Carolyne Roehm's Constant Thread

With Carolyne Roehm at her book party in Susan Gutfreund's Fifth Avenue home, and the cover of her gorgeous new book.
     Carolyne Roehm, a longtime friend of this blog, has a new book out called Design & Style: A Constant Thread. Besides being impressively large and heavy (you could do bicep curls with this thing), it's unusual for Carolyne, who has produced twelve books, because this one is largely autobiographical.
     We caught up with Carolyne a few years back at home and did two video interviews on the blog when she published her book A Passion for Interiors. Her living room, with its double height ceilings and brown velvet walls, is I think the most beautiful I've been in. Two years later we did a video with Carolyne in the New York City flower district for her book Flowers.
     Throwback to a book party past –

   For this book, Carolyne's friend Susan Gutfreund hosted a party in her renowned apartment on Fifth Avenue, and that was a real treat. The Fifth Avenue building was designed by architect Rosario Candela, who I recently wrote about for Architectural Digest. The stunning apartment was decorated by Henri Samuel, who was the subject of a book by Emily Eerdmans Evans, which I wrote about here on the blog. Candles flickered in the long salon facing Fifth Avenue where the party was held, and we had the chance to duck into the celebrated Winter Garden room, which is decorated in tones of yellow and green and pink.

    Carolyne is dedicated to beauty and her books have been about her expertise and passions in decorating, gardening, fashion and entertaining. With this book she combines them all and explores how everything she does, from her fashion designs to setting a table to arranging flowers, is inspired by her consistent taste and style - her constant thread. This book is unique too because she writes about her personal life experience. 
Carolyne at home in the 80s and her gorgeous peonies –

Joyful tulips inspired this Roehm design –

     Carolyne Jane Smith grew up in a Missouri farm town and was called Janie Smith until she decided to go by her first name and married Axel Roehm. She later married Henry Kravis, the Wall Street financier, who invested in her designer fashion collection. For ten years at the height of the rollicking 80s the couple were the toast of the town. But in the early 90s came divorce, her decision to close her fashion company and an unsuccessful attempt to start a catalogue business. Carolyne writes that, "there were moments in which I genuinely believed I wouldn't find the strength or the will to continue."
      As an escape, she decided to go to a college in England to study Shakespeare's tragedies, thinking that "the Bard might help me understand what the hell had gone wrong with my life." She tells a funny story about being locked out of the college dorm while taking a shower and hanging naked by her fingertips off a windowsill three stories above ground. There were regrets about her decision to close her fashion business and walk away from her catalogue venture. In Paris she had an unpaid internship at the legendary flower shop Moulié Fleurs and had the idea to create an everyday, how-to-book about flowers.
     In one of her designs –

Carolyne in Chanel and one of her creative gift wrappings –

    Carolyne returned and writes, "...now three years after I'd slunk out of New York, feeling in every meaningful way a failure to myself, I was back. At my lowest moment, I had gotten off the floor and taken a baby step, one that liberated me to move on to a new, and very rewarding enterprise. Once that happens, you never lose the faith that no matter how difficult life becomes, if you just take that step, things will get better. That was the great lesson of my wilderness years."
     Hers is a wonderful story of resilience and strength, and how creativity, beauty and art can rescue a person. A Passion for Flowers was the first of a dozen books. Carolyne is also an accomplished watercolor painter and she announced on Instagram (@carolyneroehm) that she has just launched a collection of Chinoiserie jewelry on her website. She designs and creates boundlessly without fear or limitation. I think these traits are in fact her constant thread. Cheers to Carolyne Roehm, a great inspiration.

A Video Trip to the Flower Market with Carolyne Roehm

The cover of Carolyne Roehm's new book. 

Carolyne Roehm, a wonderful friend of this blog, has just published a sumptuous new book called "Flowers". You may remember that TD and I visited Carolyne in her amazing apartment for a video interview when she published her last book two years ago called "A Passion for Interiors". That post is the third most popular post ever on the blog. Then we attended her swell book party at the Carlton Hobbs gallery which is one if the most beautiful places in the city. Recently, we stopped by Carolyne's to celebrate the publication of Nathan Turner's  book "American Style".

With her new book, her eleventh, Carolyne has outdone herself. It's over sized, it's heavy, it's gorgeous. Carolyne has a wonderfully elegant style which is all her own, and this book features flowers right out of her own lush gardens which she has arranged and photographed herself. The result is an objet d'art which you want to leave open and view continually. 
I recently met Carolyne in the New York City Flower District on West 28th Street for a video interview which you will find at the end of this post. But first, last week there was a book party at Carlton Hobbs! 

Again the former Vanderbilt mansion provided the perfect setting, and Carolyne enlisted the help of some friends for the party. Sculptor Vladimir Kanevsky crafts delicate flowers out of fine porcelain, and Carolyne asked him to reproduce her flowers in porcelain. Some of the results can be seen on the fireplace mantle and table here. The tulips on the table replicate the book's cover. These pale, poetic creations truly did look real. (click on photos to enlarge)

Doors in the landing at the top of the stairs were lined with watercolors by artist Page Lee Hufty. Here, Carolyne's red and white tulips were interpreted in graceful paint.


