In an age of flashy interiors and Instagram-ready spectacle, Robert Kime represented something else entirely: a philosophy of beauty that was subtle, timeless, and deeply humane. To his clients — among them King Charles III, the Duke of Beaufort, and generations of collectors and aesthetes — he was not just a decorator but a custodianContinue reading “Robert Kime: The Quiet Master of English Decoration”
Category Archives: Aesthetics
Emily Lloyd: A Brilliant Spark of 1990s Cinema
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a moment when Emily Lloyd seemed destined to define a generation of cinema. With her wide, mischievous smile, her London-bred irreverence, and her startling ability to move between comedy and pathos, she felt like a new kind of screen presence: unvarnished, spontaneous, utterly alive. That sheContinue reading “Emily Lloyd: A Brilliant Spark of 1990s Cinema”
Schloss Hollenegg: Where History and Design Intertwine
Deep in the Styrian hills of Austria, Schloss Hollenegg rises from the forest like a fairy-tale apparition: towers, courtyards, Renaissance arcades, layers of history folded into one another. But unlike so many aristocratic estates frozen in time, Hollenegg is alive with contemporary energy. Under the stewardship of Alice Stori Liechtenstein, it has become one ofContinue reading “Schloss Hollenegg: Where History and Design Intertwine”
Axel Vervoordt: The Alchemist of Atmosphere
There are interior designers, and then there are philosophers who happen to work with furniture and space. Axel Vervoordt belongs to the latter. For more than half a century, the Belgian designer, collector, and dealer has cultivated a vision of interiors as places of contemplation. His aesthetic — part wabi-sabi, part European antiquarianism, part avant-gardeContinue reading “Axel Vervoordt: The Alchemist of Atmosphere”
Teffi: Wit, Exile, and the Art of Survival
There are writers who chronicle history from the center of power, and there are writers who record it from the margins, turning displacement itself into a vantage point. Teffi, born Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya in 1872, belonged firmly to the latter. Known in her lifetime as a humorist, satirist, and chronicler of Russian émigré life, she hasContinue reading “Teffi: Wit, Exile, and the Art of Survival”
Slim Aarons: The Man Who Photographed the Good Life
“Attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.” Slim Aarons’ pithy description of his own work became both motto and myth. For decades, he chronicled the leisure class — sun-dappled heiresses in Palm Beach, bronzed movie stars in Palm Springs, aristocrats lounging on the Côte d’Azur. His images became shorthand for mid-century glamour: candid yetContinue reading “Slim Aarons: The Man Who Photographed the Good Life”
Kelly Wearstler: The Queen of Californian Cool
For more than two decades, Kelly Wearstler has been rewriting the language of American interiors. Her aesthetic — maximal yet disciplined, glamorous yet grounded — has defined a generation of design. From boutique hotels to celebrity homes, furniture lines to Instagram feeds, Wearstler has built a career that is at once wildly eclectic and meticulouslyContinue reading “Kelly Wearstler: The Queen of Californian Cool”
Singles and the Soundtrack of the 1990s
Before Reality Bites defined Generation X in cinema, Cameron Crowe’s Singles (1992) caught the mood of a subculture just as it was cresting into the mainstream: grunge. Set in Seattle at the dawn of the decade, the film is less a tight narrative than an ensemble sketch, drifting between the apartments, cafés, and concert hallsContinue reading “Singles and the Soundtrack of the 1990s”
Reality Bites and the Birth of Generation X on Screen
When Reality Bites premiered in 1994, it was marketed as a romantic comedy about recent college graduates stumbling into adulthood. But in hindsight, it was more than that: it was the first Hollywood film to hold a mirror to Generation X, capturing both its cynicism and its yearning, its distrust of institutions and its cravingContinue reading “Reality Bites and the Birth of Generation X on Screen”
Light in Color: The History of Stained Glass
For over a thousand years, stained glass has transformed light into story. From the vast rose windows of Gothic cathedrals to the jewel-like panels of Art Nouveau townhouses, it is a medium that is both art and architecture, both sacred and secular. Its history is a chronicle of craftsmanship, theology, and design — a historyContinue reading “Light in Color: The History of Stained Glass”
My World of Interiors 