the just right room

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often a really good night's sleep eludes me.
there are reasons-a too good book that can not be put to rest.
a sudden doze &  jolt- a story that wakes me- luring on to one more page-

did I sleep? did I dream? did I lose my page?

sometimes it just doesn't happen.
are there too many books in my room?

that my bedroom could double as a library might not help-
but I would rather lose sleep than books.

my quest for sleep leads me to quests for the perfect bedroom-a perfect place where sleep never eludes.
I don't seek the most chic, or most stylish

I only seek the most alluring-

 scene from The Little Princess

that just right one that eluded the blonde in the fairy story.

oh so charming-
but maybe a too small-
would I still feel a bit over run?

there are books in abundance here too.

bedroom of Stephen Long, London from English Style

this one- 

though not a lover of yellow-

this has me thinking I might love sleeping in a field of yellow daisies. 

I do love the cocooning effect of the canopied curtains.

decoration by Stephen Sills

as I imagine living in one large space one day- 

 something on the order of one of these iconic rooms  that would be just right.

Nancy Lancaster's HaseleyCourt 

the bedroom of  Isabelle D'Ornano, Left Bank Paris

 yes-

one of these might be just right.

the bedroom of Pauline de Rothschild at Mouton, France

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pauline lavender

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Charlotte Moss: muses on Lavender

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" Lavender

A color often misunderstood."

"The fluttering chiffon-like petals of a single iris

Placed on the mantle of one Pauline de Rothschild."

Tuileries Iris  photograph by Charlotte Moss

Tuileries Irises   photograph by Charlotte Moss

Pauline de Rothschild's London Flat photographed by Derry Moore

"The beautiful sculpted soaps in a bowl in my grandmother’s bathroom"

"The inside of a chocolate violet crème – from deBauve in Paris"

Pauline de Rothschild Balenciaga dress

image from the Met

 

"Often a grey hair-color rinse gone wrong – or right – depends on which way you look at it!”

Elsie de Wolfe

a lavander

"A sultry color. where few dare to venture--"

 Givenchy Fall 2011-detail

image from Vogue

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St. Nick shoe chic

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would that I could leave such a shoe out for Saint Nicholas on Christmas Eve- I am sure that old man would thrill at the sight of this heavenly shoe outside in my hall for leaving a few treasures, some peppermint candy or whatever he deemed I am worthy of for good behavior this year.

that I could produce this Roger Vivier number for the Saint I would.
I can't.
This one is tucked in at the Metropolitan in the Costume Institute likely nestled in some air tight cloud. The slipper was designed for Pauline de Rothschild ca. 1966 and is made of silk, plastic and cotton. Who says I don't like plastic?

& it measures 11 inches- big shoes to fill.

I do have this just outside my bedroom door, a tiny replica of the slipper from the Met Store's collection of ornaments created from their Costume Institute shoe collection.
It is the best I can do,
sorry Santa baby,
will you even bother?

what if any-old Christmas traditions do you follow?


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poetry in Balenciaga

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"A woman walking would displace the air so that her skirt would billow out just so much, front, back & sides would round out each in turn, imperceptibly , 
 like a sea swell."

"That was the answer to these miracles of cut,
the black tulips he would send out across the floor. 


Nothing held them out, neither whalebone or cages-
nor petticoats gave them any support. 


Legs moved easily, the front of the long skirt running a little faster ahead than one's walk, 
like the tides, 
you were given the elements, 
you could use them at will."

