The New…er, Old…Livin’ Room Sexin
Forget all the other sex chairs that Gilding has shown you — all one, no two, of the them — because this chair trumps them — at least in the “that’s so dirty” category. No matter how you look at it, there is no mistaking that this chair is meant for hardcore romping — not to be mistaken with a modern curvy-linear chaise that just happens to be a chair for the dirty mambo.
Commissioned by Edward VII of Britain in 1890, this “Two’s company, three’s a sex throne” creation was designed for orgiastic indulgence. Named fauteuil d’amour, or the “armchair of love,” Edward VII used the chair when he visited the brothel of Le Chabanais, one of the great bordellos of Paris. This chair, however, which can be seen in Prague, is actaully a replica of the original. In a fit of post-war Puritanism, the bordellos were shut down, the ladies and their gentleman “punters” scattered, and the chair? The chair was bought in auction in 1946 by an industrialist. It was then resold at Drouot, another Parisian auction house. In 1996 the chair was auctioned for a final time and thus still resides with its owner, one Herve Poulain.
And when journalist Sean Thomas asked Poulain if the chair was still in use he replied…”Naturellement.”
Atta Boy, Poulain!
[Via Chair Blog, Filthy Gorgeous Things, and "Two's company, three's a sex throne]
Synonomously Loathsome’s Antonym
Gilding hates to admit it, but she loves the bold audacity of this child. Her sense of adventure and her genuine demeanor makes swallowing the fact that this child lives in a world that makes more money in an hour than Gilding does in a year and that she then spends it on designer clothing, shoes, and accessories with names Gilding has to sound out in syllables complete with syllabic clapping, a pleasant horse pill to choke on.
By now Gilding is sure that anyone with half an interest in fashion knows of her, but trolling through the Sea of Shoes blog today and its author, Jane Aldridge (daughter of designer Judy Aldridge), snappy fashion and quirky good looks has left Gilding feeling a bit inspired about a new wardrobe.
So guilty a pleasure as it may be, Gilding has to say, she Hearts Sea of Shoes.
Adorned in Barbie
And the psychotherapist told you that cutting up your sisters barbie dolls what one of the seven signs of a developing psychopathic serial killer. When, in fact, you were only making art! Its alright, artist and Barbie Doll butcher Margaux Lange understands.
As Lange explains in her artist statement, Barbie dolls were an instruments of creative artistic exploration as well as a outlet to express all her fears, embarassments, joys, and explorations of human interactions through on-going narratives within elaborate handmade dwellings.
Fascinated with who Barbie is as a cultural icon, distinguished celebrity status, and the enormous impact she has had on our society, Lange childhood influence has moved with her to influence her artistic impressions as an adult. Specifically, Lange is interested in Barbie’s influence in defining gender roles of women in contemporary American culture.
Shown here a just a few of Lange’s pieces, all necklaces. You can see the rest of her jewelry, including earing, bracelets, and brooches, in her portfolio.
A Flamingo in a Fallow Field
Images and below quote from dlisted.
“It really doesn’t get anymore glamorous than this. The Queen of Los Angeles, Angelyne, was spotted leaving a CVS drug store and getting into her pink corvette. Okay, it would’ve been more glamorous if she got into an ’87 Ford Corcel and she was leaving a check cashing place, but this will do for now. Look at her. Isn’t she so perfect! She’s like the forever memaw of the rave world! Seriously, Angelyne should come complete with a purple panda Ecstasy pill and a glowstick show. If Rainbow Bright fell on hard times and grew up to be an old (yet elegant) street whore…”
These images and more available at dlisted
So here’s the skinny on who the hell Angelyne is — for those just out of the know and those Southern born who has their own little “land replete with fruits and nuts,” so to speak.
In the City of Angels, splashed across billboards dressed in pink and reclining on a pink Corvette, Angelyne has carved herself as an entity now as iconic in the land of Hollywood as the Hollywood sign itself. The purpose of the billboards — promotion of her management company, Angelyne Management Co.. In her carreer Angelyne has recorded four albums and appeared in at least 15 movies — her more well-known films being “Earth Girls are Easy” and “Homer & Eddie” — and hundreds of TV Shows. Total combined screen time (according to the research in one Los Angeles Times article): 80 seconds; long shots, passing shots, and looped dialogue.
But for Pulitzer Prize winning photographer David Hume Kennerly, Angelyne was the one-word summary of what was both right and wrong with the California Recall initiative — the very one that landed Arnold Schwarzenager in the governor seat. He writes: “The mood and tone of my story can best be summed up in a word: Angelyne…She is a flamingo in a fallow field. And for that reason I sought her out.”
