Blog Archives

Image

A Moveable Flea Market Feast at Barneys New York

 BARNEYS NEW YORK: THE PARIS FLEA MARKET RECREATED AT MANHATTAN FLAGSHIP‏

Unless you’ve been living in a cave lately, you know the fleas are trending not just for the vintage style but because they’re affordable. Today September 18, 2012, it’s official. According to this article in today’s Architectural Digest [REPRINTED FROM Text by Elizabeth Stamp | Photography by Tom Sibley the flea market style trend of vintage has officially moved from “The Shops at Target” on Main Street to Barney’s on Fashion Avenue. It bears reprinting because, in a sense, when Fashion Avenue references you, you have arrived.

What worries me, is that one, as soon as a cultural trend becomes legitimized by the commercial retail establishment, the charm and sub culture of them begins to fade (because our culture has the attention of a gnat). Secondly, Americans somehow think that if they see the Barney’s display, they’ve fulfilled their cultural experience in much the same way they will tell you they’ve “seen” Europe in Las Vegas. Not.

Read for yourself in the excerpt below and share your comments!

The Marché aux Puces St. Ouen de Clignancourt—the legendary flea market in Paris’s 18th arrondissement—has long attracted a fashionable set, with Coco Chanel and Christian Dior its frequent browsers in their day. Stateside flea fanatics can get their fix thanks to Barneys New York. The Chelsea Passage on the flagship’s ninth floor is currently host to “Marché aux Puces,” a special installation featuring incredible finds from the City of Light’s best-known treasure trove that is designed to recreate the experience of shopping there—without the airfare or shipping fees.

The shop is based on the stalls at Marché Paul Bert, a section of les puces that specializes in antiques and home furnishings. Dark gray canvas and sisal floors frame a wide array of items culled from numerous trips to the French capital over the past year.

“For an individual, to buy at the flea market in Paris is not easy,” says Barneys New York creative director Dennis Freedman. “It’s one thing to buy something, it’s another to arrange a shipment to America, deal with customs, and go from the port to your apartment. I’ve done that for the last ten years, and I know what’s involved. We’re eliminating all of that.” And to that we say merci beaucoup.

The eclectic assortment includes furniture, art, and one-of-a-kind decorative objects. A red 1970s Maison Barbier lamp mingles with two stone mile markers (used when the Romans were settling in Gaul), a plaster frieze, and sputnik-style light fixtures. “It’s a very big range of objects,” says Freedman, “from the 20th to the 19th century, Napoleon III pieces, big pieces, small pieces.”

Items will be added regularly through mid-November, and just like any flea market, great finds won’t last. There is one person, though, whom shoppers don’t need to worry about competing with. “I’ll be honest,” admits Freedman, “there were a number of things that I wanted to buy for myself and had to be told I couldn’t.”

Original Source

Image

Plan B: Budget Under $300 for a His and Hers New Bedroom

How is it, I thought, that of all the rooms in the house, our master bedroom still looks like an afterthought? I realized it was because I hadn’t found the right style, color, or pieces that would satisfy the demands of both a “His & Hers” aesthetic. It had to be beautiful enough for me, yet masculine enough that my husband wouldn’t think he was sleeping in a Rachel Ashwell room. What I really wanted, naturally was way to expensive (ah, if only I’d been born rich instead of beautiful!). The white rosette bedspread from Anthropologie. You know the one, right? It was about $300 and I would already be over budget – see below.

But, my budget hovered around $300 (not $3,000!) for Cal King size bedding (always more expensive). Six window panels for three windows, king size sheets, accent pillows, the right mirror, oh, and that pesky pink, white and green striped headboard (On sale at Overstock for $25 each. I put two twins together to equal a King size headboard) that I had yet to cover. So here’s how I got an A+ bedroom we can both live with:

Vintage French Mirror: Tony’s Second Hand Shop, Newark NJ $20
French Grey Window Panels (6): Marburn Curtain Warehouse $16.99/pair = $51
Accent Pillow: Target on sale $7.99
White “Rivulets” Duvet Cover + 2 Euro Shams : Target $69
Silk French Grey & Crème runner: Home Goods$59
Flokati Rug Round: Borrowed from another room.
Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic French Gray Sheets: Target $62
TOTAL = $262

Bedroom Bliss

So far I was at $262, I had everything I wanted, except the headboard slipcover. I dreaded sewing that one! But then I got an idea, I picked up two French Grey shower curtains at Marburn warehouse for about $20 each in a gorgeous silk with rosettes. This would be the headboard slipcover. I placed it on the headboard, folded it over like wrapping a package, and then used a light upholstery stapler to fasten it in place. And, voila! Pretty pretty, right?

