Party Pics from G&G's NYC Bash

By Haskell Harris | April 29, 2010 | Design

Last week, G&G celebrated our "The South Invades NYC" cover story in the April/May 2010 issue with a very Southern soiree in the big city. The whole gang (and friends) gathered there for boiled peanuts, bourbon, and good old-fashioned gab at the Billy Reid shop on Bond Street.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the pics snapped by photographer Sean Sime at the event (that's G&G Editor-in-Chief Sid Evans with former House & Garden Editor-in-Chief Dominique Browning). To scroll through the whole gallery, click here.

Inspired Interiors at Billy Reid

By Haskell Harris | February 16, 2010 | Design

A lot of fashion magazines have written about Billy Reid's clothing (G&G among them). But in my opinion, we should be paying more attention to the interior design of his shops.

Here in Charleston, Reid's shop tells an unmistakably Southern story, and the clothes are characters in the narrative.

The wide plank floors, the worn velvet upholstery, and the dog-eared Walker Percy novels are characters too, as is the smell of hot mulled cider that seeps through the place all winter. 

The whole idea of making a clothing brand part of a bigger lifestyle is nothing new, but Reid has a spectacular knack for it.

Two weeks ago, I made my way up to Manhattan for the New York International Gift Show with a G&G colleague, and during the trip we stopped in to have a cocktail with the designer in his shop on Bond Street before he scooted off to prepare for New York Fashion Week.

When he left, I walked around and around in the store for a long time, taking in the wallpaper in the dressing room, admiring the old-school glassware on the dark wood bar, and looking closely at the linings of his jackets.

In short, my visit did not disappoint. Reid managed to bring the layers of Southern gothic grit he's known for to his Yankee location.

Below, a few of my favorite details.

1) The checkout counter. Notice the plates, the stag head,  the whitewashed wood-paneled walls, the antique apothecary cabinets holding clothes, the ladder holding ties. It's all great.

2) The shirt displays. I love how his shops constantly combine interior elements with clothing. In the photos below, a silver platter shows off belts, and plates are paired with shirts. Very cool.

3) The dried hydrangeas. I never would have described dried flower arrangements as stylish until I saw the way they're done at Billy Reid. It works because the clear glass container keeps the whole look from being matronly, and the papery texture is the perfect counterpoint to the grays and blues and lavenders in the shirts hanging in the background. Beautiful.

4) Last but not least, a sneak peek at Billy Reid's Fall 2010 looks from New York Fashion Week last week. Yet again, the backdrops bring the Billy Reid label to life. Photos by Dan Lecca.

Southern Charmer

By Haskell Harris | August 14, 2009 | Design

It used to be a given that if you wanted to make it big in the world of interior design, you had to establish a practice in New York. In other words, if you were a southern interior designer, you might as well pack it up and move to Manhattan if you wanted anybody to remember your work (Southerners like Bunny Williams and Charlotte Moss ended up there). But the old school rules are changing, thanks to interior designers like Suzanne Kasler, the widely published Atlanta style arbiter who’s stayed put in Georgia, and now has luxury furniture, fabric, floor coverings, wallpaper, and lighting collections that bear her name. And she hasn’t stopped there. This October, she debuts her first book, Inspired Interiors, a lush photographic tour of her favorite projects. A sneak peak follows below. (All images courtesy of © Suzanne Kasler: Inspired Interiors, Rizzoli New York, 2009.)

Even if you don’t know the first thing about decorating, it’s hard not to get inspired by the wide range of looks in the book, from rustic cabins to city houses to laid-back beach cottages. There is literally something for everyone. 

Though the 224-page volume won’t hit stores until the fall, it is available for pre-order here. Also, keep your eyes peeled for a story on Suzanne Kasler's favorite room in our October/November issue.

Office Grace

By Haskell Harris | July 23, 2009 | Design

When I saw these photos of Charleston wedding designer Tara Guerard's new satellite office in Manhattan, I had to post them right away. I love Tara's work and I think this new space embodies the whimsical, luxe vibe of her business perfectly. 

While most of us have to deal with soulless, corporate hand-me-downs at the office, Tara's New York staff gets to walk in every morning to a totally inspiring place.

