Fashion Week Muse: Tory Burch and La Piscine

The 60s film La Piscine (The Swimming Pool) provided the perfect inspiration for Tory Burch's Spring 2014 line that debuted today at Fashion Week. Starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider and Jane Birkin (of Birkin bag fame) , the drama tells the tale of a couple, father and daughter who share a villa together on the Côte d'Azur. Sexual jealously plays a dominant theme and it's interesting to note that Schneider and Delon were an offscreen couple at one time and remained friends during the filming.

French fashion designer André Courrèges served as costume designer on the film and it's easy to see how his modern geometric designs (think triangles and squares), casual preppy looks, French Riviera bikinis and long maxi dresses influenced Burch's line. (Courrèges is credited - along with British 60s designer Mary Quant - with the invention of the mini-skirt). The bohemian yet tailored and simple costumes are as classic today as they were in the sixties.  He once made the statement, “High heels are preposterous. They are just as absurd as the ancient practice of binding the feet of Chinese women. Boots are a more feminine solution – and more rational and logic. Beauty is logical.” Given our Manolo obsessed society, I wonder what he thinks about them now.

Romy Schneider

Alain Delon

Romy in monogrammed blue shirt

Romy in classic white sheath dress, still a staple today

Jane Birken in crocheted bikini

Romy's silk maxi dress

Romy in a signature geometric classic Courrèges

Behind the Scenes with director Jacques Deray

Tory Burch's Spring 2014 line is filled with botanical themes in green and white, wicker totes, metallic low heels, lattice cutout leather, linen burlap and two piece pant sets with a Preppy Meets the French Riviera look. While summer is barely a distant memory, I look forward to collecting some of these items for spring! And renting La Piscine on Netflix.

Jewel neck tunic dress

Botanical bikini with linen burlap coat

Green floral beaded sandals

Two piece pant sets so reminiscent of the 60s and 70s

Botanical themed shift with lattice handbag

Botanical and lattice themed bikini and scarf print cardigan

Botanical scarf print dress with Peter Pan collar....

Peter Pan detail on the original

All items are available at Tory Burch. Check out her playlists on Tory's Blog while you are there as I always discover new music!

Photo Credits: Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie, Tory Burch, Courreges

From Shelf to Screen

Hollywood loves a best seller but it's a rare occasion the novel turned film are as good as the original printed word (The Great Gatsby and Bonfire of the Vanities being a perfect example and The Help is debatable). While The Godfather and Out of Africa were an exception to the rule (both book and film in my opinion were excellent), here's hoping the fall crop of movies won't disappoint:

The Wolf of Wall Street
Jordan Belfort

The book's subtitle says it all "Stock Market Multimillionaire at 26, Federal Convict at 36"and clearly a tale of the times. Martin Scorsese's adaptation stars Leo DiCaprio as the true story of a Wall Street stockbroker living the high life until securities fraud steps in. Premiering November 15th, the film also stars Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, Jonah Hill and Kyle Chandler as an FBI agent.

DiCaprio as a high flying trader in the 90s

Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn

This book literally kept me up until 3 a.m. for two nights in a row as it's a very compelling thriller. Author Gillian Flynn's tale of married out of work writers who leave Manhattan for Missouri is filled with all sorts of psychological plot twists and will make a great movie starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike (Bond girl Miranda Frost) as Nick and Amy (and possibly Neil Patrick Harris as her ex). Can't wait.

Rosamund Pike

Therese Raquin
Emile Zola


The Emile Zola classic weaves the tale of a young woman forced into a miserable marriage to her first cousin by her aunt. She finds happiness through an affair with her husband's childhood friend.
The film version stars Elizabeth Olsen (sister of the Olsen twins), Jessica Lange and Tom Felton and debuts September 27th.

Felton and Olsen on set

Great Expectations
Charles Dickens

The beloved Dickens classic is adapted yet once again for film - this time starring Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Robbie Coltrane. Carter is tailor made for the over the top role of Miss Havisham. Look for Pip and company to hit theaters October 11th.

Miss Havisham 

Fiennes as Magwitch

Monuments Men
Robert M. Edsel

This has Oscar potential written all over it - George Clooney stars and directs the story of a crew of art historians and museum curators who recover works of art before Hitler destroys them. Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin and John Goodman star in the December 18th release.

Photo Credits: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, LD Entertainment, BBC Films

Floor Plans of the Fictitious

The Today Show featured the work of Spanish based interior designer Inaki Aliste Lizarralde who ingeniously composed floor plans of the households of some of our favorite shows. While much attention is paid to set decoration (particularly here on Cinema Style!), his work offers new inspiration. Here are the floor plans of a variety of shows:

Carrie Bradshaw's Upper East Side abode was the scene of many an escapade and her laptop always played a central prop. The apartment is pretty typical of a Manhattan rental and the designer nailed this one.

I have always loved the Malibu beach house space via the CBS backlot on the hit show Two and A Half Men. I never realized there was a first floor bedroom despite the fact the show is on at least four times a day.

Many of us know Jerry Seinfeld's apartment better than our own. The only error I see is the missing urine stain on the living room sofa.

The Friends apartment is also well known to fans, particularly the open kitchen and den/living room were the majority of the plot lines took place. What, no floor plans for Central Perk?

I don't watch the cable show Dexter, but I guess even a serial killer can have interesting taste.

I truly miss Will and Grace and thankfully the show is in reruns. Always loved the face Grace was a wacky interior designer and wished they spent more time on her work. This plan is classic pre-war two bedroom-two bath city apartment.

Perhaps one of my favorite tv designs - sans the vintage  Exorcist green plaid threadbare recliner - was the nineties comedy Frasier. A very interesting high-rise floor plan.

Hats off to the designer and you can see more of his work here.

Photo Credits: Inaki Aliste Lizarralde

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