During the 1930s, LA’s decorator to the stars was William Haines. A leading MGM actor himself in the 1920s, Haines made a smooth transition to the world of decorating in the early 1930s helped by his movie star contacts and sparkling personality. He entered the LA decorating scene at the top and remained there throughout his career. Haines’ early style was Classical. “I loathe cozy cottages,” he once said. “they were made for farmers and peasants, not ladies and gentlemen.” … Read More

John Lautner was affable and charming. My several meetings with him were brief and towards the end of his remarkable career- which was sadly unheralded until well after his demise. I visited him in his Hollywood design office, and in the tiny walk-up apartment at La Brea and Franklin in Hollywood that he shared with Francesca, his Mexican wife- who had been his previous wife’s caretaker before she died. Lautner seemed just as comfortable in this nondescript 1950s apartment surrounded … Read More

This month I’m focussing on the remarkable Tony Duquette, who became a personal friend of Annie and myself in the last decade of his life, and helped me to document his entire still-existing oeuvre. It was a privilege and constant inspiration to spend time with Tony. He was endlessly inquisitive, attracted to anything fresh and new, and a huge inspiration for both of us. It was with his enthusiastic help that I documented all his surviving projects, and these are now uploaded onto the … Read More