Tuesday, April 5, 2011

A sneak peek

I’ve mentioned before that people write to me about connections they have made or feel I should make, and these past few weeks have been no different in that. Last week I read about the irritation one correspondent feels when he reads or hears the phrase “pop of color” and I knew exactly what he meant.

My particular bête noir is “sneak peek.” I’d like to say it’s the only piece of decorator-speak that irritates me but “wow factor” comes pretty close, as does “a fresh take on …” and “... with a twist” as in “timeless yet modern twist on traditional style" - whatever that might mean! I fully appreciate we all have set phrases, patterns of speech, jargon – lord knows, I recognize mine each time I put fingers to keyboard - but there are times when the sloppiness and vacousness of it all gets up my nose exasperates me. It seems to me that the more inconsequential interiors have become in recent years, the more consequential, referential and reverential the descriptions have needed to be.

Last Thursday I said I intended to move away from Roderick Cameron and his friends for a while and look in other directions - my own fresh take, or a twist on tradition, if you will - and in this post I am doing so, but not moving too far. To be honest, I cannot say I had made the connection between Marguerite Littman and the men I've been writing about, but now it has been pointed out to me, I realize it's a connection I could have made for in the 1960s Littman and her husband were clients of David Hicks. Marguerite Littman, though not a decorator, fits into my theme of circles within circles because she is connected to a number of the men I have written about.


Mentioned by Edmund White in the latest chapter of his autobiography and, indeed, written about by him for Vanity Fair, friend to Princess Diana, Rock Hudson, Christopher Isherwood, Tennessee Williams and - well, the list is endless.  In the main, I've stayed clear of the characters of those I've written about, preferring in my own way to stress positive rather than the opposite - not in any way striving towards hagiography but simply being clear  that it is the work rather than the character that counts. Not that I want to sound naive - I'm very aware of the utter vacuousness and frequent viciousness that characterized the lives of the many style icons. It has never been my intention to be an apologist for the likes of ... but that is for another post and I want to stress just in case I have not expressed myself clearly, none of the above applies in my mind to Marguerite Littman.


For, if by their deeds ye shall know them is the standard by which we can judge then Mrs Littman comes, amongst these Blue Remembered Hills, pretty close to sainthood. In the mid-1980s when conservative and fundamentalist politicians on both sides of the Atlantic were ignoring or, on occasion, celebrating  the growth of an epidemic she founded the AIDS Crisis Trust in the United Kingdom. If you are a gay man, or just a human being, of a certain age, you will remember how while a thin red line was being drawn through history anorexic socialites and their walkers danced till dawn with the unheeding leaders of Western society in the White House and other bastions of the establishment.


It is that thin red line, the Maginot Line of our times, that the likes of Mrs Littman, a woman to whom I shall return, recognized and walked across. It is the consequences of that red line drawn through late 20th-century history that underlies my fascination with the circles within circles and those who orbited within them.


Photographs of Mr and Mrs Mark Littman's house from David Hicks: A Life of Design, Ashley Hicks, Rizzoli 2009

19 comments:

  1. Great last paragraph! I can't wait to hear more.

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  2. Blue, the wonderful thing about having one's own blog is that the blogger author can write about anything he/she pleases without the concerns of advertisers, editors, media owners and paid subscribers -- all the things that hinder magazine and newspaper writers. Please continue gaily forward, writing about whatever makes or does not make colors pop or creates a fresh take or not.

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  3. Dear Mr. Blue: I am continually in awe of your writing, the immediacy, fluency, and eloquence of it. I hope to one day have the privilege of holding in my hands the book that it most assuredly merits and deserves. Reggie

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  4. Antlers? Antlers?

    (Somewhere, Herne the Hunter is weeping.)

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  5. I love that you point out how many of these style icons weren't exactly nice people -but that is not why we idolize them (how often am I criticized for my fascination with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor!). So then it is so much more refreshing to hear when one was devoted to such a just cause, against the judgement of her peers even! Perhaps she is the more stylish for it.

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  6. Voice Talk, thank you. It was time I broadened my scope but also stay within my chosen area of research.

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  7. The Devoted Classicist, thank you. I shall sally forth, gaily and, I hope, clear-sightedly.

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  8. The Ancient, thank you. Herne and I go back a long way and I can tell you he's pretty upset. Personally, I can't stand bits of animals littering the place!

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  9. ArchitectDesign, thank you.

    I will not criticise you for your opinions about the Windsors even if I might disagree! For me the Duke and his wife are not the icons of taste as they are for many other people - something I'll cover in a later post.

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  10. Another magnificent entry, with compliments particularly on the control exercised in the final 2 paragraphs. These were, of course, not years, but lifetimes you were writing about, and to juxtapose the presumption that you were present, against the restraint displayed here, is to admire a grip on the Yeatsian gyre which you would have watched upheld by men, one unforgettably at a time, in an exemplary relay which they have made immortal, who are honoured in this reminiscence. I doubt that I could discuss this matter in this way, but I do not feel relieved of trying by the existence of this example. The project is everyone's, and benefits greatly by your distinctive slant.

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  11. Reggie Darling, thank you. My apologies for a late reply. That you, a writer I admire, pays me such a compliment is very, very pleasing.

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  12. Superb judgments. "Anorexic socialists and their walkers" dancing til dawn and in the White House too as a world dies is a defining image of the times. As for the Duke and Duchess, one of my favorite stories that my late mother-in-law told was of being invited to the annual "sample sales" at the Waldorf just before the Windsors departed for France. In the drawing room of the suite, there would be piles of stuff...handkerchiefs, towels, scarves, handbags, unopened bottles of perfume...all the swag the Duchess had been given and now sold to her privileged friends. But then the sales of her jewels funded AIDS research. Life is complicated, isn't it?

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  13. Laurent, thank you. Also my apologies to you for a late reply. Neither the research nor the story is yet at an end!

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  14. I dearly hope that people who live their convictions will never go out of style and will continue to infuse our world with a "a pop of candor" and a "fresh twist of integrity."

    ps Does this mean you have started your book?

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  15. Spot on...can or does that phrase count in your list of contrived descriptions?
    It's often used probably meant to be a bit
    British.
    Good post.
    rg

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  16. home before dark, thank you. "A fresh twist of integrity" is something to hope for. Today I saw a delivery of two portapotties to a building and a slogan on the truck said "beware, loaded with political promises."

    Yes, it is begun.

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  17. Anonymous, thank you. I've just read that the first recorded use of "spot on" was in 1949 so I wonder if it is WWII slang. It sounds archaic, certainly, and a tad tally-ho!

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  18. atdcom, thank you, and thank you also for the story about the sample sales told by your mother-in-law. Excellent piece of gossip!

    I know exactly what you mean when you say "life is complicated" because it's rare that there are no extenuating circumstances. As you point out, the proceeds of the sale of the Duchess' jewels went to the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

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  19. I enjoyed your article on Marguerite and intend to send it to her. She is an old friend who is from Monroe,LA as am I...but the way we met&became friends...was through lots of mutual friends! Another thing I think is amusing...is that as many times as Ive had drinks(pomegranite Bloody Marys)& lunch(Lobster club sandwiches with bacon) on trays in her Drawing Room...I never remembered the backs of those painted French Chairs ...were red fabric. I would have bet serious money that they were blue&white Fortuny. I mean REALLY...talking about such important issues!!I can promise you it has always been that way...as she has NEVER changed one thing in her home.
    My favorite object on her coffee table is an ashtray made of an armadillo!Keep up such an interesting blog....maybe a little about my olf friend Tony Hail will find its way here!Wink...

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