Designing a Glamorous Life Event...

I always preach about "Picking your Pro" and going directly to the source to get educated. I know many designers, including my clients find it difficult to make time to do so. If there is a topic that intrigues you, block time for it and make it happen. That's just what I did when I attended last week's glam event hosted by Niedermaier and presented by keynote speakers, Interior Designer, Ally Coulter and Holiday House Founder, Iris Dankner.

Glam Interior Designer, Ally Coulter, me, wearing my pink trench in support of Holiday House and Holiday House Founder, Iris Dankner

 I love glam and to many it can mean different things. I personally feel hiring an interior designer starts the process of living a glamorous life. The designer is the point person to introducing an new lifestyle in general, but how fab to gain a client that wants a little glamor in their life. Where do you get your inspiration?

Packed house at Neidermaier for Designing a Glamorous Life event.

Ally epitomizes glam. If you look at her most recent work just for Holiday House alone, you know you are getting a front row seat to old Hollywood. Her love for old Hollywood movies sparked her passion for glam interiors. She mentioned her approach to a project starts with the movie playing in her mind. She can walk into any room and create scenes, just like in a movie. She visualizes what people are doing in the room, what they are wearing, how they are interacting and designs around that story.

Ally Coutler Design for 2011 Holiday House

Ally Coulter Design for 2012 Holiday House

Badgley Mischka Gown, worn by Ally Coutler

Couture Gown, by Badgley Mischka

Designing a glamorous life is not just for the affluent. Iris shared a great example of how everyone can live a glamorous lifestyle. Since this blog is written specifically for interior designers and design enthusiasts, I'm sure you are all familiar with the high/low project or getting the look for less. Iris mentioned adding small touches like a sparkly glass chandelier to what would have been a beautiful space can now become glamorous. This is attainable at any price.

Kitchen designed by Iris Dankner. Her glam choice are the chandeliers to add that little sparkle.

I can not express how important it is to attend events such as these when it comes to gaining knowledge to the world of interior design we are now living in. It's ever changing. Even if glam is not your preference, it is vital you make the effort to pick your pro in areas you want a new perspective on. In this case glam was mine and I was not alone. I was thrilled to take clients with me to this event who shared in the same interests. Remember these events are also a fabulous place to connect!

Ally Coulter & Rio Hamilton of Niedermaier

Glam Lifestyle Leader, James Andrew

Start marking your calendars for the next event that is not to be missed. You must attend this year's Holiday House and HC&G (Hamptons Cottages & Gardens) event taking place on June 23rd through July 21st. The list is out on the design industry's 22 designers. Here is the full list:

Ally Coulter Designs

Deb Landis Design

Decor by Guillaume Gentet

Design House

Donna Livingston Design

Duneier Design

Elizabeth Bolognino Interiors

Fawn Galli Interior Design

Huniford Design Studio

Inson Dubois Wood

James Michael Howard

Libby Interiors

Lynne Scalo Design

Mabley Handler Interior Design

Marshall Watson Interiors

Richard Mishaan Design

Steven Dubner Landscaping

Susan Glick Interiors

The Design Studio

Thom Filicia

Timothy Brown Studio

Tracy Anderson Method

The Opening Night Gala takes place on Saturday, June 22nd. I hope to see you there in your Hamptons best. Remember all proceeds from the event will go to benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. For ticket information please visit: www.holidayhousedesignshow.com 

Let us know if you are attending by sharing your comments here. We look forward to seeing you.

XOXO

Barbara V.

Note: We would love to connect with you at our social media tables. Your invited to 'like', 'follow' and 'pin' with us and don't forget to subscribe! 

Designers, work hard but play harder...

Now I know my readers (Interior Designers & Interior Design Enthusiasts) are wondering, what is the connection? Well this should be simple, if you are working hard you should also play harder. The balancing act of work, family, friends and personal time is getting very difficult to juggle. Personally I just can't turn work off. I know for interior designers it's the same, but you will become useless at what you do if you do not block time for you.

Vibez Studio crew ready to ride the party limo to Lil Jon & Gina Grant's Zumba extravaganza!

