AXEL VERVOORDT, OH, YEAH

I recently whined that "Elle Decor"  left out the designers on its "Top Sixty" I admire most:  Thad Hayes, Kara Mann and Axel Veervoordt.

Vervoordt, a Belgian antiques dealer and interior designer to Sting, among others, appreciates wabi sabi, the Japanese concept that sees beauty in the imperfect, the worn, the old.  (I just saw a photo of a Japanese teacup whose cracks had been filled with gold.)

Anyhow, I love Vervoordt's work.  It reminds me of a Vermeer painting even when it includes contemporary art like a Basquiat painting.

Here are some pics of it:

Above is a Basquiat painting in the background!  Street-inspired art with a Buddha, both beautiful ideas.

                                                   One of Vervoordt's first books above.

Note  painting with all this rusticity.

This kitchen and fireplace below are in a mountain chalet in uber chic Verbier, Switzerland.

 This degree of purity knocks me out.





















Below:  Jan Barrett designed this small tv room before she knew Vervoordt's work.  It has the same combo of luxe, with its silk and italian wool and silver leaf art, paired against the old rustic picnic table from the 1950's, though not the country antique AX would have, of course.

"ELLE DECOR" CALLED OUT 60 TOP TALENTS i.e. Interiors Designers. Really?!!

I was all ready to write something really snarky about "Elle Decor"  for omitting my favorite designers and including designers who I think are......corny or boring or too bourgie. Then I looked at the list again and it is subtitled "the Designers Who Inspire Us Most."  Well, as my father-in-law, Beach, used to say "de gustibus non disputatum."  That's probably declined improperly but it means "there's no disputing taste."  Or as Woody Allen would say:  the heart wants what the heart wants.

So their list is particular to their view, but how could they leave out Thad Hayes or Kara Mann or Axel Vervoodt?

Thad Hayes' work:

This makes me swoon.  

The play between the Tiffany lamp and the painting only reinforces each.

I am a sucker for the Richard Serra lithograph on the left, reinforced by the Isamu Noguchi paper lantern.