Before I go on, mull over these colors and textures for a moment:

1) Matador red

2) Raw pine

3) Gold leaf

4) Charcoal black

5) Magnolia leaf green

6) White

7) Hot pink

8) Hermes orange

9) Bamboo 

10) Chocolate brown

11) Horn

Pretty great, right? Now, feast your eyes on those colors and textures in action: 

 All photos by Liz Banfield

And while I love the saturated colors and the exotic contrasts—a chinoiserie screen paired up with African headresses hung over the sofa, traditional mixed with modern—I am most impressed by the fact that the interior designers who collaborated with Tara, Nicki Clendening and Callie Jenschke (of Scout Designs), did this on a shoestring! Every single element  came from ebay, Ikea, or a flea market. 

Talk about inventive! 

For more great photos and stories about Tara's projects, stay tuned for her new book, Weddings by Tara Guerard, due out in January  2010, and check out her new website: soireebytaraguerard.com

Sneak Peek: Kentucky Garden

By Haskell Harris | July 9, 2009 | Design

Another sneak peek of something great coming up in the next issue.

A Kentucky garden by a Kentucky native who now lives in New York and designs for the likes of Salma Hayek, Edward Norton, and Julianne Moore. Can anybody guess what celebrity garden designer I might be talking about? Stay tuned for the full story when it debuts in the August/September issue.

Photos by Caroline Allison

Sneak Peek: Texas River House

By Haskell Harris | June 23, 2009 | Design

Recently I've been thinking that I should give a sneak peek of some style related things coming up in the magazine.

So here goes: My favorite Southern Style piece in our upcoming August/September issue is about an idyllic Texas river house on the banks of the Guadalupe River.

The photo below is an out-take from our photo shoot (Andrew Geiger shot it for us and he's amazing). I love how minimal the camp cots are, and the whole house has the same vibe. It's both rustic and modern—a combination that always works: 

Photo by Andrew Geiger

Stay tuned for an expanded gallery of out-takes when the next edition hits newsstands.

And just in case you might want to try the utilitarian look of camp furniture at home, here are a few sources:

1) Cabela's army cot (almost a dead ringer for the one above):

Photo courtesy of cabelas.com

2) The beautiful and super expensive cot by Bottega Veneta, quite possibly the chicest daybed ever designed:

Photo courtesy of bottegaveneta.com

3) These camp stools from Design Within Reach feel like something off the set of Out of Africa. A pair of them at the end of a bed in an all white room would be fantastic:

Photo courtesy of dwr.com

4) The classic stools from Hable Construction. Everyone has seen these, but I think they always look perfect in children's rooms because the colors are so happy:

Photo courtesy of apartmenttherapy.com

The Bike Life

By Haskell Harris | June 12, 2009 | Design

So it's Friday afternoon and this is a Friday afternoon kind of post.

It's about bikes. Beach cruisers by fashion designer Cynthia Rowley to be exact.

The Charleston influence is easy to see in all four styles, including the tandems. 

Here's why: she came here last Fall and opened a charming store on King Street, and that trip was her first to Charleston, a city where you can count at least five leggy blonde girls on beach cruisers for every block you walk—rain or shine, winter or summer. They are, as they say, part of the culture. Just a few months later, she had her models at New York's Spring 2009 Fashion Week ride down the catwalk at the end of the show on her whimsical line of beach cruisers.

Every last one of them flew off the runway (not literally). One even ended up on an episode of Gossip Girl.

Photo courtesy of coolspotters.com

Now the shop in Charleston has two, propped cheerfully in the plate glass windows between the mannequins wearing adorable things like this:

Photo courtesy of cynthiarowley.com

So what does Rowley have to say about it all?

"I think everyone wants to customize the things they use and love a lot, make them their own. I wanted to do something that is just as stylish as people are in other areas of their lives. And bikes are the best way to get around town, whether in New York or Charleston. They're good for you and for the environment."

Without further adieu, here they are: 

A Fabric Story

By Haskell Harris | May 4, 2009 | Design

I am consistently obsessed with the history of things, particularly when it comes to design.

Which is exactly why I wanted to share this  style anecdote. 

A while back, I visited the very down-to-earth CEO of design powerhouse Dessin Fournir, Chuck Comeau.

He walked me through the various offices and workspaces for the Dessin Fournir brand (I met the welders at Palmer Hargrave Lighting, pored over drawings for new furniture in the Kerry Joyce line, shopped around at the retail store C.S. Post, etc.).

But my favorite stop was Classic Cloth.

