While I never had the pleasure of meeting the famous Parisian decorator, Madeleine Castaing, I did get to know Stephen Sills and also Jacques Grange, and I have never been to 30 rue jacob, where her shop was located beginning in 1947. Many design bloggers, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal have written about her, Emily Evans Eerdmans did a book on her in October 2010, (Grange wrote the foreword) and a documentary film has even been done on her! Her fabrics are still being sold, and I always loved the Rayure Broderie (embroidered stripe) fabric of hers, which I first saw in the old Rose Cumming showroom. There was nothing "faded" about her sense of colour or style, and she used things in a very french way, conveying history mixed with mystery, English Regency with Napoleon Trois, and she herself was apparently quite a formidable person, wearing wigs and false eyelashes well into her nineties. Now I know why Eileen Cecil was wearing those black lace stockings! It all starts to tie together in a crazed kaleidoscopic way.
I wonder if Mrs. Parish ever met La Castaing? Stephen probably knows. I remember seeing him in the Scalamandre' showroom, and his eyes were so totally bloodshot, he looked utterly exhausted, and like a zombie. I looked at him and thought, he looks the way I feel! We were all so over-worked in the roaring bonfire of eighties New York, you see. I feel fairly certain that both Mrs. Parish and Madame Castaing would have approved of this Naples foyer I designed, using a steel table that my client purchased from the late decorator Michael Greer, a rose coloured satin, and a new floor I created using two colours of marble, reflected in a mirrored wall with a mirrored jib door (leading off to the garage).
The room shown above, I believe to be from her private apartment above the shop. I adore it. Tice Alexander had a similar carpet in his bedroom, it was a black on blue faux bois pattern, most likely it was Bracquenie, through Stark, he must have ordered it himself. I was forever begging him to let us have some "Roman" shades made for the Living Room windows (which was where I slept at night) out of the blue colorway of this fabulous Castaing stripe, which I loved more than life itself. (still do) but- we ended up having a blue and cream stripe sofa in that room, which would not have gone so well with the "rayure broderie" (see the Peak of Chic post on this fabric).
Here is the front cover of the beautiful 2010 book on MC, by Emily Evans Eerdmans- as of this posting, there are 14 available on Amazon. This is of the country house- that roundel is so to die for. We used a similar one in the old Auchincloss house that was purchased by Shirley and David Johnston in Southport, called Bella Vista. (See my earlier post on Bella Vista). George Clarkson was nothing if not a top, super talented decorator, with about seven AD covers to his credit, I was most fortunate to work under him. Through George, I met C.Z. and Cornelia Guest, Mark and Duane Hampton, and many more people you may have heard about. Wendy Carduner was forever serving us lunch at Doubles. Then we would slide back into the dark green Rolls and head to the vill-lahge to shop for more English antiques.
Speaking of bubbles, wouldn't it be fun to take a bath in this marble tub, in this salle de bain, decorated by MC? While drinking some champagne! What interests me about this bath is the settee- how luxurious and old world to have one in your BATHROOM! This picture is the last one I am using, it shows why I chose to use the word "faded" in my title. I love the faded look, of both the room and the photograph, I find it so evocative, like a Deborah Turbeville for Vogue. More later, XXOO DF
