Marino Moment: An über-Chic Affair

He has been called Pedro el Grande.  Don't be mistakenly fooled by his head-to-toe black leather outfit; a  rarified identity and a beckoning style that personified someone comfortably on top of their game:  Peter Marino is an internationally acclaimed and well sought-after architect and designer. He is an arbiter elegantiae of  modern luxury retail space, and notable on his list are; Chanel boutiques in Paris and New York, Louis Vuitton in Paris, Shanghai and Singapore, and Christian Dior in Paris and New York.  New York Magazine once wrote "the genius of a Marino's designed luxury retail space is that you move through it without being assaulted by anything specifically overwhelming and are instead overtaken by a feeling of affluence, efficiency, comfort, and calm."

Aside from modern luxury retail space, Peter have designed the private homes of super-rich like Bernard Arnault, David Koch, Laurence Graff, Stephen Schwarzman, and Middle Eastern royal family.

Below are pictures of interior space of private homes designed by Peter Marino, which was sourced variously form Architectural Digest.

Lacquered Therapy...

It is a snowing Monday, January 21, 2014, and the warmth of lacquered room is a welcomed relief. Stay warm and a measured pour of your favorite drink is delicately undiscouraged.

A Journeyed and Treasured Apartment of Howard Slatkin...

In my last entry, I mentioned that I  recently purchased Howard Slatkin's book "Fifth Avenue Style: A Designer's New York Apartment" and a book I highly recommend. I noted that Howard is to be congratulated for the excellent work and his "jeweled piece of interior" that he graciously shared with his readers.  

Here are some pictures to give you a sense of the interiors, and  most importantly, I definitely recommend you buy the book and you will not be disappointed.

See an excellent video by New York Times Magazine of Howard's apartment here.

A Live-in Experience: the splendrous apartment of Count and Countess Hubert d’Ornano...

My "1-Click" account with Amazon is well used. I  recently "1-clicked" Howard Slatkin book "Fifth Avenue Style: A Designer's New York Apartment" and a book I highly recommend. Howard is to be congratulated for the excellent work and his "jeweled piece of interior" that he graciously shared with his readers. 

As I flipped through the beautiful pages of Howard book, my mind kept going back to the apartment of Count and Countess Hubert d’Ornano. An apartment that has been a subject of books, magazines, and blogs. For those who had the privilege to visit  for dinner parties or tours aptly describe it as artistically "jeweled piece of interior, which is formidably  challenging to  interpret  at first  as it counts among its elements of decor, pieces from the fifteen century to modern day."

What mark the d'Ornano apartment  for me is niftily captured by this remark attributed to  Countess d'Ornano,  and she said; "there are one or two good pieces in each room. I'd rather have it this way than have 10 masterpieces per room, where you become the slave of your objects.'' More importantly, the apartment has a lived-in experience manifested by pictures of the family and many artists that made it alluring and magical. 

Here is a video clip I put together of the apartment.

And here are few pictures:

Happy New Year to all...