A very dear friend dropped by the other day to give me a foot rub (yes, she gave me the most thoughtful and incredible and heavenly girlfriend FOOT RUB) as well as the most wonderful gift:
She gave this beautiful book to me, she said, because “you should have lived in a different era” (i.e., the 1920s and ’30s). She knows me so well. Did I mention that she gave me a foot rub?
The interior design, fashion and jewelry from this time period are like a magnet to me.
Syrie Maughm was a leading British interior decorator of the 1920s and 1930s and best-known for popularizing rooms decorated entirely in shades of white. Syrie’s personal and professional life was of a trans-atlantic existence. Described in the New York times as “possessed of a lavish Molyneux wardrobe, a quick temper, an appetite for a good scuffle and a choppy verbal style rapped out in high, birdlike notes, Sryie was something of a protofeminist.”
These character traits are exactly the type that I hope to engage during my fight against FBC (though I will try to maintain good manners).
The book recounts Maugham’s role as patron to young artists. She was a connector of people, passions and design.
Among many others, Syrie collaborated with the architect David Adler and his sister, decorator Frances Elkins. It just so happens that we used to live in a David Adler/France Elkins-designed apartment in Chicago. During our 10 years there, I grew to appreciate and value the Adler-Elkins architecture and aesthetic immensely.
I look so forward to reading this book in full detail. I am especially excited that there are over 250 photographs and illustrations in the book because these days, I need picture books!
What a very dear friend, indeed!