With photographer Miguel Flores-Vianna at his jam-packed book signing party at Creel and Gow.
The fall season has brought the most wonderful new book from Vendome Press by my friend photographer Miguel Flores-Vianna called Haute Bohemians –
In the book, which begins with a foreward by Architectural Digest Editor-in-Chief Amy Astley, Miguel presents 23 of his favorite homes from around the world that he has photographed. The theme that runs through them all is their very eclectic and personal decorating style, which the homeowners have uniquely created. The book is peopled with artists and writers and collectors who have produced their interiors to perfectly reflect themselves with a profusion of flowers, art, books, and antiques. All of that speaks to me.
Miguel was an early supporter of this blog, which I really appreciated. The Argentine-born journalist was a magazine editor at Town & Country, House Beautiful and Veranda before he became a photographer ten years ago. His partner is European so Miguel now lives in London, but he returned to New York City for a book signing last week, which was hosted by Amy Astley at the chic Upper East Side shop Creel and Gow where proprietor Jamie Creel greeted guests. On a hot, steamy September night last week, a crush of editors and decorators crowded in to congratulate the author.
Later, Miguel told me that his favorite things to do are travel and read. "Now I like to see nature more and more rather than historical monuments. I like experiencing other cultures, that is my idea of luxury - to be in a country where I don't understand a word they are saying and to somehow find my way." He hopes his book inspires readers. "We live in a world that changes all the time, too fast for my taste, and I love that all these characters stick to what moves them, what touches them, and that is why they are able to live in such soulful places."
The walls and headboard of Nathalie Farman-Farma's London bedroom are covered with the same romantic fabric –
Marion McEvoy's dining room is perched above the banks of the Hudson River –
Carolina Irving's dining room in Paris doubles as a library –
Perhaps my favorite is the Canary Islands home of Min Hogg, the renowned founding editor of The World of Interiors. Its graceful simplicity is so serene –
"All the houses in these pages are poetry," Miguel observes in his evocative book. And he is right. English interior designer Robert Kime once said, “A room should represent the absent owner, its arrangement is the owner's memory.” With his book, Miguel captures those memories.
