re-de-sign makes its debut

While it's not exactly Cinema Style, it is cinema style related...

My book re-de-sign: New Directions for Your Interior Design Career (Fairchild Books/Conde Nast) debuts today. The book surveys the field of interior design, providing a look at the newly expanded role of the interior designer, featuring a variety of areas from residential and contract design to product, furniture and lifestyle design. Designers of all walks of life are profiled from Martha Stewart and Michael Graves to Alexa Hampton, Hickory Chair, Sally Sirkin Lewis and many more. Sherri Donghia very graciously penned the book's foreword. 

I also feature the Designer in Hollywood, covering the world of Production Designers, Set Decorators and the interior designer on television. Profiles include Will and Grace's  Emmy Award winning production designer Glenda Rovello and 24's Set Decorator Cloudia Rebar (also an interior designer and on her ninth season of the heart pounding show). Design television hosts include  Constance Ramos of HGTV (and a veteran of ABC's Extreme Makoever) and Sarah Richardson of Fine Living Channel's Room Service and Design Inc. (an addictive reality show about the day in the life of a design firm).  The work of Set Decorators Andrew Baseman (also a designer in New York City) of The Nanny Diaries, Kinsey and the much anticipated Eat, Pray, Love and Bryan Scott Venegas of ABC's Brothers and Sisters are also showcased.

Baseman's Park Avenue interiors for The Nanny Diaries (Weinstein Company, 2007)

Actress Laura Linney above

Venegas decorates the sets for ABC's popular series Brothers and Sisters. Shown above are actresses Sally Fields and Rachel Griffiths in the Walker family kitchen

 and shot below,  living room.

Rebar's Oval Office for 24

...and the FBI offices from the past season

Sarah Richardson of Room Service and Design Inc.

Ramos and cast of ABC's Extreme Makeover

And while I wish I could take credit for the cover, the fabulous interior belongs to none other than Frank de Biasi of Frank de Biasi Interiors who informed me the Scavullo silkscreen of Gloria Vanderbilt is one of three. The former Manhattan apartment of de Biasi and Gene Mayer was featured in a ten page spread in the World of Interiors (October 2001) as well as New York Magazine (October 2000) and has generated alot of buzz. de Biasi was formerly head of Interior Design for Peter Marino and Mayer heads a product design company Doug and Gene Mayer. For more information, contact Frank de Biasi Interiors, 79 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012. Phone 212-431-1222.

The book is targeted to both students and designers and is at textbook prices on Amazon. I plan to offer a reduced price to the trade and please contact me if you are interested.

Photo Credits: Cloudia Rebar, Sarah Richardson, ABC, Weinstein Company, Fairchild Books

Book Cover Photo: Corbis/Fernando Bengoehea

Cinema Style at the Office

I was watching Morley Safer's fascinating  Sixty Minutes piece on Anna Wintour recently and marveled at how closely her "power office" resembled the one (as it was intended) in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). (For the uninitated, the film was the loosely based adaptation of the novel of the same about a young assistant's travails working for a powerful NYC fashion editor).

Realizing a visit to the infamous Vogue editor's domain would be highly unlikely, production designer Jess Gonchor worked off a photo found online. The result was the ultimate power office -- imposing and authoritative  with sleek clean lines and a mixture of beiges and whites with touches of black. The octagonal mirror, photographs, artwork and anal retentively organized glass top desk are very similar. Apparently the goal was to make the "Runway" magazine offices look like a "makeup compact".  (It was reported Wintour had her office redecorated shortly after the film's release).

Wintour at her Vogue offices above, Streep as Miranda Priestly below

Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep

Other films with notable office sets effectively used to support the characters were...

 Gordon Gekko's office in Wall Street (1986)

A remake is in the works with Douglas and Shia LeBeouf in 

Money Never Sleeps with Oliver Stone at the directing helm

Sets for Five and Ten (1931)

The offices of an Walter Huston's automobile tycoon in Dodsworth (1936)

Spencer Tracy in Desk Set (1957)

Photo credits: Fox 2000, Margaret Herrick Library, Twentieth Century Fox

Hitchcock Style

While it's often hard to equate the legendary rotund British director-auteur-master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock with the word style, his films certainly gave us some great moments in fashion, glamour and interiors.

His penchant for sophisticated blondes is the stuff of legends -- from the tortured Tippi Hedren in The Birds (1958) and Marnie (1961) , Kim Novak in Vertigo (1958) and The Wrong Man (1956) and Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) to Grace Kelly in Rear Window (1954) , Dial M for Murder (1954)  and To Catch a Thief (1955), Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960) and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest (1959) -- icy, cold, unattainable, chic and often heroines turned victims, he never met a blonde he didn't like. (One can look at  Suzanne Pleshette's fate in The Birds to see how brunettes fared).

Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren on the set of Marnie

Kim Novak in Vertigo who Hitch wanted to turn into "the new Grace Kelly"

Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Edith Head's designs  for the film To Catch a Thief

Que Sera Sera: Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day in The Man Who Knew too Much

Grace Kelly on set

Whether hero or cad or a combination thereof, Hitch liked his male characters handsome, dapper, and above all, well dressed.

Sean Connery takes a break in between Bond films to star in Marnie

Nothing says south of France like an Ascot in the fifties

Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief

The woman responsible for it all was Academy Award winning costume designer Edith Head who designed everything from Tippi's shredded suit in The Birds to Grace Kelly's memorable black and white cocktail dress in Rear Window. More on Ms. Head's contributions in a future post.

From Jimmy Stewart's studio apartment  in Rear Window, Norman Bates house to Rebecca's Manderlay, a Hitch set is designed for suspense, anxiety, action and danger.