                                                                                       - Pauline de Rothschild wrote of Balenciaga
                                                                                        




photographs-de Rothschild's own BALENCIAGA, from the Costume Institute at the Met

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Summer Scents & Sensibilities

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 Breitner the red kimono,Geesje Kwak posing

image from Hawkwood here

"Let a noise or a scent, once heard or once smelt, be heard or smelt again... & immediately the permanent & 

habitually concealed essence of things is liberated & our true self which seemed to be dead but was not altogether dead, is awakened & reanimated." PROUST

what fragrance moves you?
why?

photograph by Eugene Atget, around 1910

my perfume cabinet

fragrances 
evoke a season, a person, a moment

violets ~ 

Viola odorata

my GranMa carried a violet bouquet at her wedding, Dec. 1918
 the smell of violet, hidden in green

pour'd back into my empty soul & frame

the times when I remember to have been

Joyful & free from blame-Tennyson

in the cabinet, Napoleon Bonaparte presides

as candle by CIRE TRUDON

candle maker to the French Royals since 1643

why should we settle for one signature scent?

the scents that say summer for me-
a rose- a bouquet of violets- rows of tuberose- tobacco- lily

 my grandparents had a field of tuberose each summer 
Polianthes tuberosa

tuberose is night-flowering-the Aztecs called it bone flower

Tokyo Milk fragrances
(click on each fragrance to read the contents)
Poe's Tobacco No.1
Contemplation No.7
Waltz No.14
Ex Libris No.16

NICOTIANA

the overwhelming heady scents of a tobacco warehouse

a constant summer memory for me- en masse, or

the sweet remains of the day on my father's collar

Scents & Buddha
from diptyque- L'Ombre Dans l'Eau

 from Hermes  24, Faubourg

Madame Gres & Summer fragrance

Hermes Eau des Merveilles 

Hermes Eau de Pamplemousse Rose

summery citrus with rose notes

George Trumper Extract of West Indies Lime

a favorite of Pauline de Rothschild so says Mitchell Owens-de Rothschild expert

from the NYTIMES here

Pauline de Rothschild 

photograph here

BELLE FLEUR ~MAYAN TUBEROSE

a heady single note

 around the house, Candles, Diffusers 
in summer I prefer a single note floral, or lemon

AGRARIA~ LEMON VERBENA

CITRUSY fragrances in any form are summer favorites

inexpensive & addicting- 

VOLUSPA ~PANJORE LYCHEE

notes of lychee fruit, pear, sweet cassis

ANTICA FARMACISTA ~CASABLANCA

this- a fragrance and flower I could never fore go in the summer

Lilium Regale, drooping their heavy heads 

my own in the garden

"that was the moment I first saw the lilies. and that was the moment when, having seen them,I mentally signed the contract to buy the house...I had to possess those lilies...The lilies were a variety known as Regale, and they stood in rows of glistening white down the whole length of one side of the kitchen garden.a faint breeze was stirring, & as they nodded their heads there drifted towards us a most exquisite fragrance.never before, in any garden of the world, have I seen such lilies; their loveliness was literally dazzling;the massed array of the white blossom was like sunlit snow. nor was this shining, shimmering beauty merely the result of mass, for as I walked closer I saw that each individual blossom was a perfect specimen, with a stem that was often four feet high, bearing on its proud summit no less than a dozen blossoms." BEVERLY NICHOLS

Fumée d'Ambre Gris

John Singer Sargent

& Incense
  ESTEBAN ~CEDRE
the only one I use year round.

 Eau d' Teou

by Dissey & Piver

a label for the perfumer with Chinese figures & a dressing cabinet

my perfume cabinet is in the bedroom

 

 a rare perfume cabinet made of marquetry from the 18th century used for traveling

from the Natural History Museum in Paris

 

"Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it." Patrick Suskind



Hermes here
Diptyque here 
the Style Saloniste writes about Coup de Foudre by DelRae Roth here
Read the extraordinary post by Hawkwood about the sitter of Breitner's painting here
Rose C'est La Vie draws violets here
a Tobacco History here
Tobacco warehouse image here
the Esoteric Curiosa on the Baroness here
LUXE APOTHECARY here from Voluspa candles here
Fiquet Bailey on green here
Dissey & Piver label, 18th c. cabinet images from The Book of Perfume,by Barille & Laroze
Das Perfum by Patrick Suskind here
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