My, it\'s been a while since I last blogged.  Holidays, family commitments, and, most of all, a book tour have kept me away.  I\'m going to try to get back into the swing of things, and what better way to do so than by featuring a couple of my...

Ever since I first saw glimpses of photographer Victor Skrebneski\'s house in those Seventies and Eighties-era Estée Lauder ads (Skrebneski often used his Chicago home as a backdrop for the stylish ad campaign), I became intrigued by its...

If you happen to be in High Point this Sunday, I hope you\'ll join Paloma Contreras, Richard Keith Langham, Jeffrey Dungan, and me as we participate in a discussion on--what else"--design.  Sponsored by Flower Magazine and moderated by the...

"The top". "An institution". The "Secretary of Grooming". These were just some of the titles and accolades given to Kenneth, the legendary hairdresser who tended the locks of Jacqueline Kennedy, Lee Radziwill, Brooke Astor, Audrey Hepburn, and...

I hope you\'ll join the Kravet team and me this week at What\'s New What\'s Next, where I will be interviewing three of my favorite designers, Alexa Hampton, Markham Roberts, and Tom Scheerer, on who and what inspires them. The day-long event...

A friend recently gave me the most interesting book about Marie Antoinette: To The Scaffold, by Carolly Erickson. To borrow my friend\'s description of the book, it is gripping. Although I knew well the history of the French Revolution and Marie...

Goodness. It feels strange writing a blog post after a year-long hiatus. I was worried that I may have forgotten how to blog, but it seems that after eleven years of writing The Peak of Chic, blogging has become second nature. It feels good to be...

And while we\'re on the subject of High Point, another favorite introduction of mine are the

There were many highlights of last month\'s High Point Furniture Market, but one in particular made quite an impression on me: the gratifying appearance of canopied beds at a number of furniture showrooms. After playing second fiddle to...

One of my biggest complaints about social media is the sometimes deleterious effect it seems to have on creativity.  On the one hand, it could be argued that Instagram, Pinterest, and blogs have introduced people to a whole host of new images, new...

In between visits to the Southeastern Designer Showhouse, High Point, and Design ADAC, I have managed to carve out some time to enjoy Spring\'s bumper crop of new book releases. Below are a few of the highlights from my stack of nightly...

The Decorators Club is one of the design industry\'s most storied organizations. Established in 1914, the group, which is made up of female designers, architects, educators, and other members of the New York Metropolitan design community, has...

Since I started my blog ten years ago, Tiffany & Co. discontinued most of its china as well as its much-loved Bamboo sterling flatware, Steuben went out of business (although the Corning Museum of Glass is now reproducing Steuben\'s designs), and...

The are a number of major launches scheduled for High Point Spring Market, including the already much buzzed-about debut of the Bunny Williams Collection for Currey & Company.  Masterful at creating rooms that are warm and welcoming, Williams...

To me, some of the most memorable homes featured on the pages of Architectural Digest are those Seventies and Eighties-era nighttime apartments. I call them nighttime apartments, because not only were they presumably photographed at night with...

I hope you\'ll join designer Alex Papachristidis and me at Design ADAC, where, on Tuesday, April 25th, we will be discussing "The Eye of the Collector".  An inveterate collector himself, Alex has much to say about the ins and outs of...

The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum at Colonial Williamsburg debuted a new exhibit last week, one that should appeal to anyone with an interest in fashion, fabrics, or design. Organized by Linda Baumgarten, Colonial Williamsburg\'s Senior...

Spring is here, the flowers and trees are in bloom (and have been for quite some time here in the South), and that annual layer of yellow pollen covers everything, my dog\'s feet included. Irritants aside, Spring is the time of year when...

I recently spent a pleasant morning at the Jim Thompson showroom at ADAC, perusing the new collections from both Jim Thompson and No. 9 Thompson. Both collections featured such vibrant colors and pattern that I was aching to recover my furniture in...

Isn\'t odd how certain things that have never before been on your radar suddenly push their way into your consciousness thanks to their repetitive appearances in the most random places"  Take, for example, canned corned beef.  Strange that I...

A highlight of Christie\'s upcoming Asian Art Week is Christie\'s website.QI BAISHI (1864-1957) Sunrise over Water Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper51 ¼ x 20 ? in. (130.2 x 52.3 cm.)Inscribed and signed, with two seals of the...

Party planner or event designer" Frankly, neither title seems elegant enough for the late Jacques Frank, a Paris-based designer who conceived and decorated parties for the crème de la crème of café society, including Arturo and Patricia...

Everyone has been buzzing about Christie\'s upcoming Diego Giacometti sale, which will take place in Paris on March 6. Titled Christie\'s website, where you\'ll be treated to additional information on the sale plus a video tour of Le...

"Everywhere we find that modern life is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The golden egg was the stark beauty of individuality, and the goose was the social conditions that allowed for it." So wrote Cecil Beaton in his book, The Glass...

The Georges Geffroy book, about which I wrote last week, has prompted me to revisit my paltry collection of fifties-era issues of the French arts and design magazine, Connaissance des Arts.  Dipping back into these magazines, I became reacquainted...