Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Would You Turn Down The Cover of Architectural Digest?


This is my cover. Well not the whole thing. I just did the flowers and the photo styling for the photo shoot for the entire spread for the designer Timothy MacDonald. And I have another AD spread too, doing the styling and flowers for the designer Mary Meehan. Maybe one day I'll post that entire spread as an ode to New York decorators of yesteryear.
The reason I am showing you this, is because I read a sister bloginista's entry today at Decorno. The link is listed so just click it and read her article "Dear AD."
All the comments got me thinking. Oh yeah, about that drooling AND thinking thing. Decor blogs are eye candy for sure, but there's some good writing going on too, so if you stop to read, you just might have a thought in between drooling at the pretty pictures.
Anyhow, the comments were all a good old shit kicking bashing of AD, and with good reason.
If your eyesight is good enough to see the date on the cover shown, then I hate you, no I mean you can see that this is an issue from some years ago.
There was no fashion as decor happening then. No bloginistas. No Kellys; no Ruthies; no Jonathan Adlers; no eBay. Oh yeah, there was, but they were called Mrs. Goldstein (or our grandmothers or mothers), and a junk store or a flea market or a garage sale (where my mother or grandmother would never dream to shop). Or else AD did a spread on the actual homes of actual fashion designers like Geoffrey Beene or Bill Blass, mixing fashion and decor for the reader.
There were no fashion mags cross dressing as decor/design mags, like we have now with Domino, Elle Decor, O at Home, etc. Vogue and Harpers Bazaar included home decor editorials back then.
We had House Beautiful. We had House and Garden (way before it became the hip mag we all miss). And we had Architectural Digest.
As a young business woman with a design concern, I was thrilled to get anyone to print a picture of my work. It brought me a sense of pride, and it brought me business. Remember there were no digital cameras, no inter net, and a blog to self publish. Somebody had to ask you to be in a magazine.
Now everyone is an expert about design and decor; everyone is so savvy; everyone has an opinion. It's all been sped up, and distilled via HGTV and the inter net, and via the new fashion decor magazines as catalogs. We learn fast without having to do much leg work.
So for all the smarty pants bloginistas who hold their nose when they see AD, if AD, or a designer who gets a spread in AD, asked you to be in it, what would you say? No thank you I'll just wait for Debbie Needleman, or maybe for the editor of that Jesus magazine on the dentist's coffee table?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mariposa!

Wanted you to know I think it's a fabulous idea to have a RMS get together in NOLA for the 1st RMS show! I dearly love New Orleans.

Wanted you to know I was in your city for a few minutes yesterday. My husband is on the board of the Rail Road Musuem in our town and we flew to NOLA, boarded a 1950s renovated train car that is pulled by AMTrack and rode the rails back to Houston! We were pampered by the chef with lunch and a beautiful seated dinner in the gorgeous dining room on the train car. I thot about you & wanted you to know I waved as we left the city! Be a sweetie! Shelia (aka Picklepoo)

Visual Vamp said...

Well I hope you get back here in June darlin' Thanks for the comment...

Visual Vamp said...

I lifted this anon comment from Decorno - maybe it will get a converstaion going. It lay like a dead fish over at Decorno :-)

From anon: "...some of us laymen, sic., or Architects want a magazine that doesn't show knock offs or how the crochet'd caftan wearing, ebay antiquiarn turned a lovely street find into the be all end all chair of the moment".

Lisa (aka) French said...

Well love watching your blog one of my favorites~~~wanted you to go and check out the first room of a re-do another RMS'er and I are in the midst of~~~stay sweet;) French

Susie Q said...

Hm...never crocheted or worn a caftan but I do love me some ebay. : ) And yes. I have been referred to as an antiquarian. Ahem.
That said, I do envy you the AD cover. Heck, I would kill to have anything I did on the cover of Highlights, Road Kill Monthly or
Ebay Antiquarian.
*smile*

Hugs,
Sue

Anonymous said...

Sigh, I'm so out of it. What's wrong with Architectural Digest? I would think anyone would be thrilled to have their work included on or in that magazine.