Rose Cumming Design Inspirations

Rose Cumming was the most flamboyant and exciting of the so-called Great Lady Decorators who invented the field of professional decorating and interior design in the early twentieth century. Flavored by surrealism and suffused with drama, her interiors were sumptuous, mixing bold colors and patterns. Her own library had emerald-green walls, a peacock -blue satin sofa, and scarlet japanned chairs. Cumming’s famous New York decorating and antiques shop became a stopping point for celebrated personalities such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Andy Warhol, Rudolf Nureyev, and Jacqueline Onassis. Encompassing styles from gothic, Venetian, and Austrian baroque to early Oriental furniture, Cumming would add glittering chandeliers, birdcages, and fine carpets. Her glamorous style was reminiscent of film sets, and Marlene Dietrich and Norma Shearer were among her clients. This book, the first on Cumming, is a richly illustrated volume of a great American artist, whose influence is manifest in the ongoing production of Cumming-designed fabrics and wallpapers. Rose Cumming will inspire the interior designer and home decorator, both professional and amateur alike.

"Great design doesn't exist in a vacuum, and" Designers on Designers "proves that behind every bright idea is a startling inspiration. Susan Gray lets the world's top designers tell their own stories about who and what influenced their work. The result is funny and poignant, wry and informed. And truly inspired." -- Mitchell Owens, ELLE Decor "The personal inspiration we gain from others in our field makes for fascinating and thought-provoking reading. I love seeing what my colleagues have learned from others; my own experience has been expanded by their insights."-- Michael Graves, Architect and Product Designer In these pages, you will discover how Orlando Diaz-Azcuy's admiration for the work of John Dickinson led to his firm's perennial quest for design perfection. Married designers Ashley and Allegra Hicks disclose an intimate view of Ashley's father, David Hicks, Britain's most celebrated interior designer -- who was so obsessed with design that he checked himself out of the hospital while dying because of the overabundance of plastic and the nurses' unappealing apparal. For contrast, Cuban-born, multi-talented Manhattan designer Vincente Wolf offers a different and distinctive view of David Hicks's great appeal. You will share Bunny Williams's appreciation of Sister Parish and that designer's comfortable, timeless, and witty sense of style. New York society decorator Thomas Jayne gives you new insight into the Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman classic "The Decoration of Houses," still used as a textbook a century after its original publication. Open this book and meet masters of design -- Billy Baldwin, Donald Deskey, Dorothy Draper, Elsie de Wolfe, Philippe Starck, Michael Taylor, Rose Cumming -- and their admirers Thomas Britt, William Sofield, Carleton Varney, Suzanne Rheinstein, John Stefanidis, and more than a dozen other great names of interior design. With color, wit, and passion, "Designers on Designers" sensuously captures the essence, soul, and inspiration of the mastery of interior design. On designers and by designers, it is a sumptuous work that architects, amateur decorators, and designers themselves will be powerless to resist. THE GREAT on THE GREAT: Pamela Banker on Sir John Soane Mattia Bonetti on Jean Royere Thomas Britt on Billy Baldwin Robert Couturier on Germain Boffrand, Eileen Gray, and Emilio Terry Elissa Cullman on Henry Francis du Pont Orlando Diaz-Azcuy on John Dickinson Jamie Drake on Stephane Boudin Arthur Dunnam on Jed Johnson Ronald A. Grimaldi on Rose Cumming Ashley and Allegra Hicks on David Hicks Thomas Jayne on Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman's "The Decoration of Houses" Pauline Metcalf on Frances Elkins Juan Pablo Molyneux on Jacques-Ange Gabriel Juan Montoya on Jean-Michel Frank Roberto Peregalli on Renzo Mongiardino Suzanne Rheinstein on Elsie de Wolfe Betty Sherrill on Eleanor Brown Marjorie Shushan on Kalef Alaton William Sofield on Donald Deskey John Stefanidis on Philippe Starck Carleton Varney on Dorothy Draper Bunny Williams on Sister Parish Ron Wilson on Michael Taylor Vincente Wolf on David Hicks

"Leven Betts: Pattern Recognition" features 18 projects from the firm’s critically acclaimed first decade. The diverse portfolio of projects included run the gamut in scale from furniture and exhibition design to townhouse and city plans. Well grounded in the realities of construction – Leven's resume includes a stint in a metal fabrication shop, while Betts spent two years as a project manager at a construction firm – the spare but elegant work of Leven Betts is characterized by a distinctive blend of materials, light, and texture. Featuring numerous photos, drawings, and diagrams, "Leven Betts: Pattern Recognition" invites architecture professionals and students to explore a unique design process and discover their own powers of observation. David Leven and Stella Betts are principals of Leven Betts in Manhattan. Their architecture has been highlighted in numerous magazines and books.

