Labels:
carolina herrera,
chic at work
Carolina Herrera: Chic at Work
Carolina Herrera: Chic at Work
Labels:
carolina herrera,
chic at work
Chic Sophistication at Carolina Herrera
There are occasionally moments in my life in New York when I feel like I want to pinch myself to make sure they are real and attending Carolina Herrera's Fall 2010 fashion show yesterday morning was one of them. It was definitely a dream come true and also one that didn't disappoint. It's one thing to check out the photos online after a show but it's quite different to experience it in person and watch the movement of the clothes and hear the music. It was seriously magical!Mrs. Herrera for once didn't mention an artist or photographer in her program notes as the inspiration for her collection. Instead, it was a woman with "alluring confidence" who inspired her for Fall 2010. "A sophisticated feminine attitude and striking details reveal an integrity to luxury." And while she says it was a woman who inspired her, I couldn't help but think of her living room when I saw the coat above come down the runway. Maybe the confident woman who inspired her also lives in a fabulous home like herself. Actually, I can bet on it! Enjoy!
Photos from Style.com
Chic Cards
If you still have thank you cards to write for all the Christmas presents you received, then I suggest that you order these stunningly beautiful notecards featuring the artwork of Jeremiah Goodman. I received a lovely email yesterday from gallery owner Dean Rhys Morgan about the notecards after he found my blog post on Carolina Herrera and Jeremiah Goodman. Her sitting room (above) is one of the 16 different images included in the set that he sells on his site. I was also excited to discover that Mr. Rhys Morgan also sells prints by Jeremiah Goodman, Kenneth Paul Block and Jay Hyde Crawford among others. They would all make a chic present to yourself to start the New Year or to apologize to someone if your behavior gets out of hand tonight! Happy New Year!
Like Mother Like Daughter
I was looking for this portrait of Patricia Herrera in her mother, Carolina Herrera's red toile bedroom for a while and I finally found it on photographer Jonathan Becker's website. It's actually the first photo, as it should be. It's iconic and beautiful and makes me want to upholster something in toile.
Looks like Carolina Herrera was also inspired by her mother's bedroom and the dress. She used the blue Le Coq toile by Pierre Frey in the master bedroom of her home in central Spain.
Mrs. Herrera also upholstered the sitting room of her Upper East Side townhouse in blue stripes by Ian Mankin in London. I used to live near the townhouse when I first moved to New York and seeing Mrs. Herrrera shopping on Madison Avenue or walking her dogs over to Central Park was the highlight of my day. She really is the chicest woman alive!
Her daughter Carolina Herrera Junior also upholstered the walls of her apartment in Madrid in the same stripes but in red. I love how she reversed the colors in both her homes.
This sweet portrait of the Carolina Senior and Junior also resided in her Madrid apartment that she later shared with her husband during the week. On the weekends, they would decamp to his estate in Extremadura which Carolina Junior said reminded her of growing up in Venezuela.
It was this beautiful estate that was featured in the Fall/Winter 2007 issue of Vogue Living. I would gladly live in the middle of nowhere in Central Spain too if it looked like this! Carolina Herrera Junior's husband is a retired bullfighter and you can see his ring in the background in this photo.
The exterior of the estate looks very inviting!
The homes in this area of Spain are constructed with blocks of stone to keep them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. 
Carolina Herrera Junior's studio has a table covered in a Suzani that reminds me of the fabric in her Madrid apartment. The toile on the walls is from Quadrille.
In the detail, you can see a photo of one of their dogs in New York.
A daybed is upholstered in more stripes from Ian Mankin and the Suzani fabric for the curtains came from Madrid.
Carolina enjoys decorating and does everything herself.
This room looks like a lovely place to escape the mid-day heat in Spain!
I love this blue lamp and the silver trays on another table in the same room.
I also love the blue color in the guest bathroom and that she painted the tub to match the walls!
Clearly, the antlers denote this as the old hunting lodge on the property.
Bulls that were killed by her husband's grandfather in the ring in 1902 line the walls inside the hunting lodge.
You know the property must be large since they specially built a chapel on it for their wedding!
Carolina asked her friend, the artist Konstantin Kakanias to decorate the interior of the chapel. I don't Mrs. Herrera's townhouse in New York has a chapel but it's clear that the style apple doesn't fall far from the tree. But then again, I can't imagine her children growing up in her fabulous home and not having her chic taste rub off on them. And more importantly, I wonder if she'd like to adopt me!Photos by Jonathan Becker, Eric Cahan and Francois Halard
Labels:
carolina herrera,
carolina herrera junior,
madrid,
new york,
spain
Architectural Inspiration
While Derek Lam may have been influence by 20th-century interiors, Carolina Herrera said that she was influenced by 18th-century architectural details. These took shape as belts, bag straps, hair accessories and shoes all fabricated in copper. There was no mood board photo so I don't know exactly where she found this inspiration so I've been wondering if it was in a book, along her world travels or perhaps maybe she took a walk through the new Wrightsman Galleries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. If anyone has the answer, please let us know!
Photos from Style.com
Labels:
carolina herrera,
fashion,
inspiration
Carolina in the Country
Instead of citing an artist as inpsiration as is usually the case, Carolina Herrera looked to the great out doors for her Fall 2008 collection. There were tweeds and windowpane plaids, fur and feathers, as well as her signature evening dresses. The collection was beautiful but perhaps a bit overstyled. The chapeaux made the models look as if they might rob from the rich to give to the poor but runway shows are always a bit more fantasy than reality.
If anyone had looked closely, Carolina Herrera Baez (above Center) seemed to be giving away a little of the theme with her green lace up wellies but it was a Harper's Bazaar profile of Anne and Mario Grauso at their Milbrook, New York weekend retreat that has me wondering if that might have been where Mrs. Herrera had found her inspiration. I'll explain in a minute.
As her program notes explained, the riding jackets were "to grab from the mudroom, over a crinkle chiffon gown for an elegant dinner on the farm." Exactly how Mrs. Grauso had been photographed right down to the Carolina Herrera dress and wellies in the mudroom.
For those of you don't know, Mario Grauso is the president of the fashion division of the Puig Group, which owns Carolina Herrera and also Nina Ricci, and his wife is a serious shopper as well as a friend of Mrs. Herrera of course. She can often be seen wearing her clothing as she is above with her husband and dogs in their gazebo.
The exterior of their 1780 farmhouse sits on 19-acres of land in a quiet area of Millbrook, New York, just a 90-minute drive from New York City. The Grausos have decorated their home with rich, comfortable pieces from Lars Bolander and Charlotte Moss, paintings by Walton Ford, and prints from their extensive photography collection, which includes images by Bruce Weber, Irving Penn, and Cindy Sherman.
Anne prunes flowers in the living room while wearing a fox-trimmed sweater, blouse, and skirt, by Carolina Herrera.
Son Harry's collection of tortoise shells from J.F. Chen adorn the mantle.
A 19th-century French metal chandelier from J.F. Chen in Los Angeles brightens their French feeling dining room.
A George Smith wool screen stands behind their bed, while a Nina Ricci dress hangs on the door.
A faulous vintage shagreen box from Charlotte Moss holds all of Anne's jewelry.
Anne loves to keep evening bags including her favorites from VBH and Judith Leiber where she can see them in a silver bowl. A fun idea for anyone to emulate.
And if the house and clothes weren't enough to make you jealous, Mrs. Grauso's collection of Hermes bags might really make you hate her!But it's nice that they realized that they needed a place to really getaway from it all on the weekends instead of getting caught up in the social scence of the Hamptons!
Labels:
carolina herrera,
fashion,
new york