Now maybe a sold out Zumba club event featuring the hottest Zumba Dancer, Gina Grant and record producer, entrepreneur, and international DJ, Lil Jon may not be your cup of tea, but it happens to be my can of soda. The point is, it can't be all about work. There has to be time for play. It's very easy to lose sight on this.

It's about to go down!

I would love to see more posts on designers letting their hair loose. There is a silly stigma that you should not show pictures of yourself at parties with a glass of whatever in your hand. Tell that to Martyn Lawrence Bullard who does it tastefully well. There are so many other fabulous designers sharing insight to what makes them happy with their clients and voyeurs.

Dance responsibly.

Now we know there are limitations. No need to share shots of well you taking shots! So showcase your passion for fun, other than the wonderful work you do. I love zumba and I definitely love me some Lil Jon.

Feeling notice in a crowd! I see you Lil Jon looking at me.

Celebrity Zumba Instuctor, Gina Grant and Lil Jon at the turntables, shutting it down!

Shots!

Dance off with Gina and my boy, Zumba Instructor, Fernando Zambrano Jr
AKA Nando Boogie Zee

I want to thank all the Vibez peeps for an incredible night. May, Nando, Seva, Charlene, Billy, Kerry, Chrissy, Trish and Jennifer. You know that Limo is going in to be detailed!

Sweaty me with "All Star" man himself, LIL JON!!!

Now I have to personally thank Tamar Juda for making this photo and driving my point home on this blog possible. Tamar is a fierce player in the PR world. When she says "I got you", she gets you and I can not thank her enough for getting me.

Lastly, I must personally thank Lil Jon for playing my favorite song and taking a moment after the show backstage to chat with me. When asked how he was doing, he said, "I'm doing great. Better question is how you doing after a workout like that?" The rest of our conversation I'll leave as my lasting memory. Don't let the exterior package fool you. I am keeping my fingers crossed he takes the win on Celebrity Apprentice All Stars. After meeting his family, I know he is well grounded and an entrepreneurial force to be reckoned with. (His aunt is as sweet as pie.)

Designers, work hard and make time to play harder. Share not only your passion for design, but for fun as well. I'll be watching, so share with us!

XOXO

Barbara V.

Note: We would love to connect with you at our social media tables. Your invited to 'like', 'follow' and 'pin' with us and don't forget to subscribe! 

Gilles Ehrmann, Les inspirés et leurs demeures/The inspired and their abodes Exposition Brest 2013

screenprint of the webpage of the Artothèque

France's westernmost city, Brest, this spring (2013) has a manifestation entitled l'Art Brut à l'Ouest (Art Brut in the West).

Besides various lectures, film screenings and theater performances, there will be expositions featuring the creative constructs of Abbé Fouré and Per Jain.

And there will also be an exposition entitled Gilles Ehrmann, Les inspirés et leur demeures, 1962-1982. 

The art library of the Musée des beaux arts presents photographies by french photographer Gilles Ehrmann, from the collection of FRAC (Fonds Regional d'Art Contemporaine) Bretagne, showing pictures he made of art brut artists and environments.

This is a good opportunity to pay attention in this blog to the photographer, whose photobook, published in 1962, has marked french developments in the fifties around art brut artists and environments

Gilles Ehrmann

Born in Metz, Gilles Ehrmann (1928-2005), after WWII studied decorative arts in Paris, started a theater group and ventured making a movie, to subsequently turn to photography, working with a big high-quality camara, making portraits of Picasso and other french artists.

Through his relationship with artistic circles, including the surrrealists, he may have been put on the track of people who were or had been active in making art brut creations, a topic of interest that in the fifties in France only just began to develop.

In any case in 1956 Ehrmann decided to travel the country to portray these people and/or their creations, like the Palais Idéal of facteur Cheval, the Rochers Sculptés by Abbé Fouré or the Maison Picassiette by Raymond Isidore.