Downstairs in a side gallery, stacks of "Flowers" were at home with antiques and art.

Bright flowers decorated the loo, too.

I leafed through the book and later scanned some of my favorite photos. This book is one big meditation on the beauty of flowers.

A colorful bouquet of lilacs, viburnum and tulips captures the joy of spring -

A profusion of luscious peonies -

Carolyne arranged summer flowers in a Majorca vase -

A celebration of autumn dahlias -

Happily, Carolyne agreed to talk one morning in the Flower District about her love of flowers. She met me, with my good friend Scott Brasher who made this video, at 8 a.m. when the area is bustling with business and noise. I hope you enjoy this visit with Carolyne –

Carolyne Roehm's Party for Nathan Turner

The scene inside Carolyne Roehm's stunning apartment with the city lights beyond.

Decorator Nathan Turner has a new book out called Nathan Turner's American Style, and TD and I were recently invited to a party at Carolyne Roehm's beautiful apartment to celebrate its publication. You remember Carolyne Roehm's beautiful apartment; TD and I spend an afternoon there when Carolyne herself was publishing a book, and made a video (or two). That post about Carolyne is the third most popular post of all time on the blog, followed only by Coco Chanel and Marella Agnelli. And we have a new treat featuring Carolyne coming up soon on the blog.

I admired Nathan Turner's work from what I had seen on the tv reality show Million Dollar Decorator; it looked enticing and inviting and not over the top. On the way into the party, we passed Kyle Maclachlan and his wife Desiree Gruber who were leaving. Our hostess Carolyne looked glamorous and gave a warm toast to the author. The soaring two-story living room was illuminated with candles. We chatted with people and turned around to see Sarah Jessica Parker who was talking excitedly with friends. It was fun to see her there. Not tall, messy pony tail, dark smokey eye makeup. It looked like she was wearing a white Oscar de la Renta dress with gun metal grey sequins, with black bra straps showing underneath, and towering tall black what-looked-like Manolo Blahnik pumps. She was a wonderful combination of high and low style, elegance and ease.

Which brings us to Nathan Turner. I found the author in a corner, wearing a tweed suit and an affable smile. I asked him about his American style. "I feel like I am very American," he said. "I grew up in northern California and my mother's family had a ranch. I drive a Ford pick-up truck. We Americans are a bit laid back. It's a barefoot, fuss-free style." 

Nathan's book celebrates his decorating projects in the city, in the country, and at the beach. His work is colorful and casual, and he has a good eye for mixing different elements together to create rooms that are sophisticated yet comfortable, which is the hallmark of American design. His interiors have an ease and a natural quality which make them friendly and appealing. In his book he writes,"My approach to decorating and entertaining is all about finding new ways to live and celebrate with low effort and high style." I like his thinking.

Marbles and Champagne

B.B with antiques dealer extraordinaire Carlton Hobbs (photo by Ann Watt)

It's sixteen degrees today in New York, so it's a good time to update the blog. This past Wednesday night I had the pleasure of being invited to Carlton Hobbs for a talk and a reception. You remember Carlton – I visited his gallery, a former Vanderbilt mansion, in December after Carolyne Roehm's book party was held there. The event the other night was in honor of the opening of his new antiques show called "Inspired by Antiquity," which is composed of eighteenth and nineteenth century furniture and objects that were inspired by classical Greece and Rome. The exhibition is up until February 18th, weekdays 10am-5pm, and by appointment on weekends, at 60 East 93rd Street.

Before the opening reception on Wednesday night, guests were invited to attend a special lecture given by Tim Knox, the Director of Sir John Soane's Museum in London. Have you been there? TD and I have been to London twice, and missed this museum which I regret. Next time!

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was an English architect who specialized in the Neo-classical style.

Soane bought a house at 12 Lincoln's Inn Fields in London in 1792 and filled it with his collections of antiquities.

Before he died he bequeathed the house and its collections to the British nation to be made into a museum of architecture, and so the house museum is unchanged today. On the first Tuesday of every month, it's lit for visitors only by candlelight. That would be heavenly.
Soane's collection of sculpture is renowned. He famously piled it all in for a dramatic effect.

Which brings us to the subject of Tim Knox's lecture, "In Marble Halls." Rows of black chairs were set up in an upstairs gallery and guests squeezed in.

The entertaining lecture chronicled English "marble mania" in the eighteenth century when the wealthy amassed huge collections of Graeco-Roman marble sculptures. This breezy slide-show tour through the great country houses of England featured pictures of long, long halls or galleries with niches in the walls where sculptures stood over which were hung old master paintings. Kind of dreamy.
Tim Knox showed this painting by Johann Zoffany which illustrates collector Charles Townley seated and surrounded by an imaginary arrangement of his sculptures. It's such an unfamiliar idea to us in the United States, but such a romantic premise.

The lecture covered the eighteenth century so it didn't even reach the nineteenth century when the Devonshires were collecting sculpture at Chatsworth.