He both got more and less than he bargained for and let’s just say, a bottle of champagne was involved. You can read his account in his October 2003 article Total Recall written for the The Digital Journalist.
Photo by David Strick
Related Link: Angelyne’s driving tours
Haute Herbal Blends
Gilding wants some tea infused sensory overload.
Known for her custom-blended scents for London’s Miller Harris, perfumer Lyn Harris has turned her nose to creating delicious smelling and tasting teas with local tea specialist Timothy d’Offay for her recently installed tearooms in her Mayfair and Nottingham shops. So far she has used her sharp sense of smell to create a trio of haute herbal blends. Served in vintage Wedgwood china cups along with fresh lavender shortbread and orange blossom cake, the teas make for a subtle sensory experience.
Oh, by the way, the above image is from Lyn Harris’s Mayfair tearoom. Check out that gorgeous bench. Gilding has dreams of having one just like it in her apartment dining nook.
I Heart the Key
A whispered romance. An intriguing invitation. A revealing discovery. A secret kept. A revealing discovery. A question answered.
Tiffany & Co.’s newest collection, the Tiffany Keys Collection, is inspired by keys from the Tiffany & Co. Archives, unlocking personal style and the heritage of a legendary jeweler. Now made into gorgeous necklaces by skilled goldsmiths and silversmiths, the original vintage keys once unlocked jewelry and keepsake boxes, albums, diaries, and steamer trunks — oh, and a few private clubs and country manors. Other archival keys encrusted with gems were designed as brooches and charms, incorporated in a coat of arms or given as gifts to heads of state.
Now reworked into Tiffany’s new collection, the talismans open an intriguing new interpretation in iconic pendants and charms.
Guess what Gilding is putting on her birthday wish list.
Grotto the New Kitsch of a Hometown By the Sea?
Remember Gilding mentioning that she lives in the land of horrible beach kitsch. Not that glamorous sophisitcated rustic style of Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons, not the quaint and comfortably aged feel of some beachside Maine, New Hampshire, or Connecticut community. No, she lives in the epicenter of tacky beach kitsch hell. Think of every horrible design feature in any seaside hotel you’ve ever been in, every eye blistering color, every painted palm tree, sea shell and wicker framed piece of furniture that left you wretching and guess what, that’s a product of Gilding’s hometown’s design contribution. Even its sophisticated beach kitsch is hideous. Now don’t take this as an oath of ill thoughts of her own hometown, for as insane as it may be, Gilding is quite attached to the little place and reveres it for the comforts it provided her childhood and all the things that she sees it could become — provided that all its current county legislators were excommunicated to some other towns problem and set anew were people with progressive ideas — driven on something other than corporate capitalism — a sense of community, an ability to think fairly, objectively, and with heart, and speaking of heart….oh, well you get where she’s going with this. Its what we all want of our legislators.
But what does this post of her hometown’s idea of beach chic all lead up to. Why, Gilding’s discovery of a furniture style naughtily called “Grotto” and encompassing all the lines and curves of water, beach woods, plants, and grasses and the gifts of the Sea and her maiden jewels of shells. Ok, so you may be rolling your eyes at Gilding for only just now discovering this, but remember, for all her big words and haughty ideals, she is but a spring chicken in this world; still new to all its discoveries and not yet completely jaded, but able to still be awed and surprised every once in a while.
Boy, Gilding has been on quite a roll of gilding the lily of late hasn’t she. Oh well, you love her or else you woudn’t still be reading this…you are still reading this…aren’t you?
What first brought Gilding to the discovery of this Grotto design was this chair [above] by designer Michael Von Jakubowski, found on Moss Daily New. This particular chair is hand-carved of wood and silvered poliment.
According to Moss, there is no record of exactly when the first Grotto furniture was created, however, furniture with similar decorative elements were popular in the Renaissance period, and were designed for the artificial grottos of Royal palace gardens. These pieces of furniture had Mediterranean themed carved features: shells shaping the chair seats and backs or table surfaces, dolphin shaped legs, sea horses, algae, coral, sea snakes all made their presence in the form. Even mythical creatures such as winged horses and small dragons appeared. Usually the wood would be stained a rich walnut color or would be covered with a poliment silvering, with gold and brown painted highlights.
Records of Grotto furniture production in Venice do exist starting from 1890, until production ceased in 1930, and many of those pieces can be found in museums and private collections as covetous Venetian masterpieces.
Now see, that’s the kind of beach kitsch Gilding’s home town could sport — since ridding itself of that would simply be unthinkable for this town for fear of losing any personal cultural identity that it may be able to claim, if on that alone. It could be argued as tacky, but there is something so regal in its design and the simulated lines of things natural and organic solidifying the feel of always being by the ocean that is so important to inhabitants and visitors of this land of sugar beach sand and gently crashing waves.