This adventure resulted in the book published in 1962 entitled Les inspirés et leurs demeures (The inspired and their abodes), with portraits of Gaston Chaissac, Fréderic Séron, Hyppolite Masse and Joseph Marmin and images of the Palais Idéal (Cheval), the Rochers Sculptés (Fouré) and the Bomarzo gardens in Italy.

Although fellow photographers such as Robert Doisneau in the fifties also made pictures of art brut artists and their constructs (naming them bâtisseurs chimériques, fanciful builders), Ehrmann's 1962 publication, with an introduction by André Breton, can be seen as the first coherent presentation in book form that introduced the general public in France to a phenomenon that before that time was rather unknown.

The book has become a collectors item, occasionaly available antiquarian.

In 1958 Ehrmann became connected to the french illustrated monthly Réalités, a magazine that -like other magazines- in the fifties and sixties, was important in informing the general public about social and cultural developments before this role partially was taken up by television.

Documentation/pictures
* Article in Wikipedia (in french)
* Centre Pompidou website documenting Ehrmann's work, with titles and pictures

Les inspirés et leurs demeures
Artothèque du Musée des Beaux Arts
24 rue Traverse
Brest FR

Musée des beaux arts weergeven op een grotere kaart

Live with Viteri Style March Show...

LIVE WITH VITERI STYLE AIRED 3/25/2013

I am having a blast doing these monthly blogtalkradio shows. This one was my second and I was glad to incorporate a few interior designer questions from tweets and Facebook messages. The show is only 30 minutes, so grab your favorite drink, notepad and pen and take notes. It's all about serving up some advise, dish and practical solutions to interior designers running a boutique style business.

Mark your calendars as our next show will air April 25th. Want a shoutout on the show? Tweet and/or Like our Facebook page and message me your questions. Would love to connect with you.

Enjoy the show!

XOXO

Barbara V. 

Note: We would love to connect with you at our social media tables. Your invited to 'like', 'follow' and 'pin' with us and don't forget to subscribe! 

  

Post Office intrest Table wef 01-04-2013

Post office intrest Table wef 01-04-2013 Click

François Portrat, Arbres de lumière/Trees of light

pictures from an old postcard

The decorated garden presented in this post no longer exists and its author has got somewhat into oblivion.

In any case, the internet doesn't have much information about the site and the man who created it, which is unfortunate, because -given the few pictures available- this art environment in my opinion has been one of great stature.

Life and works

Born in the Morvan area in a family of farmers, François Portrat (1884-1976), after studying in Paris and getting married, had a drugstore in the small community of Arnay-le-Duc. 

Divorced, in 1928 he left with his two daughters for Nice, maybe once more running a shop. Later he would  move to the Paris regio.

After WWII, in his early sixties, and probably being retired, Portrat settled in Champjean, a hameau (hamlet) belonging to the community of Brannay, north west of Sens in the northern part of Burgundy.

In 1947, when Portrat was 63, he began decorating house and garden, in this way giving expression to an artistic drive he  may have had since childhood, but didn't realize earlier.

As far as I understand, he first completely decorated the house, and then began embellishing the garden, making sculptures from concrete, depicting famous french personalities like the emperor Napoleon, politcians like Pompidou and Gerard d'Estaing, and celebreties like Brigitte Bardot.

The garden also has been embellished with various structures and hundreds of medaillons, attached to the trees or added to tree or totem like mosaic decorated constructs.

These medaillons could  have photographs of people or other representations, contained in frames decorated with mosaic from broken plates and pieces of plate glass.

The garden with its large number of sparkling elements, will have made a shining impression.

Bernard Lassus, the french writer about imaginary gardens and art environments, has characterised the site as a garden with "arbres de lumière" (trees of light)*. Since I have not found a particular name for Portrat's site, I have used this description in the title of this post.

Site demolished

Portrat died in march 1976, two years before Paris had the exposition Les singuliers de l'art in the Musée de l'art moderne de la ville de Paris, the first exposition in France that introduced makers of art environments to the general public, with Portrat among those exhibited.

Some years after Portrat's death the site has been demolished.

Parts of the art environment have been saved and have been added to the collections of the Lausanne Art Brut Museum, Switzerland and the Fabuloserie Collection in Dicy, France.

