Happy Monday! Porthault Sale is On!

I love Porthault sheets and towels.  In my last post on Givenchy's guest bedroom for Mrs. Mellon, Givenchy had Mrs. Mellon's bed ready and waiting with white Porthualt sheets sprigged with blue flowers.  The Duchess of Windsor loved Porthault sheets adorned with a generous amount of embroidery and a copious amount of coronets : )  The artist Jacqueline Duheme painted Jackie Kennedy resting up in London ensconced comfortably in a lovely set of pink and white Porthault sheets.  And lest you think Porthault is just for grande dames, those arbiters of cool, Inez van Lamswerde and Vinoodh Matadin love Porthault sheets for their home and even for their ad campaigns.

And I especially love Porthault sheets and towels on sale!

Jacqueline Duheme 'Resting Up, London'

Duchess of Windsor's Porthault sheets

Photo from Inez's Instagram

Inez and Vinoodh ad campaign for their jean collaboration with Frame Denim.

xo, Juliana

Givenchy's Bedroom and the Bunny Guest Room

I don't know about you but I spend a lot of time in my bedroom.  It is a peaceful place, next to my bathroom where my every morning and every evening is spent amidst elixirs and creams and it is near to my closet.  Bedrooms are important, it is where kids, dogs and bunnies all pile onto your bed, you can read a book, catch up on magazines, cuddle next to your husband, putter around in your closet, discover things you had forgotten about, and at the end of a long day tuck yourself into bed in between Porthault or John Robshaw sheets, relax and dream...  one of the things I dream about and read about are bedrooms.  Two bedrooms I love are in the South of France in Le Clos Fiorentina.

Le Clos Fiorentina has a very storied past which I am sure you know all about.  Since 1985 it has been owned by the retired couturier, Hubert de Givenchy.  Givenchy's bedroom is an oasis of beautiful calm in shades of white, a pale light floor and one of my favorite things about this room is the bench at the end of the bed covered in books.  C'est parfait!

The photo above is a little too yellow and I think the one below is probably a little more accurate.

The other bedroom I adore for its pretty calm and beauty is the guest bedroom Givenchy had made for his great friend and fellow tastemaker, Mrs. Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon.  Mrs. Mellon's room has a canopy bed with crisp blue and white Porthault sheets and a pretty pink chair with a blue pillow.

It is a restful calm place - just as a bedroom should be.  And it has a lovely bath too!

Don't you just love the lion head faucet, the unusual blue and white rattan basket and the linen closet lined in wallpaper with neatly folded stacks of linens and towels.

xo, Juliana

A Tantalizing Glimpse: Bunny Mellon's Plane

I was just speaking to a friend recently about Bunny Mellon's private plane and how curious we were about the interior of the plane.  Were there baskets, hats, a Rothko??  Here is a tantalizing glimpse at Mrs. Mellon's plane:

Bunny Mellon's private plane.  Image from Sotheby's.

xo, Juliana

Bunny Mellon's Well Appointed Desk

There are many wonderful things in the upcoming Bunny Mellon auction at Sotheby's but some of my favorite pieces are Mrs. Mellon's desk accessories.

Rachel 'Bunny' Lambert's very well appointed desk:

A group of gold and bamboo pens by Cartier:

A gold and agate bowl by Schlumberger:

A gold sea shell clock by Schlumberger:

A sodalite, gold and emerald letter opener with an agate and gold letter opener:

A gold sea urchin clock by Schlumberger:

A pair of gold and lapis lazuli picture frames:

A pair of Schlumberger pens, one with coral accents:

A gold pearl and diamond box inscribed ' Happy Anniversary Darling Bun, 1 May 1977'

and I believe Mrs. Mellon had this rock crystal and sodalite rhinoceros by Fulco di Verdua on a mantle but I would keep it on my desk:

Collection of Bunny Mellon.  All photos from Sotheby's.

xo, Juliana

Bunny Mellon Style

I am sure you know, Cristóbal Balenciaga did the complete wardrobe of Madame Bunny Mellon until he retired and Hubert de Givenchy took over - Mrs. Mellon even had her own atelier in Maison Givenchy.

