A Hodgepodge: hats with a historical lens, Jackie Kennedy as a lipstick, and swirled furniture goodness
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Everything is always functioning in a hectic way just before the holidays, so it seems like a fitting moment for another Hodgepodge writing. Get ready for: a moving family story (and store); unidentified Art Deco chairs, Jackie Kennedy as a lipstick, and some monumental Polaroids documenting architecture.
Previous Hodgepodge entries looked like this:
A Hodgepodge: the Musée de l'Orangerie's Matisses, ceiling paintings, and plentiful pinky promises.
A Hodgepodge: Noguchi's Miss Expanding Universe, Bode's lack of books, and Sahara Longe's paintings
Hats with a history
Marta Orlikowska, a Warsaw-based fiber artist (a title I’m giving her), operates “a small-scale knitwear studio” called Celestina Mode. She admits to drawing heavy inspiration from a personal connection: a 1960s Roman haberdashery shop. Marta explains, “The name is inspired by my partner’s grandmother, who ran a pasmanteria in Rome throughout her whole life from the 1960s. Her shop was placed on via dei Gracchi and called Celestina Mode. After listening to many stories about her fierce character, I’ve fallen in love with her a little bit, therefore deciding to continue her legacy.”
Marta, acting as today’s Celestina Mode, spent some months researching the qeleshe or plis, traditional Albanian hats. She sources and sells vintage ones, but also creates her own.
“This form has been handed down from Illyrian times and the height and shape of the cap varies from region to region. There are many ways to make the plis but it is always handmade. The most common way, in Kosovo, is using soap on the wool. I’m trying to bring back those techniques and shapes… Mine are first knitted by hand with raw Polish wool coming from Beskidy mountains. The wool is beaten and pressed until the strands become knotted around each other and then dried for a few days on a special form.”
This endeavor of Marta pulls at my heartstrings for all of the reasons you can probably imagine. There’s the historical lens of Albanian fashion, there’s the familial ties, the link between the original Celestina Mode shop in Italy and her own, and the fabrication of the knitwear itself. She’s mixing artistry with history, and doing it with so much heart. You can follow Celestina’s creations here.
Neptune Papers Visit Charles and Ray
I don’t write about my work often because I am incredibly protective of it, and I am acutely aware of the sensitivity of the collection. I’m the Archivist for the Eames Office, managing the legacy of designers Charles and Ray Eames alongside their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We consistently participate in unreal collaborations that I think/hope C+R would be proud of. With that comes one of my frequent responsibilities: selecting appropriate imagery for publications, films, and/or exhibitions.
Recently, Neptune Papers featured the Eames House in a touching story highlighting Charles and Ray’s admiration and intertwinement with photography— all with a focus on the Eames House. The camera, to the Eameses, was a tool for design and a communication device. The Eames House was an exercise in using industrial materials in a non-self-conscious way while creating a functional living and working space with spirit and intentionality. It’s deeply satisfying to admire their photographs of anything (they even made asphalt look interesting during a film for 11 minutes) but primarily, their Eames House images are some of the warmest taken.
I may be biased, but I recommend picking up a copy of the magazine just for this article alone. Here’s a little peek at some unpublished-until-now Polaroids that the Eameses took around their home, plus an early black-and-white kitchen photo that I always return to.
The mysterious chair
Jacopo Etro lives in his inherited Art Deco apartment in Paris alongside an unidentified chair that will haunt me until the end of time. We’re personifying this chair because it deserves it. Art Deco, chrome, swirls—ughhhhhhhhh. The trifecta of dangerously good furniture design!
Other notes:
Speaking of archiving, I became positively lost in the ARTFORUM digital archive. The 1969-70 covers are an ideal color palette.
I clicked on some issues randomly—whatever was speaking to me the loudest—and thought I’d share some links to articles. All of them from April 1969 | ABSTRACTION AND LITERALISM: REFLECTIONS ON STELLA AT THE MODERN | THE YEAR 1200 AT THE METROPOLITAN | VIENNESE EXPRESSIONISM | GORKY
Is it possible to purchase an ARTFORUM subscription to the 1960s? I wish.
The World of Interiors on this vintage doll-packaging for 1960s Revlon lipsticks. “The 4cm-high ‘Couturine’ dolls—miniature lipstick holders capped with a molded ‘porcelain-like’ female head with elongated shoulders, appropriately dressed in real fabrics and fur in a range of styles—were more than just beauty products, they were small works of art.”
I never imagined easily connecting the dots between Revlon and chinchilla fur. As Revlon said: “QUELLE FUN!” (French for: what fun!)
Spring-green and Mod forever. I’m a true believer in wearing bright colors throughout winter in order to preserve a sense of sunniness. Also, I think the world needs to be cured of its beige-itis. I’m sharing this mod coat in hopes that someone buys it before I can. I live in a town of 6,000 people and I have a thick accent in the ears of the locals, so I’m already foreign enough here! So, please save me, and add this to your vintage-inspired wardrobe.
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Give yourself gentleness and bright colors for the rest of the year! À tout, 2025 !
Kelsey Rose
Thank you so much for the mention! I just saw it!
The lipsticks are sooo perfect omg