"Live With the Things You Love"

Carter and I at her book party at the Double RL store.

"Live With the Things You Love" on my mother's antique wood dining table from upstate New York.

 

   My great friend Mary Randolph Carter, who is called Carter, has written a new book entitled "Live With the Things You Love...And You'll Live Happily Ever After" (Rizzoli), and TD and I recently had the pleasure of attending her book party hosted at the Double RL store on West Broadway in Soho. While Carter has had a big creative director job at Ralph Lauren, she has also authored popular lifestyle books and this is her tenth. Carter's great passion is for antiques, vintage items, family heirlooms and fun finds she calls junk. She advocates for interiors that have meaning and warmth, and she has a great eye for mixing bright, cheerful colors like an artist. Everything goes back in time and shares a romantic aesthetic. When I worked at Ralph Lauren, I loved visiting her in her office which, though it was on Madison Avenue, felt like a trip to a house in the country with its wonderful antiques, soft textiles, piles of book and magazines, and vintage art on the walls. Not much is new and shiny in Carter's world. In one interview she recounted how her husband Howard was begging to replace creaky, wobbly porch chairs with something from Target that "no one will kill themselves on." Nothing suitable had yet been found. 

The cheerful kitchen in Carter's country home.   (book photos by Carter Berg)

 

     I share Carter's love of antiques and vintage items. To me, they speak with a simplicity and a softness and a comfort. They have a history, they have a life that's more interesting than something new. Perhaps my favorite book by Carter is called "For the Love of Old." It gave me the courage to eschew the new and shiny for things that go back in time. The antique pieces that we have in the apartment are dear to my heart including our dark wood dining table that my mother found at the renowned Bouckville Antique Show in upstate New York when I was growing up and gave to me. At the end of our living room we have a beautifully shaped Empire table that was given to my great grandparents on their wedding day in Herkimer, New York, in 1886. Catty corner to that I have my great grandfather's very large and rustic wood tool box that he used while railroad engineer on the Adirondack Line railroad. In front of the couch is a small, green, slightly rusting metal coffee table which is actually a factory table that I found at the sorely missed Chelsea Antiques Garage. It cost $25. I thought it would be temporary but it has stayed because it is the perfect size and color. 

 Her colorful porch for summer time relaxing.

 

     Carter's new book continues to inspire with the homes of thirteen artist and friends who are similarly passionate about living with antiques and pieces that are rich with sentimental value. Her voice supports my love for the old. When I doubt myself and consider that an antique should be replaced by something new, I think, "No, Carter would approve."