The Psycho House on the Universal backlot

His set for the film Rope (1948) was ultra modern and would fit in with today's standards. With its panoramic windows, the Manhattan penthouse apartment was completely designed for city viewing  and the leather sofa  is custom made to fit the entire length of the windows. In a classic Hitch move, look for his profile on one of the illuminated signs.

Hitch with the cast of Rope

James Mason as Phillip Vandamm  in a Long Island for North by Northwest

Even Hitch's symbolism is stylish. The film Vertigo is of course, based on images of a swirl design. We see it in the various motifs... Jimmy Stewart/Scott McKittreck's office,         

the famous bell tower...

Movie Poster for Vertigo

and even Kim Novak's classic french twist has a swirl...

Hitch on set with a sense of humor

For the DEFINITIVE book on the subject, read French film critic Jean-Pierre Dufreigne's book Hitchcock Style by Assouline, 2004. A must have for any Hitchcock fanatic.

Photo Credits: Hitchcock Style, Assouline, 2004.

A Style is Born: William Haines, Star Turned Designer

"Design is an opinion, not a profession." -- William Haines

The silver screen's loss in the thirties was the interior design industry's gain.

The year was 1930 and a young William "Billy" Haines was the country's top box office attraction and on contract with powerhouse Metro Goldwyn Mayer. He excelled as the attractive and athletic All American “smart alec” character (he was often coined the "wisecracker") and enjoyed leading man status to starlets such as Carole Lombard, Marion Davies, Constance Bennett and Joan Crawford who would become a lifelong friend and client for over fifty years.

Haines with his long time friend Joan Crawford

While films such as Tell it to the Marines, Show People and Brown of Harvard made him a popular actor, he found his true calling when he opened an antique store on Hollywood’s La Brea Avenue. Frequented by fellow co-stars and gossip columnist du jour Hedda Hopper, his innate style and passion for collecting did not go unnoticed and soon a decorator was born.


Joan Crawford became one of his very first clients (they starred together in three films at Metro) and he designed her Brentwood home through three divorces that represented special design challenges. “Cranberry” (as he affectionately called her) had a collection of over two hundred dolls and black velvet prints of dancing women that had to be gingerly disposed of. He also decorated the Manhattan penthouse she shared with husband and Pepsi President Alfred Steele. The 1800 square foot apartment was so luxe he nicknamed it “Taj Joan”.

Joan Crawford at home

Self taught as a decorator, Haines offered an alternative to the fashionable art deco interiors (made ever trendier by the films of the day) and virtually lifted the dark somber Spanish and Tudor bungalows into the sunlight, giving birth to the California style we know today.

Carole Lombard at home

The look became known as Hollywood Regency and represented a contrast to the decade’s stark minimal looks found in the modernist movement. With its roots in nineteenth century England, the style combined English, French Regency and Greek Revival with the grandeur and glamour of Old Hollywood. 

Haines at home

The centerpieces of a Haines interior are his custom collections. His iconic collection includes the biscuit tufted sofa, the popular perennial Seriah chair (Haines spelled backwards) and the charming Elbow chair (a smaller scale slipper chair which allows a woman in a ball gown to sit sideways!) Other Haines hallmarks included touches of Chinoiserie, museum mount lamps with objet d'art, one of kind lamps for each client and his use of distressed leather table surfaces.

Elbow Chair

Touches of Chinoiserie

Pedestal Floor Lamp

Before his death in l973, Haines passed the baton to associate Ted Graber who designed one of the firm's most important commissions, the private White House residence of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

His legacy thankfully continues today through the efforts of designers Peter Schifando and J. Jonathon Josephs. Schifando (former associate of Graber) and Jean H. Mathison (former long time assistant to both Haines and Graber) wrote the visually stunning chronicle on the life and designs of Haines in  Class Act: Williams Haines, Legendary Hollywood Decorator (Pointed Leaf Press, 2005).



The firm boasts an archive of over two thousand original drawings plans and finishes from the collection. They have also reissued his furnishings using the same manufacturer of the past fifty years. Their Brentwood, Hostess and Elbow chairs remain some of the firm’s most popular items.

Brentwood Chair

Seniah Chair

Lobby of Beverly Hilton Hotel

For more on the William Haines collection, see their website www.williamhaines.com

Photo Credits: William Haines Designs, Margaret Herrick Library

Portions reprinted from A Style is Born, Traditional Home, June 2007 by Cathy Whitlock

Note: A special thanks to Heather Clawson of Habitually Chic for her post on my upcoming book re-de-sign: New Directions For Your Interior Design Career.

Italian Cinema Style: Part Three - It's All About the Vespa

Almost every Italian film has one sighting in common -- a glamorous couple winding through the countryside or the cobblestone streets on a Vespa. A shortage of parking in Italy made them a necessity and what better way to run around town than on this chic and sleek little scooter? While I am not sure why it's called a Vespa (which is Italian for wasp), I know of at least four people in my zip code have one and one day I hope to be number five.

Apparently 10,000 Vespas were sold in Italy after Roman Holiday (1953) made it famous....

while Diane Lane as Frances Mayes catches a lift from the local politzia in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)...

 and Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf scoots through a coastal town in The Talented Mr. Ripley 
(1999).


And if you are really interested, visit the Piaggio Museum near Pisa, Italy where the Vespa is manufactured. Supposedly there is a Salvador Dali one. Or visit the Vespa website for your local dealer. About three thousand should do it give or take.

Shot below the title is none other than Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue in Rome Adventure (1962).

Photo Credits: Miramax, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Touchstone Pictures and  Vespa Boutique.