I am still reading the Duchess of Devonshire's autobiography and still loving it (my favorite new part is her recollection of attending John F. Kennedy's inauguration).
The sculpture gallery at Chatsworth was featured in the Pride & Prejudice movie, standing in for Mr. Darcy's home called Pemberley. Krya Knightley as Lizzie Bennet absorbs the wonder of the classical sculptures.

Her pale cotton dress matches the glowing marbles. Her eyes grow wide in amazement. It's a beautiful scene.

When the lecture was over, Tim Knox invited guests to stay for Ruinart champagne which was Sir John Soane's favorite, and first made in 1729. Guests rushed down Mrs. Vanderbilt's staircase to the reception below.

A woman came up to me and said, "Are you Carlton Hobbs? I was told to look for the tallest man in the room." I met Tim Knox and said hello to some friends including Robert Rufino from Architectural Digest and David Patrick Columbia from New York Social Diary.com – read his report here. Back upstairs I found Carlton who encouraged me to pick up an exhibition catalogue.
It turned out to be a beautiful hard cover book

which describes the treasures of the show, many of which I wrote about in December.

It's a lovely read on a cold winter day.

Christmas at Carlton Hobbs

Detail of a giltwood mirror made in Cairo, 1820.

Darlings, you might remember that Carolyne Roehm hosted her book party at Carlton Hobbs, the antiques dealer who is housed in a former Vanderbilt mansion on East 93rd Street. I decided that as a Christmas present to myself, I would return for a visit with Carlton himself to get a closer look at the house and his antiques.

The manse was built in 1930 by Virginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt. Here she is in a portrait by Boldini:

When she built the house she was already divorced from Mr. William Kissam Vanderbilt II:

Together they had a son William III who died in a car accident, and two daughters, Consuelo and Muriel Vanderbilt:

Mrs. Vanderbilt herself was independently wealthy, as her father, James Fair Graham, an Irish immigrant, made a fortune from one of the richest silver finds in history in Nevada. She and her sister Theresa Fair built several grand houses. For her Manhattan home she enlisted one of the most famous architects of the day, John Russell Pope, to construct a limestone neoclassical French style mansion which would be happily at home in Paris.


In 2002, London-based antiques dealer Carlton Hobbs bought the building and spent four years, with the help of his managing director Stefanie Rinza, perfectly restoring it.
Let's ring the bell.

Inside, Carlton and Stefanie give me a tour through the riches. Carlton is known for his unusual British and European antiques and art mainly from the 17th - 19th centuries. Here is the entrance hall, spotted with treasures.

Mrs. Vanderbilt's dining room was completely lined in marble and had big double doors for large crowds. It's now beautifully refurbished, and there one finds this carved wood table from Italy gilded in pure gold leaf. From around 1770, the fine carving evokes the glory of imperial Rome.

The second floor offers more galleries so up Mrs. Vanderbilt's staircase we go.

The view from the stairs:

Here is Carlton's current piece de resistance: it's an entire room from an 18th century French mansion, including paneling, bookcases and chimney piece. This library from the Hotel Gaulin in Dijon, France, was built in 1775. Can't you just picture Marie Antoinette wandering through?

It was most recently owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which divested of it. The handcarvings of lime wood and pear are poetic, and the white tinted glaze has faded to a dreamy beige.

The tops of the book shelves are decorated with free standing vases carved in three different designs.

Carlton says he has a number of suitors interested in the room. Price: $3,800.000.

In the adjoining room hangs this gold and silver gilt mirror from 1820. It was made for the palace in Cairo and bears the arms of Pasha Mohammad Ali, the creator of modern Egypt. Carlton, pictured in the mirror's reflection, likes how it incorporates both Middle Eastern and European design elements.

The opposite gallery is the largest room in the house, and Carlton reports that it was Mrs. Vanderbilt's ballroom. Here is the view out to 93rd Street.

The gallery includes this really unusual German object from 1790. It's cork facade is painted to evoke decay and rotting and the passage of time. But these cork doors swing back to reveal inside

the most luxurious mahogany and gilded bronze secretaire. The glossy richness hidden within the humble exterior was breathtaking. Price: $1,450,000.

I loved this bureau, one of a pair, made of ebony and decorated with gilt brass and tortoiseshell. Designed for Carlton House, the home of the Prince Regent, later King George IV, it's furniture as jewelry: sparkling, festive, and ornate.

In the center hall sat this couch of gold gilded over lime. It reminded me of the couch we sat on in Carolyne Roehm's living room.

This English couch from 1805 is finished with individual tassels swinging at the bottom like fringe on a dress.

Then Carlton took me up to the third floor of the house which was Mrs. Vanderbilt's living quarters. Though the public spaces are quite grand, her private quarters, including her sitting room, bedroom, and bathroom, were smaller and more intimate. The rooms are now filled with more of Carlton's treasures, and as dusk fell it was like wandering through the most enchanting forgotten rooms. It left me with visions of days gone by dancing in my head. The tour really was a holiday treat.

I hope you enjoyed it too, and I am wishing you the very best for this holiday season and the coming new year!