"She was very shy, very timid.  I never thought she would order any clothes from me.  But the next collection, we sent off sketches and samples and she ordered a lot of clothes."

Givenchy

Givenchy even made her gardening hats - which is really the ne plus extra in chic don't you think...

"I made hats in denim, and jean, and cotton.  Because Bunny bought in quantity.  And sometimes I would say to her, 'Bunny why do you need so many?'  And she'd say, 'Because I might lose it.'"

Givenchy

So, as I was reading and looking through the catalogs last night, I saw a photo of Mrs. Mellon that I had not seen before and fell in love with how chic and classic she looked in this particular photo:

I was very fortunate to have bought a couple of Mrs. Mellon's Balenciaga's a few years ago for RARE vintage and you can see them here and here.

xo, Juliana

Bunny Mellon and I

Tomorrow the preview starts at Sotheby's for the Bunny Mellon sale and I am soooo excited to see Mrs. Mellon's collection!  Sadly, none of Mrs. Mellon's famed Balenciaga and Givenchy wardrobe is included in the sale but I did see a bag in the catalog that I am sure was custom made for Bunny Mellon by her great friend and couturier, Hubert de Givenchy.  

The bag has the name of the Mellon's Virgina home, Oak Spring Farm, and the reason why I strongly suspect it is Givenchy, because Givenchy made all of her wardrobe and...

This is my Givenchy bag which had belonged to my husband's grandmother.  It has always been my favorite summer bag and now I love it even more that I know the very discreet and very chic Bunny Mellon was carrying a similar bag.

xo, Juliana

RARE vintage is in... Antigua with Bunny Mellon

Another in my Sunday (more occasional then I care like to admit) RARE vintage is in the house of... series.  This time we are in Antigua with the much admired and most discreet Mrs. Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon.   (Don't you wish Mrs. Mellon would open up the door to her house just a little bit more?  I was so happy for the 2010 Vanity Fair article, but would love to see and to know a  little more...)

In March 2012 the centenarian, Bunny Mellon, famed for designing the White House Rose Garden, her ne plus ultra in good taste and her vast wardrobe of Balenciaga.  In 2010 Mrs. Mellon listed her house in Antigua for sale.  

Here is a remembrance of the Antigua house as seen by Paul Mellon, who seemed in awe of his wife's knowledge of art, landscaping and way with making a comfortable home...

"The house itself is reminiscent of an old West Indian plantation house.  It has an open plan of rooms and courtyards, so that wherever you are standing you enjoy a view into a brick paved courtyard, filled with lime trees, breadfruit and olives.

There is an indescribable feeling of peace, with warm air softly cooled by trade winds.

Dinner is in the candlelit dining room.  A huge bowl of tropical fruit serves as a centerpiece on the table and the warm night air is filled with the sound of tree frogs and the surf breaking on the beach a hundred feet below.  (Sounds heavenly doesn't it?!)

Cora will have prepared a delicious meal.  Periodic shrieks of laughter emanate from the kitchen as the staff watches The Jeffersons on Antiguan television.

After a game of Scrabble, it is bedtime.  I blow out the candles and the guests leave to walk under the acacia and black willow tress to their rooms in the nearby guesthouse while I blow out the candles.

(The painted wood floor was favorite motif of Bunny Mellon's inspired by 18th century Swedish country houses.  I believe the floor was painted by Paul Leonard who also worked on the interiors of Mrs. Mellon's homes in Upperville, Virgina and in Oyster Harbors, Massachusetts.)

The house was built by the late Page Cross and he did an outstanding job but it was very much a collaborative effort with Bunny, whose hand can be seen everywhere." Paul Mellon

I am certain that this glimpse into a library at the Antigua estate is from 'the hand of Bunny'.  Libraries were enormously important to both of the Mellons and the famed library at the Virgina estate, counts more then 10,000 books in its collection - as well as a large yellow Rothko.  

It is striking to me how real this holiday home seems - not done by a decorator but by an involved and intelligent woman, who in the afternoons may have looked much like this as she planned the garden...

Text from Reflections in a Silver Spoon.  Paul Mellon.