Clothes Make the Room

Yesterday I was on the phone for an hour and a half trying to get my AT&T land line disconnected. Of that call, an hour and twenty-five minutes were spent on hold listening to that obsequious music. Needless to say, I thought I was going to blow a gasket and was trying to figure out something- anything- to do to keep calm. (If you're wondering why that Warhol photo of Diana Vreeland is at top, it's because I believe she was saying "Listen, all I want is to have my phone line disconnected. What part of that do you not understand?" At least, it looks that way to me.)

A drink wasn't going to do; after all, it was only 3:00 in the afternoon and that just didn't seem fitting. So, I came up with a game. I was flipping through an old Sotheby's auction catalogue from their 1997 haute couture sale "Paris a la Mode", and I found the dresses so beautiful that I decided to match some of them to specific rooms. But, I didn't think too hard about the rooms. I simply went with the first room to come to mind. Here's what I came up with:




A late 1950s Jacques Fath evening dress reminded me of:


Geoffrey Beene's dining room swathed in "Les Touches".




The blooming flowers of this Yves Saint Laurent gown (c. 1987) made me think of these flowers:


All over the walls and sofas in the London flat of Michael Szell.





That green and blue color combination in this Lanvin couture gown? Awfully close to:


Those green walls and blue sofa in Rose Cumming's drawing room.




The ruffles of this late 1960s Lanvin evening dress made me think not of a room so much, but rather...


...Miles Redd's couture-like curtains.



(Warhol photo and dress images from Paris a la Mode, Haute Couture: Auction October 29, 1997 - Sale 7036; Beene photo from House Beautiful Entertaining. Szell photo from Architectural Digest International Interiors, Derry Moore photographer. Cumming image from The Great Lady Decorators: The Women Who Defined Interior Design, 1870-1955 by Adam Lewis. Redd photo from W, Martyn Thompson.)