House Not-Beautiful
In the last 30 years, home design has somehow become more important than what you put on your back--a fact not lost on fashion designer Christian Lacroix.
Not without a few sour grapes, Lacroix has illustrated a delightful whimsy of a book, “Your World and Welcome to It: A Rogue’s Gallery of Interior Design” by Patrick Mauries, translated by Christopher Phillips (Simon and Schuster, 1998, $25).
In the old-fashioned style of caricature accompanied by essay, Lacroix and Mauries comment on home design from the “horizontal modern” of the 1960s to “fin de siecle-style bulimics” of these years.
Splattered among the razor-sharp insight of the home decor world are great throwaway lines such as, “In the 1980s, it wasn’t enough to be rich: One wanted to be cosmopolitan as well.”
“Your World” was first published in France, and some of the writing is Eurocentric. But it’s also a great way to learn about many of home design’s more ridiculous movements.
* On Calvin Klein’s minimalism: “It is the WASP’s last stand, where the natural and perfectly plain become the last word in sophistication.”
* On Shabby Chic: “This is a decor for those who were born too late and are fixated on the images and sensations of childhood, who love the kind of old places that by their very nature douse the fires of renovating zeal and property speculation.”
* On Sure-Fire Chic: “They limit their palette to a range that can’t miss: gray, beige, gray-beige, white and the mother of all colors--black.”
This tasty confection of criticism is best served with a platter of warm milk. Meow.