Showered Headboard



This is a little French picture I found at a flea market. I repainted the frame with a few strokes from the Benjamin Moore Blue Lapis sample I had laying around.

French, Touched

Perhaps the most fun I had came when I wrapped the brown and crème lampshade in an exptra curtain panel and then secured it by tying it up in a pretty bow. Kinda like my marriage to Michael. Gosh, I love that guy and I was happy to give our bedroom the happy ending it deserved. We now sleep contentedly and peacefully in these calming surroundings.

Drama Drape

Image

Decorating on a Dime: The Standallier

Today’s “Decorating on a Dime” series continues with some pretty awesome Flea Market finds, yard sale finds and side of the road deals from Flea Market Fanatic, Lisa La Valle-Finan Etsy Shop Owner of Old World Living.

Restoration Hardware -- $995.00

Old World Living -- $250.00

I love chandeliers, don’t you? There’s only one wrinkle, not everyone can afford one. Take a look at this wooden number from Restoration Hardware. It’s a whopping $995! And as we all know that’s an average price for chandeliers. Plus, not everyone knows how to install it! Let’s say you a young professional renting in Manhattan (I remember what that was like), the Super is not going to be happy about you changing the lighting fixtures or redecorating, but why should that stop you from glamming up your “first place?” I think my creation is the answer, and I hope you will too.

It’s not a candelabra because I fashion the chandelier to hang like a real chandelier. And each Standallier is unique because I hand pick the chandelier and the base to match (custom orders welcome)! This one has a real vintage brass base paired with a charming wood chandelier, both from the 40′s. Each one comes with brand new wiring and switches, all you have to do is plug it in and say, “oooh, how lovely!”

I make them in three sizes or styles:

  • Standallier™ – The size of your average floor or reading lamp $250
  • Lampalllier™ – Suitable as a table lamp $50
  • Candallier™ – Non-electric floor or reading lamp size $150

Be sure to visit Creative Converzens to see all my items, ready for your home!

Image

Flea Market Philosophy: Etsy Is Frenchy* (or is it Greek?**)

In the world of flea markets where things are not always what they seem, I like to think that my training as a global readiness consultant comes in handy as a flea market fanatic . I rely on something called the 5D Cultural GPS that helps me demonstrate what makes the other guy tick. I end up connecting (some very unlikely) dots that reveal much more than “the find” at the f l e a s. The flaneur (that’s French for “people watcher”) in me ends up doing a kind of freakanomics of “why” people do what they do based on where they live. Nope, I don’t cure cancer, but isn’t the clash of civilizations the cause of conflict, from racism to war? Call me crazy, but I think that intercultural insights are something everyone could all use during our encounters with everyday culture, at the fleas, or at work, right?

So stay with me on this, the other day, I was cleaning out my cache of pics for a line of framed book covers I make called Literary Masterpieces (yes, on my Etsy shop) and I came across a picture I saved from Bazaar Magazine that was written last year by Nan Talese recalling her relationship with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
As I re-read it, I realized why I saved it. It didn’t just explain Jackie’s Frenchness, it prompted me to explain the French national character when Americans seemed to be perturbed with them (remember Freedom Fries?). American foreign policy with France during the Bush years (when we were, regretfully, bush) was strained because they were against our hasty rush to war with Iraq. They wanted more time to let allow UN weapons inspector Hans Blix actually find the weapons of mass destruction. Turns out the French were right. There were none. More like weapons of mass distraction.