And just for fun, here’s some more Grotto furniture that Gilding found in her search:
Images [above] from Newel.
Stamp Me, Brand Me, Doggy Bag Me
Ahahahahaa…are you both annoyed and at the same time insanely and narcissistically jealous at Paris Hilton’s penchant for creating ridiculous and irksome fads; such as carrying dog’s in her purse. Ok, so that was a habit of socialite alite for some time, but it serves notice that big designers really began making whole seasonal lines of bags dedicated to this one purpose around the same time that Paris decided she couldn’t live without her muts. Frankly the only star that should be allowed to carry their dog out in public in such annoying fashion is Pink — and that’s because she named her dog Fucker and that’s just friggin hilarious! Had children not been present during Hamtardo’s naming ceremony, she may very well have suffered the same fate.
Then comes artist Meryl Smith’s interpretation of the doggy bag. A couple of days ago, Mr. Gilding sent Gilding a pic of this but there was no information attached — which meant, as with most random stuff he sends her, she has to do a bit of research…and on that note, she’s been sitting on it. So in a spark of bored inspiration this morning she went about searching for this Louis Vuitton Doggy Bag, which took longer than it should, but one supposes that would be because she kept looking for a pig and kept coming up with Wim Delvoye’s Louis Vuitton tatted up pigs. Don’t ask Gilding why she thought it was a pig — it so obviously doesn’t look like a pig — but in her head it was a pig, and we all know what sick and warped dark places lurk in dark recesses of her mind, so don’t go there.
Anyhoo, entitled “Excess Baggage”, Smith’s bag was the outcome of her creative spontaneity when she was asked by Honey Space in New York to create a sculpture for an exhibition whose dimensions were suited to hold international carry-on luggage. The piece is a hilarious social statement of our propensity for fadalistic label-whoring. Several blogs have bashed the artist for this creation, calling it everything from over-indulgent to childish, to “done before”, but perhaps that’s a bit of the message. Its hard to have an “original thought” in this world, and evry artist faces this. With advances in technology and the expansion of the world wide web, the once vast space of the the Earth is now covered by a few miliseconds of high speed internet. But perhaps its a collective thought; a prevailing message that in your creative mind’s eye is a new piece, but on a universal level shares a collective thought, reason, or concern that to some extent many share. Maybe if its been done before, that’s because we didn’t get it the first time, and each artist is simply seeking their way of getting our attention. Its not unfathomable to think that some just don’t get the message while other still never see it.
And with that said, Gilding wants one…ok, maybe two. I have a great pair of taupe flats that a nice buttery caramel color would go great with.
Images via Fashionphile
Stripper Cricket in Andrea’s Angsty High School Walls
This is brilliant. Gilding hates to admit that she’s old enough that her own highschool reunion has just past — she just won’t tell you which one it was though. But as you Lilies have probably already perceived, Gilding didn’t go. Truthfully, there was no point in going. Thanks to the dismal size of Gilding’s own home town, she’s never more than one public place away from running into one of her old classmates, and (as what proved true with the umpteen posted pictures on the interent of that night) the reunion would have been no different than any other Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday night — and/or Sunday afternoon — of keg standing and overall drunken debauchery for her classmates of yore. Yes, Tuesday is the day of rest for these perpetual Spring Breakers of our Redneck Riviera. Factor in online communities like Myspace and Facebook and there’s no such thing as hiding anymore.
But as one High school reunioner dreaded her upcoming evening of recalled teenage torture, she decided to one-up the snots that humiliated her all while proving that high school wasn’t a stage for cliche fakeness that was at once replaced with sudden maturity of the adult world upon the day of graduating its cinder block halls. No…it is merely a breeding ground meant for perfecting what will become a lifetime of snobby fakes and their world of conformed one-upping.
In this six-minute short, “I Remember Andrea,” once angsty nerd now angsty adult nerd emphasizes the snobbishness of her high school. Beginning with a trip through the parking lot full of BMW’s, Benzes, and Hummers, the real action begins with Andrea’s hired stripper doppelganger — tatted up and fishnet wearing — does what she does best while playing Andrea…with a bit of a backstory for the known shy girl of her high school classmates, now this vision of Suicide Girl after a trip down amnesia lane and some plastic surgery.
The hilarity of this video isn’t just how accurate it shows the snobbishness that perpetuates after high school, but its how it comes about as the doppelganger Andrea plays quick on her feet, pretending to know these classmates of the real Andrea while egging on their sad pathetic lives of conformity within the veneer of their cliched roles defined in high school. Enjoy.
