Haute Hollywood: Armani Casa Set Design

International Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani and Hollywood have held a long standing relationship as the venerable fashion house has costumed everyone from Richard Gere in American Gigolo to Dark Knight's Batman and Leo DiCaprio in the upcoming film The Wolf of Wall Street. It's only natural that the company's offshoot Armani Casa has ventured into set design.

Premiering August 16th, the high tech thriller Paranoia (Relativity Media) will most likely be upstaged with Armani Casa's sleek and chic interiors. The film tells the story of a young exec on the rise (Australian actor Liam Hemsworth) who is asked to spy on his boss's mentor. Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Richard Dreyfuss also star in the espionage tale.

Armani Casa worked with production designer David Brisbin (Twilight Saga) on the furnishings and accessories for Hemsworth's character that are unmistakably Armani. Costume designer Luca Mosca also worked with the fashion house on costumes for Harrison Ford who plays a classic corporate villain. 

For more on the Armani Casa home line, see their website here.

Actor Liam Hemsworth who will no doubt compete with the scenery

London Sofa

Logo Lamp with satinated black medal base

D'Alembert storage unit

Bar stool with black steel legs

Dancing low table

Edel Chair

Oldman, Hemsworth and Ford

Photo Credits: Armani Casa, Relativity Media

Palatial Kitsch

"I call it 'palatial kitsch,' I just love it," a caftan-clad  Liberace (Michael Douglas) describes his Las Vegas manse on HBO's upcoming Behind the Candleabra. Premiering this Sunday, May 26th at 9/8 central, the made for cable film tells the story of the eccentric entertainer and his love affair with Scott Thorson who eventually sued him for palimony.

Production designer Howard Cummings and set decorator Barbara Munch Cameron created three of Liberace's homes that included an over the top Las Vegas mansion, a Chinese influenced penthouse in Los Angeles and a Spanish 20s style house known as Casa de Liberace/The Cloisters in Palm Springs. The designers decorated 30 glitz and glam sets in a record five weeks and gilt, pianos and naked David statues were the order of the day. While many of the sets were created on a soundstage, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor's Bel Air home doubled as several of the Las Vegas interiors.

Douglas and Damon 

Perhaps the show-stopper was Lee's (as his friends called him) master bedroom/bath in his Las Vegas home. Complete with a homage to the Sistine Chapel, Liberace had his face painted among the cherubs and piano keys above the Grecian style bathtub. Cummings used archival photographs and reproduced the original designs. In a stroke of luck, he and Cameron located the son of the original tub fabricator (who just happened to have the molds) and even found the original brass bell in an antique shop(seen at the base of the tub) that was most likely used to summon the servants for champagne. For a tour of Liberace's lavish world,  see Architectural Digest here.

An ode to the Sistene Chapel

The real Liberace in his marble tub

Photo Credits: HBO

It's All Good with Gwyneth

Many call Gwyneth Paltrow the next Martha and given the popularity of her blog Goop (an enormously entertaining blog by the way), the actress turned lifestyle guru is certainly on her way. Her latest entry in making our lives better? Her new cookbook It's All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great (Grand Central Life and Style, 2013). After a bout with anemia and vitamin D deficiency coupled with her father's death to cancer, Paltrow followed her doctor's guidelines and began a healthy regimen of eating. The result is basically a low-carb, dairy and gluten free diet filled with vegan cookies,  Banana ice cream, Salmon Burgers with Pickled Ginger, and Hummus Tartine with Scallion-Mint Pesto as outlined in her book. No coffee, no eggs, no sugar, no wheat, no meat, no soy, nothing processed (and no fun -- fortunately I didn't see Diet Coke mentioned, whew:)). Like all recipe/diet books, there is something for everyone -- just make sure discipline is in  your vocabulary.

Paltrow's kitchen as seen in the pages of  Elle Decor

Grilled Salmon with Grilled Lemon Vinaigrette

4 6 oz. fillets of salmon
2 T extra virgin olive oil
4 fl oz for the vinaigrette
Coarse sea salt
2 lemons, halved
2 T finely chopped flat-leaf parlsey
2 T finely sliced chives
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat a grill or grill pan over high heat. Coat the fish with 2 T of olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
Grill until from to the touch and nicely browned, about 4 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness. Be sure to grill the lemons at the same time for the vinaigrette! Grill them alongside the salmon, cut side down, until they're softened and just beginning to char.
Transfer the salmon to a serving platter and let it rest while you prepare the vinaigrette. Squeeze the grilled lemons into a bowl (they should yield about 3 fl. oz. of smoky, slightly sweet juice. Whisk in the 4 fl oz olive oil, stir in the herbs and season to taste with sale and pepper. pout the vinaigrette over the salmon and serve immediately.

Photo Credits: Ditte Isager

Costuming Gatsby

Costuming The Great Gatsby was no easy feat. Academy Award winning costume designer Catherine Martin created 1700 daytime and evening costumes (that computes to 500 a day) for the cast that ranged from spectator shoes and Princeton style straw hats to tuxedos and flapper frocks. Martin collaborated with designer Miuccia Prada who reinterpreted forty classics. while the venerable menswear institution Brooks Brothers (around in writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's day) were a natural to work with CM on more than 500 men's Ivy League ensembles. Tiffany and Co. also got in on the act, designing a Jazz Age Glamour collection complete with a 200,000 Savoy diamond headpiece to a 50,000 Daisy white diamond brooch.

If you haven't overdosed on Gatsby-mania just yet, be sure to see the film when it opens this Friday, May 10th. And if you live in Los Angeles, check out Martin's costume exhibit at the Century Guild. And also check out my piece on the costumes in The Hollywood Reporter here.