In the warehouse, they had mile after mile of beautiful fabric bolts stacked all the way to the ceiling. Talk about heaven!

Then Chuck introduced me to the fabric designers who create all that gorgeous yardage day in and day out. 

One of their newest styles was inspired by a pillowcase from the Petit Trianon on the grounds of Versailles.

Chuck bought a remnant at Christie's of the original (a rustic, flax colored linen embroidered with yellow silk thread in a delicate floral). 

As I stood there looking at it, the idea that Marie Antoinette (love her or hate her) might have slept on it was completely surreal.

I only got to see one finished colorway of the pillowcase-inspired collection since the designers were still in production for the other colorways at the time. I believe it was a dark-chocolate linen. Very pretty.

The other day, though, I came across a photograph of the now complete "Marie Antoinette" collection (pictured below), and I love the hues they chose. The tone-on-tone neutrals (soft pink, pale cocoa powder, silvery gray) are perfectly subtle, but the intricate embroidery makes it fancy—like the Dauphine herself.

Bag of Gold

By Haskell Harris | April 10, 2009 | Design

Any company that got its start during the Great Depression and continues to thrive in spite of our current economic conundrum must be doing something right. 

For example, Moore & Giles, a family-run operation based in Lynchburg, Virginia, that supplies some of the most beautiful leathers in the world to the home furnishings industry.

I have always loved leather upholstery (I still have my heart set on a pair of Belgian wing back chairs covered in shiny black leather—with whitewashed wood feet and antique brass nail heads).

But before I knew this company's work, I had no idea how soft leather could be or that it could be dyed the exact color of, say, lapiz lazuli?

But it can! And then some! The range of color and texture in the collection is simply staggering.

And recently, they began crafting some of their leathers into accessories like travel bags and belts. I seem to have fallen for one bag in particular (pictured below):

It's called the Berkeley Doctor Bag, and get this: To achieve the hazy, subtle metallic texture, they tan the leather, laser cut the surface, and brush it with a finish that looks at once gold, silver, and copper.

Two words: brilliant technique.

Design Flash: Ross Kenan Interiors

By Haskell Harris | March 25, 2009 | Design

I have a little bit of a crush on Charleston right now as far as design goes.

And for good reason.

We have a fantastic (and growing) creative community here, from artists to fashion designers.

Which brings me to the point of my post.

The other day, I came across photos from a young interior design firm here in the city, Ross Kenan Interiors, and loved them.

Like the founding partners, Sterling Kenan and Caroline Ross (pictured below), the firm's projects are sophisticated and cheerful.

I loved their office in particular (image follows below):

So much so that I asked Sterling to dish on design a little bit. Our Q & A follows:

BD: Who are your favorite style icons of the past?

SK: Definitely Dorothy Draper—her style is so translatable today. Also Francis Elkins, and we LOVE David Hicks—especially his textiles.

The book about Dorothy Draper, above, was all the rage about a year ago, and it's a a fabulous tribute to her. To flip through it, click on amazon.com

BD: And the Present?

SK: We love Kelly Wearstler. Also Celerie Kemble, Vincente Wolfe, and Ruthie Sommers.

I just bought this book by Celerie Kemble, above, and love it. To flip through it, visit amazon.com

BD: If you had to sum up the aesthetic of Ross Kenan, what would you say?

SK: An eclectic mix of vintage treasures and modern pieces that create a unique, comfortable, functional, and fun environment for our clients (like the projects pictured below):

BD: Do you have a current fabric or accessory or great looking piece of furniture that you're dying to use in a project?

SK: We found this amazing wood chandelier that is in our office right now that we would love to see in a residential setting.

BD: Where are your favorite places to shop for great design in Charleston, from vintage stores to pedigree antiques?

SK: Estella Vitae—such eclectic treasures from all over the world! Hungry Neck Antique Mall—you never know what you will find but the hunt is always fun! Palmetto Moon, and we love scouting all of the antique stores on Johns Island.

BD: Why did you decide to base your business in Charleston?

SK: We both have a love for Charleston and had previously lived here after college. After moving away for a bit, both of us went to graduate school—Caroline returning to Charleston and myself to New York. We always knew that when we were ready to go into business, we wanted to do so in Charleston. After finishing school in New York, I returned to Charleston to open RKI with Caroline.

For more information on the firm, visit: rosskenaninteriors.com