Using Australian history as a case study, this collection explores the ways national identities still resonate in historical scholarship and reexamines key moments in Australian history through a transnational lens, raising important questions about the unique context of Australia’s national narrative. The book examines the tension between national and transnational perspectives, attempting to internationalize the often parochial nation-based narratives that characterize national history. Moving from the local and personal to the global, encompassing comparative and international research and drawing on the experiences of researchers working across nations and communities, this collection brings together diverging national and transnational approaches and asks several critical research questions: What is transnational history? How do new transnational readings of the past challenge conventional national narratives and approaches? What are implications of transnational and international approaches on Australian history? What possibilities do they bring to the discipline? What are their limitations? And finally, how do we understand the nation in this transnational moment?

"Matisse in The Cone Collection: The Poetics of Vision is an exploration of the artist's work through the rich holdings of The Baltimore Museum of Art - one of the most comprehensive collections of Matisse's art in the world. The Cone sisters, Claribel and Etta, acquired their first works by Henri Matisse in 1906 and, over the next four decades, went on to collect major examples from almost every phase of his long career. Although best known for his vibrant paintings of exotically dressed young models and lush interiors, Matisse also worked in sculpture and drawing, often using these mediums to explore a single artistic idea in various ways. As revealed in The Cone Collection, Matisse expressed his love of color, texture, and pattern throughout a career that spanned many styles, from Impressionism to near abstraction."--Jacket.

These nuggets of wisdom are offered by an Academy Award–nominated actor (James Woods), a popular comedian (Aasif Mandvi), and a world-famous novelist (Jodi Picoult) to their sixteen-year-old selves. No matter how accomplished and confident they seem today, at sixteen, they were like the rest of us—often unsure, frequently confused, and usually in need of a little reassurance. In Dear Me, 75 celebrities, writers, musicians, athletes, and actors have written letters to their younger selves that give words of comfort, warning, humor, and advice. These letters present intimate, moving, and witty insights into some of the world’s most intriguing and admired individuals. By turns funny, surprising, raw, and uplifting, this singular collection captures the universal conditions that are youth, life, and growing up.

The pristine interior design and residential architecture of the renowned firm Shelton, Mindel & Associates are celebrated in this first book on their work. Shelton, Mindel & Associates has been receiving international fame since its inception in 1978. Winners of over thirty AIA awards and recipients of the 2011 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Interior Design, founding partners Peter L. Shelton and Lee F. Mindel have had a remarkable career crafting intricate yet minimal spaces infused with serenity and intelligence. Whether designing Sting's London townhouse or residences for power brokers and social leaders in New York City, Palm Beach, or the Hamptons, Shelton and Mindel invoke their passion for constructing unified environments, where the elements of design and construction become more than the sum of their parts--they become comprehensive works of art. Shelton and Mindel's luminous aesthetic is the centerpiece of this monograph. With stunning photography of their most important residential projects, each project delves deep into the modernist roots and philosophy of this exceptional design duo, and in turn the pinnacle of architecture and design today.

Featuring interiors by today’s top designers, The Power of Pattern shows how wallpaper and fabric designs can be used to elevate and personalize every room. Both a beautiful interiors book and a resource guide, it features a diversity of interiors and styles, showcasing the patterns themselves in full-page splendor. Best-selling interiors author Susanna Salk turns her focus to patterns, celebrating their versatility and creative possibilities, from a dash of colorful pattern in the entryway to the whimsy of a uniquely upholstered chair in the dining room or a luxuriously textured bedroom curtain. A practical primer on the many motifs available—“Nature”, “Animal”, “Floral”, “Ikat”, “Chinoiserie”, “Stripes”, and “Toile” are some of the chapters—this volume presents myriad versions of each, with inspiring examples of how to decorate with them. Salk also provides tips on how to use pattern in a particular space—for example, stripes create the illusion of a bigger room, and floral patterns look modern and bold (not fussy) when used on a big scale in bright colors. Presenting rooms by design stars such as Alessandra Branca, Miles Redd, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, and Mary McDonald, among others, The Power of Pattern teaches how to mix and match to make a house look effortlessly decorated. And Salk’s encouraging design tips give inspirational ideas and practical tips, opening up a world of decorating creativity.