Three Pots of Inspiration: pretty clothes, Viennese villas, and donkey-shaped doorknobs.
Europeans open doors more creatively than the rest of us plebeians.
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All photographs and words here are my own, unless otherwise stated. More from me + Absolument can be found in these places:
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The mind of a visual thinker (hi!) is PACKED with photographs, colors, textures, and various oddities—both real and imagined. While Absolument is always a snapshot of what’s skipping around in my head, I want this writing to hyper-reflect what’s going on up there right now. Currently, the spotlight is on: elevated clothing collections, admiring small details of architecture, and some enjoyable site-specific writings.
Previous pots of inspiration:
Three Clothing Brands I want in my *~French armoire~*:
*Kind of like that snooty joke of “it’s not real champagne unless it’s from the Champagne region of France,” I feel like my armoire is a real armoire because it’s more French than I’ll ever be.
Last week, I was a guest on
and ’s , sharing five links of things I am loving—read it here! I mentioned the clothing brand Maria Stanley:For a dose of contemporary creativity, I like to peek at designer Maria Stanley's photo series. It’s a secret stash of “It” girls, featuring vibrant creators like artist Zella Day, model and magazine editor Louise Follain, and chef Loria Stern, all wearing Maria’s beautiful clothing.
Cawley Studio represents a *big aspirations* kind of wardrobe for me. This collection has elements of how I have been dressing myself over the last couple of years, but way more elevated in every way. They’re having a sample sale right now…
Also, if I could redo our wedding, I’d wear one of Cawley’s bridal gowns—either the Song or Bells Dress.
Artisanal Co., a Japanese womenswear company, has a brand called ROBE de PEAU that feels closely aligned with how my winter wardrobe has developed. Gathered skirts, turtlenecks under dresses, white socks with black Mary Janes—all with an overall trapezoidal silhouette.
Three Pieces of Writing:
I keep spotting the Frank O’Hara poem, Having a Coke with You, all over the place. I immediately fell in love with it because the first line mentions the Basque towns that I live surrounded by. Hendaye is where my in-laws live, San Sebastian is my home airport, Biarritz and Bayonne sit to the north my teeny town of 6,000 inhabitants, about fifteen minutes by car.
Then! What! He mentions some of my favorite art movements, the all-important Nude Descending a Staircase, and punctuates the poem with an inside joke about the phallic sculpture at Peggy Guggenheim’s house—something that gave me plenty of laughter during my honeymoon visit to Venice.
This led me to my usual bout of curiosity: “Who the heck is Frank O’Hara?” I picked up an edited selection of his poems and have been reading them before bed this month. Here are three that I thought you’d enjoy.
Having a Coke with You
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectaclesand the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together for the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse
it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it
Otto Wagner’s Villa in Vienna, as covered by The World of Interiors. Emma Becque writes:
“Houses don’t get any more opulent than Otto Wagner’s storied villa in Vienna, which has been scene to scandal and drama on an operatic scale over the past 130-plus years. It also forms an incredible, complex counterpoint, with the great architect’s Palladian precision harmonizing with all the gilded fantasia added by flamboyant Ernst Fuchs, the last inhabitant.”
London interior designer Beata Heuman—who I admire in every possible way—was commissioned to redesign the Carl Eldhs Ateljémuseum, a Stockholm-based gallery and atelier of the sculptor. The Financial Times covered the redesign:
“Heuman could sense the artist’s presence. ‘Carl Eldh’s personality comes through in so many ingenious small solutions, like the rustic shelves and little nostalgic pieces he kept. It’s the closest thing to time travel,’ she continues. ‘And the smell of the tarred wood is amazing.’”
Three doorknobs I’ve met and loved immediately:
As an art/architecture historian who is still marveling over the architectural details of historically-dense Europe, I’d say that my brain thinks about doorknobs more than the average person’s brain does. (I know, I know—it isn’t a contest!) I saw this Arne Jacobson 1950s doorknob from his design of a Danish town hall and it made me wonder: what are three handles I can remember vividly from the sort-of-recent past?
Honorable mention: my own front door!!! How can you not be inspired while coming home to your front door hardware that evokes a time older than your home country? I’m still trying to date our building, but I can’t find a definitive answer. Mid-16th century, like the church next door?
I aaaaalways, always, always love hearing from you whenever you decide to leave a comment! Thank you for reading.
Other Notes:
I’m a new contributor to
and my introductory writing is live! This will be a monthly escape to share more about my experience immigrating to/living in France.
Catching you up on the past month of Absolument:
**
Kelsey Rose
Oh, such beauty, such elegance.
I want to move into those rooms.
Wearing the clothes you've featured.
Sitting calmly, alone.
Reading the Gertrude Stein poem,
And deep in thought.
merci mille fois Kelsey Rose
et bienvenue à MaVieFrancaise - MyFrenchLife Magazine (https:/MyFrenchLife.org)
Judy
Donkeys are my favorite animals and that door knob has me spiraling. 😂😂😂