So why are we so at odds with the nation that gave us the statue of Liberty and very principles that make us American like liberte, egalite, and fraternite? If we’d taken their advice, we could have avoided all that death and destruction in Iraq. But in our “need for speed” and the time-is-money mindset, it cost us lives and world respect. I can’t help wonder, if we’d been more “French” in our approach– by thinking and taking our time — maybe we could have saved more lives.

Re-reading that article again, I realized how French the new Green economy is that prefers to upcycle and reclaim over dispose and pollute. Digital flea markets like Etsy are at the forefront of this French retail legacy; we’re flea market fanatics going Green, Slow, Global. As Nan Talese thinks back on her friendship with Jackie, what struck me was what an Etsy state of mind Jackie had, which is well, kind of un-American (in a good way) and here’s why:
• Relationships preferred over deals and transactions
• Beauty trumps practicality
• Slow over fast
• Manners, above all

Relationships (or people are more important than business)
Nan recalled Jackie told the restaurant not to bring the bill to the table, a subtle gesture I admired and adopted. I still do it to this day. Taking money out, means she puts people first (Suze Orman supports this) and thinks the relationship with the author is more important than the business dealings. If you think this is antiquated or charming, a whopping eighty five percent of the world conducts business this way. Deeda Blair rhapsodized in Vanity Fair about the exquisite atmosphere of restaurants and you felt that there were delicious conversations taking place at every table. Now you go into a place and everything looks transactional. Bingo.

Aesthetics over Practicality
I always admired how hard she worked and how devoted she was to her authors. She was also able to balance publishing books that she knew had an audience with books that were for her own reading pleasure. I remember once when we were both on a break, getting coffee in the little Doubleday kitchen, and I congratulated her on having just signed Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. She said, “Well, every once in a while, you have to do something for the soul.”
Etsy-ians aim to empower people to change the way the global economy works. We see a world in which very-very small businesses have much-much more sway in shaping the economy, local living economies are thriving everywhere, and people value authorship and provenance as much as price and convenience. We are bringing heart to commerce and making the world more fair, more sustainable, and more fun. Sounds the Green Rebellion of the 60’s, which was characterized by the love of nature (“flower children”) and it’s verdantly ingenuous ideals. And so far, I have personally experienced the feeling of a safe, supported community place.

Love of The Absurd (or why the French think Jerry Lewis is funny)
But Jackie never expected to receive any special treatment, and she would line up just like the rest of us when seeking a few words with the publisher. Though in the outside world she was always known as Mrs. Kennedy or Mrs. Onassis, in the office she was just Jackie. She walked to work through Central Park every morning wearing slacks and a T-shirt or a sweater. She sat at a plain old gray metal desk. One day on the elevator, someone approached her and said, “Oh, you’re Jacqueline Onassis, aren’t you?” She said, “No, I’m not!”
I love the predominantly whimsical nature of so many of the Etsy items, yet they are also imminently useful and well made.

Manners
She never wanted to eclipse her writers, and her first concern was raising her children well . . . so we were very much on the same wavelength as far as bringing up children with manners and having serious intent with what they would do with their lives.
This is a very French mindset. Children should be seen and not heard. I parent this way (and like the French, I don’t apologize for it) because if your kids think they are the center of the universe, then they don’t think you have an emotional life of your own. Consequently, they, being naturally outsized egomaniacs, you have to offset that struggle by standing your ground to stabilize that tendency.
Now I don’t think that Etsy-ians are ego maniacs, but I do think that as far as digital flea markets go, they’ve eclipsed EBay, bien sur!

________________________________________

Notes
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etsy: While much speculation surrounds the meaning behind the name Etsy, one story is Etsy got its name because Robert Kalin “wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. I was watching Fellini’s 8 ½ and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say ‘etsi’ a lot. It means ‘oh, yes.’ And in Latin, it means ‘and if.’ ”
** The word “etsy” in Greek means “this way” or “like this” so I think it means things made “like this” the (handmade) way.

Sources

http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html

www.CulturalGPS.com

http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/sooner/articles/p4-7,28-32_1967v40n2_OCR.pdf

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/magazine/feature-articles/nan-talese-remembers-jackie-kennedy-0911

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/2012/02/ladies-who-lunched-201202

http://www.etsy.com/about?ref=ft_about

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/bringing-up-bebe-2012-1/