Documentation
* Bernard Chevassu, François Portrat, in Cahiers de la Collection d'Art Brut, nr 11, Lausanne 1982 (a text out of my reach)

* Pictures and brief overview on the Art Insolite website

* Brief overview on the website of the Musée de la Création France

_____________
note
* Bernard Lassus has made this remark in an interview (1998) with Thierry Paquot

François Portrat
Jardin décoré ("Arbres de lumière")
Champjean, Brannay, FR
site demolished some years after 1976

"How You Doin" Bailey House?...

Harlan Bratcher, Regina Quattrochi, Wendy Williams and Alan Cumming.
Photo By Patrick McMullan/PatrickMcMullan.com

For over a month I've been talking about the Bailey House Auction and Gala event on my blog, radio show and at all my social media banquet tables. (As I like to call them.) I have invited designer friends, clients and design enthusiasts to come partake in this wonderful charity. The Bailey House not only celebrated 30 years of invaluable service to the many homeless men, women and children living with HIV/Aids, but pulled out all the stops to create a most spectacular event to raise necessary funding. Let's hit the red carpet first!

Wendy Williams, Host Of The Wendy Williams Show

Actor, Alan Cumming, Star of  Broadway Hit, Macbeth

Reality TV Stars, Simon van Kempen & Alex McCord

Fashion Designer, John Barlett

 {Press Photos provided by Zimbio- Entertainment News, Photos & Videos}

If you are familiar with Viteri Style Management, you know this blog speaks directly to interior designers running a boutique style business. I want designers to take notice of the many benefits from attending a charity such as Bailey House. Your ticket purchase will go to supporting charity for one, but you must see the added value from your business perspective. This is a perfect opportunity to work and play. Let's talk networking old school. 

Designer, John Lyle, Paul Pearson, Me and PR Man Extraordinaire, Andrew Joseph

Some of you are spending time connecting with fellow peers at your own social media tables, but have you ever thought what it would be like to meet them in person? Many of our social media darlings make the effort to attend these events. I love to meet/greet with people I've connected with through social media. It's like I've known them for years. Now when it comes to my favorite interior designers, that's another story, I just go gaga. (You've been warned.)

Interior Designer and Co-Chair of Bailey House, John Eason and Interior Designer, Robert Passal

These events give you a great chance to network, which when in business is a must. They can lead to opportunities that could have been missed just from not being present. It also shows that you are vested in a greater cause other than your own business. There is tremendous value in connecting with people the old school way by seeing them face to face. My first priority is to show and give my support to clients that attended the event and to personally congratulate each member of Bailey House. My presence is an automatic representation of my business which leaves the gates open to discussion. That's the beauty of networking and is why I want designers to make time to go to great events like these.

Dinner with The Wendy Williams

Interior Designer and Co-Chair of Bailey House, Alan Tanksley

President of the Imperial Court, Gary Cosgrove {second to last} and Members

Former Member of The Real Housewives of New York, Alex McCord

Now I mentioned designers should see this as a great opportunity to work and play. The auction held some amazing pieces for bid. From art to destination getaways, there was something for everyone. I know plenty of designers who went to shop for their client projects as well as a few goodies for themselves. I practically melted my credit card on bids as the infectious actor, Alan Cummings was the night's celebrity Auctioneer. He had us in stitches with his humor and was brilliant at getting bidders to be buyers. I happened to sit front row and was lucky enough to chat with him. He even took a few photos of us and told me we should bring the pout back!

Me bidding front row and Alan Cumming doing a fantastic job as Auctioneer.

Trying to bring the pout back! What do you thing?

 I have to say "How you doin" and thank you to all the members of Bailey House for including me in their event. It was my sincere pleasure to bring light to this cause and great charity. I want the design community to note these events are a win win for everyone involved. You are in business for a reason and showing your support to an event like the Bailey House can only show you and your business in a great light.
 

XOXO

Barbara Viteri 

Note: We would love to connect with you at our social media tables. Your invited to 'like', 'follow' and 'pin' with us and don't forget to subscribe!