alienating ALL my clients…I do think there is something to this bathroom. While the 70’s room looks extremely dated..I’m dead keen on the gingham ceiling. Diana laminated the tub in gingham plastic (yikes), but I’m not a great fan of clawfoot tubs at the best of times.
Craig Brown‘s imagined diary entries for the Daily Mail always gives me a good giggle. I thought I’d share his imagined diary entry for me with you:
October 25, 2003 Nicholas Haslam
Interior designer
Pugs are common, and so are labradors, King Charles spaniels, terriers and dalmatians.
When I last met Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, she mischievously whispered to me that she thought corgis were awfully common. She giggled uproariously when I promised not to pass it on. I thought it best not to mention that giggling uproariously was common.
When she died, a quarter of a million people marched past her body. It’s terribly common to allow a quarter of a million to march past your body. Chairman Mao did the same, which proves my point.
And also:
November 17, 1989 Nicholas Haslam
The Book Of Common Prayer. The title says it all.
Craig, sorry to burst your bubble, but I attach a photo of Bertie, our office Pug. The rest of the dogs on your list? Frightfully common, I’m afraid!
An almost forgotten decorator, Paul Anstee died at the end of August.
