Thursday, April 21, 2011

If The Lampshade Fits...


It's a known fact that there are two ways that people of style spend their money: Those who put in on their backs, or those who spend it on their homes. It's a rare and wonderful thing when you can afford to do both.

If you can have it both ways, check out fashion designer Mary Katrantzou, who describes her work as, "Surreal feats of imagination, engineered around the female figure and realized with hyper-real clarity,"

Style.Com says that her fantastic prints of interior-exterior decoration put "the room on the woman."

Katrantzou adds trompe l'oeil interior details to the clothes. A peplum creates a portrait neckline above a print of a window frame; swaths of chiffon flutter like curtains; skirts echo lampshades with dangling pendants of crystal, and wall sconces and chandeliers are reconfigured as necklaces.

So if the lampshade fits, wear it!





I would wear the jacket with jeans

I would wear this!


Necklace made from chandelier parts - Can you say DIY?



It may be a bit over-the-top. Helena Bohnam Carter and Vivenne Westwood would rock this. And I would love to try!

Do you remember interior designer Laurence Llewelyn Bowen from the old decorating BBC TV series Changing Rooms? Remember when he wore a floral print chintz suit? Talk about the drapes matching the carpet!

My friend, the interior designer Michael Pelkey once tricked out the interior of his Jeep with designer fabric on the car seats, and brush fringe trimmed pillows tossed in the cargo section in the back, and fancy carpet on the floorboards. It's a bit twee, but great fun and I love it!!!

6 comments:

nanne said...

some of it is a little over the top, but it's all really beautiful.

i am just so glad to see something fresh & new, rather than another rehashing of a previous decade's style.

thanks for posting this, valerie!

nanne in indiana by way of alabama

Sketch42 said...

Ive seen this in person, some of it is really fab!

Anonymous said...

Should we take these women to dinner?

littlebadwolf said...

buffet dinner only. surely these gowns don't allow for sitting down!

Year Old Birthday Party Ideas said...

I love those shoes! This is a fabulous post!

Nita Stacy said...

Talk about wearable art! Yes, Helena Bonham Carter would so wear these. I once drove a giant old faded gray oldsmobile lent to me by my father. I wanted to celebrate it's shabbiness by covering the seats in a floral fabric and hanging chandeliers inside and painting giant roses on the outside over the faded gray paint. He nixed the idea. But I thought it actually would have been fabulous...and if I'd owned the car...I so would have done it.