Leo DiCaprio as the mysterious Jay Gatsby

DiCaprio with Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Joel Edgerton as husband Tom Buchanan

Catherine Martin at Gatsby exhibit

Daisy's wedding gown

A Miu Miu flapper dress from designer Miuccia Prada

One of Prada's 40 sketches for the film. Shown above is sketch of flapper dress for Daisy

Alpine sweater from Brooks Brothers worn by Tobey Maguire and available for $148

Boater from Brooks Brothers

Ring of Pave diamonds and center diamond of 5.25 carats
 from Tiffany & Co.'s Great Gatsby Collection

Tiffany bangle with fan motif. 

Photo Credits: Warner Brothers, Brooks Brothers, Fashionista, Tiffany and Co., Hollywood Reporter

Designing the World of Gatsby

The life of the elusive, enigmatic fictional millionaire Jay Gatsby is portrayed once again (maybe fourth time is the charm) on the silver screen May 10th.  This time around filmmaker Baz Lurhmann tackles F. Scott Fitzgerald's beloved twenties novel of life in the Jazz Age and Roaring Twenties set against an opulent Art Deco and hip hop music backdrop -- and all in 3-D.

Collaborating with costume designer/production designer and wife Catherine Martin, the film is set in the tony old and new moneyed worlds of Long Island Sound's fictional East and West Egg via the duo's homeland of Sydney. The Academy Award winning designer took her cues from the Garbo films of the twenties and the work of interior designer Syrie Maugham as inspiration for the film's designs. And since noveau riche was the order of the day, opulence translated into lots of gilt and gold for the Gatsby mansion that represented the majority of the 43 sets constructed in fourteen days. For more on the Gatsby sets, read my article in the Hollywood Reporter here.

Besides designing the sets and costumes (next post), Martin has her own home line aptly called Catherine Martin Home. Several of her rug designs in collaboration with Designer Rugs  (the Art Deco line is out June 6th) and moderne style fabrics with Mokum are seen in the film.

Grand foyer of Gatsby's mansion 

Gatsby's balcony

Gatsby's grand stairway

Costume and production designer Catherine "CM" Martin

Catherine Martin for Mokum - Great Gatsby inspired Art Deco interior

Black Pearl Rug

Garden Party Rug

Night Bird Rug

Catherine Martin's Mokum Moderne Rivoli collection of fabrics as used in Gatsby - available at Holly Hunt in USA

Many design companies have jumped on the Gatsby bandwagon with Deco infused designs on everything from faucets to light fixtures. A few of my personal favorites are below:

Harlow ceiling fixture by Corbett Lighting. Available as a pendant or single/double wall sconce
in sleek stainless steel with crystal accents. Love this!

Nothing says Art Deco like French design legend Jean-Michel Frank.
Shown above is the burnished wood screen Grand Paravent, Vers circa 1925. 

With its modern lines, Graff's Fontaine lavatory faucet
would have fit in nicely at the Gatsby manse.

Photo Credits:  Hollywood Reporter, Warner Brothers, Catherine Martin Home, Designer Rugs, Mokum, Graff, Corbett Lighting

The Big Wedding

Take a long divorced couple (Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton) who pretends to be married for the sake of their adopted son's mother, throw in the angry live-in girlfriend (Susan Sarandon), add Robin Williams as the priest for good measure and you have the plot for the upcoming film The Big Wedding which hits theaters Friday, April 26th. The all star ensemble cast also stars Katherine Heigl and Topher Grace along with Amanda Seyfried and Ben Barnes as the wedding couple.

Production designer Andrew Jackness and set decorator David Schlesinger shot the majority of the film on location in a charming shingle style house in Greenwich, Connecticut that required enough space for  the large cast, film crew and a large back yard for the wedding tent. The designers fortunately found a couple who spent their summers away and agreed to let their house be used for the film.

For more on the sets, ready my article in Elle Decor here.

DeNiro and Keaton

American antiques and oversized furnishings were rented from Connecticut antique shops and the color palette was primarily neutral with accents of blue

Jackness used lavender, pink and white for the wedding tables and centerpieces

Photo Credits: Barry Wetcher/Lionsgate

All the President's Men Revisited

"The newspaper business is really very concerned about its image. I talked to one reporter and his first reaction was that (All the President's Men) would open with Ray Bolger dancing his way into the newsroom."  -- Robert Redford, Star and Co-Producer
         

It's hard to believe it's been 36 years since the Academy Award winning political thriller All the President's Men debuted. Based on Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's best selling novel on the Watergate scandal and the eventual downfall of the Nixon presidency, the 1976 film remains a classic.

This Sunday April 21st stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman revisit their roles as the young reporters on the special aptly titled All the President's Men Revisited. The special shows never before seen archival footage with interviews from the cast, the original reporters, Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow and others.

The film won four Oscars including one for Best Art Direction. A study in authenticity, the late production designer George Jenkins (Best Years of Their Lives) and his team spent a week at the Washington Post headquarters studying every detail of the building. Paint colors were matched to the original desks, artwork, posters and phone book covers were copied and even a brick was taken from the exterior of the building for duplication in fiberglass. And in a case of true Hollywood excess, the reporter's trash was shipped back to the soundstage at Burbank Studios and used for the office scenes. Co-producer Walter Coblenz summed it up best," I can't tell you how important (accuracy) is to us. I've got a list of props correct to the smallest detail. Why, we're making replicas of phone books that don't even exist any more!"

All the President's Men Revisited will air on The Discovery Channel 8/7 central. Let's hope we never have to revisit those days in real time again.

Redford as reporter Carl Woodward

Redford with Dustin Hoffman as reporter Carl Bernstein

The Washington Post's newsroom at 1150 15th Street NW via a soundstage in Burbank

Photo Credits: Warner Brothers