Fashioning Double Standards
Gilding is a bit torn about this one. Visiually, they are neat as hell — both the prototype as well as the finished product as a piece of fine jewelry. But the statement behind them is that it is the designers intention to create jewelry that is based on the archetypical preceptions of the Woman: the Femme Fatale, the Girl-next-door, the Suffragate, the Fashionista, and so on.
It would be such a double standard to say that becuase the statement behind these pieces is insufferable becuase it’s made by a man when at the same time graphic artist — and woman — Jasper Goodall’s graphic mixed media series Poster Girl receives acclaim for the same message, would be wrong. But at the same token it’s hard not to feel that there is a different tone when the same message is said by opposing sexes. Gilding has been in the prescence of some feminists that would argue that such a statement made by a woman is a demonstration of overcoming oppression while to be said by a man is an act of perpetuation of that very same oppression. Gilding has always wondered if that double standard isn’t what gives power to the opressive stereotype, but to ignore it also says that there aren’t some who still use those stereotypes to oppress. And, at the same time, it is easily arguable that perhaps too much thought is being put into something meant to be just plain and simple.
Still, the process by which the jewelry is created is pretty cool. Utilizing Rapid Prototyping Technology, the assemblages of designer Ted Noten’s collection of second hand accessories, construction material, jewels, and cuddly toys, are put together in a form and fashion that Noten feels describes the archetypal portrait of women, and are then transmuted into scale models in every size and material possible.
The technique allows the jewellery maker to make jewelry suitable for and, best yet, affordable for all clients.
Link: dezeen
Echoing the Binding Experience of Women for Centuries
Not your typical book. Then again, its not your typical lingerie either.
Artist Tamar Stone, inspired by her own experiences, has chosen book weaving as the medium to capturing “the moments in women’s lives when issues of appearance, self esteem and assimilation become paramount due to physical restrictions placed on the body…”
With such a powerful inspiration its no surprise that the bindings beared by women’s corsetry would find its way into her work. But even it could have expected to become the book itself. Her interest in body image — and through that corsets — came from a lifetime of forced binding as scoliosis forced her in her teens to wear a brace 23 hours out of the day. Again in her adult life she found herself once more corseted as a herniated disk forced back into constraints. It is throughout these years that she developed a sensitivity to “correction” and the need to fit in.
Wanting to tell the stories she was telling but needing them to become more 3-dimensional, not just text on paper but stories that were a part of the textile, Stone began embroidering the text into the fabric forcing the reader to interact intimately with the book and the stories being told within.
Having to take time to unlace the ties, undo the buckles, all in order to read the text, is a part of the contemplation and therapy of the process; echoing the binding experience women for a century of dressing and undressing have been experiencing.
As for the texts themselves, they come from a variety of sources from behavioral manuals of the 19th and 20th century, which describe prescriptions of public and private conduct, as well as personal narratives of women who have lived with these physical constraints.
“To Make Her Look Her Best Vol. 1“
“Society’s Corset: Hints to a Fashionable Lady“
“Health, Strength, Grace and Symmetry, Vol 2: Develop to the Highest Degree of Attainable Perfection“
Strumpet & Pink
These are so beautiful and whimsical and sexy. What lingerie should be; a harkon back to your feminine innocence with a flirt of a woman knowing. Showing just enough to make the blood boil, but covered enough to a present ready for the opening.
Strumpet & Pink creates knickers that explore a woman’s sensuality and sexuality to manifest her own desires and fantasies making the knicker experiential; a focus on feeling rather than objectification.
Each pair is handmade with exuisite materials and attention to detail, all designed in form and cut of material to accentuate the curving figure of the female form and move along its lines like the delicate tracing of a hand.
Via: Designers Block
Fabulousmess
These pieces are so fabulous Gilding could just cream…all over them. And it’d be OK because she could just wipe it right up. God love patent leather.
If you love Mid-Century Modern, vintage 60′s and 70′s refurbished pieces, and Hollywood regency, this shop has it. More vintage, fabulousmess can be found at their Etsy shop.
Stationary Suits You
This is rare. Gilding doesn’t usually pimp whole companies, though she has done a few before. But upon perusing their product line, she can see why she noted this company’s gifts and stationary. God, Gilding is such a stationary whore…though she covets and never shares. Don’t expect a card in the mail from this Gilded Lily, you’ll never get one. But you can always come over and look at her collection…but no touching.
Cavallini & Co.…Wait…Gilding has some of their products. A set of notecards and a planner, in fact. Perhaps this side note wasn’t for her to write about Cavallini & Co., but to remind her to buy a new planner. Hmmm…oh well.
