Vol. 26 - Fluffy Summer Fun!
Our Monthly Newsletter
What’s New
Fluffy Summer Fun!
The hazy days of summer are upon us. Kim is finding stylish ways too keep cool everyday, overjoyed that the same wardrobe is now simultaneously appropriate in New York and LA, while Laurent finds himself contemplating timeless questions like, at what temperature does it become appropriate to wear shorts and sandals to a business meeting? What if said meeting took place on a yacht along the Cote du Azur? Would that change the threshold? What if said Yacht was a Catamaran? Are Catamarans a type of Yacht or are they an entirely separate category of boat? More research seems necessary.
The weather may be hot, but the mood is light. Even though we’ve been out of school for more than few years now, we can’t help but savor the easing effect that the summer seems to bring. It’s a decidedly unserious time where the worries of the winter are replaced my more lighthearted concerns like how get your rosé cold enough, and how to keep your linen clothes wrinkle free. If any of you have deciphered a solution to either of these vexing puzzles, please advise.
It’s a feeling so uplifting, so effervescent, so ebullient, that we just have to share it with you, Dear Reader. And so, we present you, a Communiqué full of fluffy summer fun.
FEATURED: Design Secrets
A piece of furniture can be a very serious purchase. And sometimes, one simply is not in the mood for something so heavy. But what to do then, when one find’s oneself with a room that’s just not singing anymore? In gratitude for your loyalty, we’ll let you in on one of Kim’s design secrets: Pillows.
Light, fluffy, and anything but frivolous, the right pillows can change the look of a room, and the feel of chair. Talk about comfort meeting style… Pillows add color, texture and shape to a room. They can be swapped out, rearranged, or replaced. The possibilities for chic-ness are endless.
We have a number of vintage and modern pillows available in our NY and LA showrooms, that might just be exactly the bit of fluff your project needs to put it over the top.
What We’re LOVING
On the SCREEN
WHAM!
On Netflix
Netflix’s new documentary, WHAM! really captures the spirit of the band, and the mood we’re in. Like their music, this doc features no real heartache, no heavy drama, no emotional catharsis. And that’s just fine by us.
The doc, like the band, is simply titled WHAM! (note the exclamation point). We find this title incredibly appropriate. So much so that were are considering, but not committed to, retitling this issue COMMUNIQUE!.
WHAM! has no subtitle because there is no underlying secret. There is no need to call it WHAM: I Gave You My Heart, or WHAM: Careless Whispers, because that drama simply isn’t there. This is just a nice story of two people who started a band, made a few pleasant, catchy, undemanding songs about feeling happy, gradually realized that one of them was more handsome and talented than other, and then, quite amicably, split.
We loved it, not in the least because of what a refreshing reminder that every little thing doesn’t always need to be so important, and serious, and meaningful. Sometimes you want to be woken up before they go go because your not planning on flying solo. Sometimes the only subtitle you need is !
On the PAGE
Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes
But if you prefer your fluff with a heavy dose of emotional catharsis, we’ve got you covered there too. Flowers for Algernon is quite possibly the most wrenching book ever written about a mouse.
If you skipped this one in high school, Flowers for Algernon tells the story of Charlie Gordon, a man with an IQ of 68, who undergoes an experimental procedure that makes him grow gradually more and more intelligent, and a mouse named Algernon, who undergoes the same procedure, and takes the journey to, and back from, extreme intelligence, alongside Charlie. Surprisingly, yet at the same time inevitablibly, Charlie’s increasing intelligence inversely affects his happiness, as he realizes how complicated and messy life is, and how cruelly and mercilessly our society wields its vicious intelligence bias.
In stunning feat of literary virtuosity, Daniels Keyes feeds these us these hard to swallow truths in language that evolves and devolves with narrator’s rising and falling intelligence, putting us in the literal maze of Charlie’s shifting mind. The result is piece of science fiction that functions less like an escape, and more like a devastating mirror that shows us, with painful clarity, how we all lose our innocence, and how difficult, and important, it is to find a way to hold onto what we can of it.
If you let it in, this book will make you hurt, but it will also make you a better person.
Available from our local bookstore here.
Featured Artist: Sébastien Léon
Did we get too heavy there? Sorry, we’re still a little misty thinking about Algernon buried in the bak yard. Let’s talk about something more fun (if not fluffy): Our favorite artist of the moment, Sébastien Léon. Léon trained as a marketing executive (!) but traded the office for an atelier years ago. Since then, this incredible artist has created a body of work that is a stunning mix of fine art sculpture and industrial design. The result feels geometric and mathematical, but somehow, also quite naturalistic. He works in glass, metal, and paint, in two and three dimensions, to create an effect that resonates equally in the mind and the heart. His work can be seen in the Istanbul, China, The New Times, The Wall Street Journal, and his studio in Los Angeles.
We're never gonna dance again...
...the way we danced with you. But the saxophone plays us out, know this: We will be back next month, with more comfort, culture, and style. Until then...
Stay Chic,
Kimberly + Laurent